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Reviews For: MFJ-655/655B

Category: Audio Accessories for Transmitter & Receiver

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Review Summary For : MFJ-655/655B
Reviews: 8MSRP: $199.95
Description:
MFJ-655/655B
hamProAudio Equalizer / Conditioner

Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0082.5
KC5MNA Rating: 2012-11-22
Works like it should Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased mine used from another ham who didnt use it. As a few others have said READ the instructions, then RE-READ them again. Took me about 2 hours to get setup. Then WOW. I run a ts940 with the MFJ 655 hooked to it. Signal reports from everyone compared to with the unit and without the unit was no comparrison. People who know my voice and sound said never heard me so clean and rich sounding. Using a Heil Goldline mic or stock hand mic. The strange thing is no matter what mic you hook up it can sound like a studio mic. Kills the background noise in the shack.Its not proffesional grade but neither am I.
K9RLB Rating: 2011-09-02
Very Good - Excellent Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
First, this gets a bad rap because it isn't easy - it isn't plug and play for all radios. But, if you take your time to set it up, and take your time dialing it in, than, wow - it kicks butt. I can adjust my audio, eleminate background noise, it's much easier to set compression than the adjustment on my radio, and 1 click can bypass - not to mention XLR friendly.
I don't know why it's rated so low - somethings things that are good take time to set up properly :)
AA1ZQ Rating: 2010-01-06
Poor Design, but functional after a lot of work Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I picked this unit up in hopes of a little more punch on my signal and a bit more WIFI capability. The unit does deliver this... but after a lot of work. I am using it on a Yaesu FT920. At first I did not believe the unit worked at all, Audio was very distorted, way over driven - so I sent it back for repair. They did nothing (slip marked simply calibrated and returned... MFJ took almost 2.5 months with the unit and I had to write them several times to get any action). Once back, discouraged, I decided to take it apart and really get into the unit and see what I could do with it. The key I found is to set the input pot which is on the bottom of the unit - instructions do mention this, but are incorrect in how to set it - they say to set it equal to the mic input to the radio if the unit is out of line... wrong, significant attenuation is required or the first op amp chain will be over driven. Unfortunately, this control is in a horrible place, and I had to disassemble the entire unit to get to that pot... the bottom panel access, just did not work for me. Once adjusted, I was able to start to get the unit to settle down and behave as one would expect. Plan an hour to get to this control, adjust and then you can start to set the unit up. The next issue is the compressor gain... the values chosen for the gain pot, horrible, at best on my unit, about 3 degrees of useful range... after that the op amp is over driven and is useless. Once set however the unit does appear to deliver, the equalizer portion works as advertised and the downward expansion is OK - though the latter introduces a fair amount of artifacts on the signal. Lastly, the unit has poor DC input filtering, if fed from my normal PS (switching) the hash is picked up in the audio stream, I needed to use a wall wart analog supply or battery to keep the signal reasonably clean. There is still evidence of poor shielding, even with good grounding of the unit. Needless to say, I don't recommend this unit, the design is too poor, and although I did achieve about a 2-3X signal improvement via the compression, its not clean audio. Save your $, look elsewhere. Oh, and it does not have a lighted VU meter (I added an LED).
W7CPA Rating: 2009-10-20
Terrible Product - Returned Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This box is poorly engineered. I returned it. It uses the same chip as the W2IHY EQPLUS so I figured it would be hard to hose it up - WRONG!

The design does NOT control the levels to the chip. This means distorted rubbish audio. Too bad, the concept is good. I spoke with engineers that have successfully deployed this chip. LEVELS, LEVELS, LEVELS.
KD6PIT Rating: 2008-02-21
NO GOOD Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
AFTER WAITING FOR MY BACKORDERED FROM BEFORE XMAS I RECIEVED MY 655B IN FEB.
SET IT UP TO WORK WITH MY YAESU FT-736R, WELL ALL I COULD GET IT TO DO WHEN I PUSHED THE PTT ON MY YEASU MD-1 DESK MIC & A HEIL HERATIGE MIC SET UP WAS TO GET THE RADIO TO GO INTO RECIEV SCAN MODE , BUT WOULD NOT TRANSMIT.
CALLED TECH SUPPORT, RETURNED IT TO MFJ TO CHECK IT OUT & WAS TOLD IT WAS SET UP RIGHT AND IT WORKED FINE ???????
IF IT DID NOT WORK THE FIRST TIME FOR ME AND THEY FOUND NO PROB. WITH THE UNIT , I DID NOT WANT IT BACK AND ASKED FOR REFUND.
ALSO MFJ DOES NOT REFUND SHIPPING COSTS, SO I'AM OUT THE ORGINAL SHIPPING & MY RETURN SHIPPING TO HAVE THEM CHECK IT OUT.
THE ABOVE MIC'S I HAVE BOTH WORK FINE WITH MY FT-736R.

PS. MY NEW EQPLUS & 8 BANDEQ FROM W2IHY TECHOLOGIES WORK FINE WITH THE 736R AND MY FT-990 ALSO.
SO WATCH OUT IF YOU BUY A MFJ-655B.

FROM.... KD6PIT
MICHAEL STASINSKI
K3ROJ Rating: 2008-02-03
Nice Equalizer Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The only other MFJ product I own is the reliable antenna analyzer 259B and thought I would try the MFJ-655 to perk up my audio. By reading the instructions and taking my time, I now have a fine sounding transceiver, the ICOM 756PRO and receive compliments every day how well it sounds not only on SSB but on 10 and 6 meter FM. One thing about MFJ is, if you don't like an item for any reason, you get your money back since I did send back a wall clock one time.
KA3LXE Rating: 2007-12-29
A most disgusting product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The MFJ-655/655B was said to have been redesigned Dec 2007. This thing is a full out peace of crap! After waiting 9 weeks for the new production, I was disappointed with a most disgusting product.

The manual full of misprints makes the required jumper setting confusing.

The upside down mounting of the input-trimmer-pod makes the required adjustment almost impossible.

The compressor and noise gate are tied together so you must compress to use the noise gate. The compressor is distorted even on the lowest setting.

The tremendously high noise floor of the pre-amp sections of the EQ and Compressor will distort even the best microphone and radio.

MFJ phone support was good, fast and pleasant. They confirmed my setup as good and attempted adjustment via phone. However, not even good support can make a bad product work. The MFJ-655 is one bad audio product.

This observation was made using an FT1000 MKV with a Hiel #5 Pro-Set. I spent 4 hours experimenting with adjustments’. I listened to my audio from a TS-450 and was horrified at the distorted audio. All on-air audio reports were bad on 75 thru 10 meters. At any price $250.00 to $1.00, please save your money.

Sorry MFJ, the competing product IHY is still the winner here.
W6GF Rating: 2007-03-18
A Real Value Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
A lot about audio quality is subjective. I have a lot of radios to try it on, some with very complicated audio equalizers. But I tried it on my ICOM 756. Using no compression or equalization in the radio I adjusted the 655 listening on another radio. The next time I talked to some of my "old buddies" I asked them how they liked my new radio. They never know what I might show up with. I finally told them what they were hearing and they could not believe it.

If you buy one take your time, set it up carefully, then get on the air. You can spend a lot more money, but that is what you are doing...spending more money...you may not be getting a better product. And by the way, I wanted some more spare jumpers....after a phone call to MFJ they arrived 4 days later. Even great customer service from MFJ.

I think you will be pleased

George, W6GF