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Reviews For: West Mountain Radio ClearSpeech CLRspkr

Category: Speakers for communications

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Review Summary For : West Mountain Radio ClearSpeech CLRspkr
Reviews: 24MSRP: 229
Description:
ClearSpeech (DSP) enabled speaker with adjustable DSP and On/Off DSP and power switch.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.westmountainradio.com/CLRspkr.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00244.3
WI0C Rating: 2012-11-14
Dissapointing Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have electrical noise either from the power line or a neighbor. I read all the reviews and checked out the West Mountain web site. I admit I was still skeptical. If the power line noise is due to arcing, I suspect it’s mainly random noise. By definition, random things are not predictable so how can a DSP device remove it? The ultimate goal was to take a SSB signal corrupted by noise and make it more intelligible. Since the reviews were good I thought I’d try it. This product did not do that in my case. It did reduce the apparent noise level; however, it did nothing to make a weak SSB signal more intelligible. It also added compression sounding artifacts to the audio that made it more annoying than if it was not used. I will say it did a nice job of taking out heterodynes, but heterodynes are not my problem.

I returned the unit and will eat the restocking fee.

I'm not considering something like the MFJ-1026 Noise Canceling Filter. This makes more sense for random noise because it's based on phasing.
KI4FRG Rating: 2012-02-29
Worth the Money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have it a 5 because it works great on the Icom ic-725 bare bones. It is night and day and one of the best purchases I have made in the blind and have made many mistakes over the years (this was not one of them) $185-$200 is steep but not if you have an older rig with no DSP.
N5SWE Rating: 2012-01-07
Very good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Reduces static on HF very well. It is a help to noisy conditions with my IC 756 pro 2. The front controls are handy. I use headphones but needs an adaptor from stereo to monoral. The amplification is good. I had a GAP hear it that was not satisfactory. This one is a keeper.
W9GDH Rating: 2010-08-12
MOBILE Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I drive 45 Miles to work. I run a Kenwood TS-50.
It works great with the TS-50. If you have a rig without DSP try this one. I will not leave home with out it.
KN4SA Rating: 2010-07-22
SUCKS! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I don't see how this piece of JUNK gets good reviews. First of all, it is OVERPRICED. Yes, the dsp works BUT...
1.Plastic mounting bracket. Had not seen that since the cheap pyramid flea market speakers from the 80s.
2.sizzling crackling noises when squelched.
3.frying egg noise etc when transmitting on vhf around the speaker.
***ALL AROUND PIECE OF JUNK***
I've been meaning to leave this review the whole 10 months I've had it.
PLASTIC MOUNTING BRACKET and NOISE from a noise cancelling speaker!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a laugh. Don't buy it!
KN4AQ Rating: 2010-06-07
Great DSP, but a few problems Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I agree with other comments on how good the DSP is. I use it mobile with a 706MKIIG. Much better than the built-in DSP. Lower background noise with less distortion (in the Mid setting). Just about NO background noise in the high setting, but voices are kind of robotic.

But I've found two issues that need to be addressed.

First, the unit's processor generates some carriers at VHF and UHF. When scanning, my dual-band mobile stops on several VHF and UHF frequencies with "dead carriers" that go away when the speaker is turned off. It would be quite a problem if I used repeaters on those frequencies - I'm afraid the speaker would be on its way back to WMR.

Second, during a QSO, while receiving, the speaker does it's great job of reducing the noise level 15 dB or so. But when I take my turn to transmit, it "forgets" what it was doing. When I switch to receive, I often get a blast of noise for a few seconds until the DSP kicks in again. That's the way it's designed. What's missing is some memory of what it was doing last.

I haven't talked to the WMR guys about that, but I will. I hope they can fix both issues.
W4PHS Rating: 2009-09-13
Followup: no speaker noise Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a followup to an earlier review I posted.

I have now been using my CLRspkr for about a month, and I continue to be extremely well pleased with it. I usually leave it set to the MID level which knocks out a lot of static while having virtually no harmful effect on SSB voice. Occasionally I turn off the DSP just to remind myself of what normal atmospheric noise sounds like. I've never seen a case where a signal was clearer with the DSP off than set to MID.

One early review said they had constant background noise coming from the speaker. I can say unequivocally that that the speaker produces NO noise when it's not receiving audio from the radio. Right now I am 12 inches from the speaker in a very quiet room with the radio off, and the speaker is absolutely silent. I never bother to power it off.

This is a great accessory that is well worth the money unless you have a really good rig with a very good built-in DSP.
KE5OKQ Rating: 2009-09-04
Good Value Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have a Kenwood TS-480HX I use exclusively SSB. I rarely use the radio's DSP Noise Reduction feature: It distorts the SSB audio and makes it sound like it is under water. I decided to try the Clear Speaker.

When I received the speaker I was initially disappointed. The plastic case and mounting bracket appeared cheap, especially for the $200 I paid. After using it I soon discovered I wasn't paying for aesthetics, but rather a DSP filter.

The amplified Speaker sounds pretty good itself. If I was rating the speaker alone I would give it a four. The DSP is head and shoulders above the one on my radio. It cleans up the received signal and static crashes with minimal distortion. I always keep the DSP on the LO setting. Once in awhile I have to use the MID or HI setting. The MAX setting causes distortion and chirping. despite my initial misgivings at the Clear Speaker appearence, I think it is a good investment.
NA4U Rating: 2009-09-03
Amazing on weak CW Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The best audio level DSP I have ever used. Best weak CW processing I have ever used. A little slow on hetrodynes, but I expect that is the price you pay for not eating weak CW signals. I take it with me when I take my TT Scout on trips as the Scout has a 1200 tone in the audio output that the WMR CLRspkr eliminates. The speaker also works great in dramatically reducing spring and summer static crashes. I have it switchable to every rig in the shack. Simple to use and highly effective. I would buy it again.
KJ4AUR Rating: 2009-08-15
Great for HF Mobile Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Picked one of these up at the Huntsville (AL) Hamfest from WMR, very pleased with the purchase. It's panacea for HF mobile. DSP filtering works quite well, you can hear it tuning out QRN and heterodyne. A much recommended solution for HF mobile.

Downside is the cheap plastic mounting bracket, aside from that, no complaints. I can see where the power LED may be to bright in some mounting locations but the LED can be replaced or reduced with tape.

Since it's competing with road noise I don't have the issues as indicated by WL7CLA -- thanks for the info relating to the fix.

Overall, 4 out of 5, and I would recommend this to anyone running HF mobile.