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Reviews For: West Mountain Radio CLRdsp

Category: Filters, Audio: (DSP and others)

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Review Summary For : West Mountain Radio CLRdsp
Reviews: 41MSRP: 219.95
Description:
Outboard DSP with internal 4 watt audio amplifier for use with your station speaker.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.westmountainradio.com/CLRdsp.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00414.4
K2IZ Rating: 2022-03-13
Gentle on my ears Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Using this with a Kenwood TS-590S, which is a great radio but since I added this filter to the radio it makes copying CW gentle on my ears, and I'm 74, been listening to radios for well over 60 years. Read the instructions, play with the settings, eventually you'll find what you like.
KA3OHL Rating: 2021-08-06
Works great on FT-3000 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been running the three knob for about 2 years on my FT-3000 and love it. Takes out the hash and I really like being able to change the tone
73, Ryan KA3OHL
K7JQ Rating: 2021-07-12
Great addition to even newer radios Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Years ago, I used the original ClearSpeech DSP NR Speaker by Am-Com in my mobile setup. I remember being amazed how 90% of the noise was gone, and signals just popped right out, clear as a bell.

Fast forward to today, as I live in a HOA/CC&R antenna restricted community. I now have multiple attic dipoles, and a screwdriver antenna mounted on a steel fence, about 25 feet from the back of my house. Over the years, the proliferation of household hash-generating consumer electronics in my and my neighbors' houses have made the attic dipoles virtually useless, and annoying noise levels on the outdoor screwdriver.

Am-Com went out of business, Heil Sound marketed the product for a while, they gave it up, and West Mountain Radio now sells the same product with some enhancements. Remembering the satisfaction with my mobile setup, I decided to try the newest version ClearSpeech CLRdsp, with the continuously variable DSP filter, tone and volume controls.

People might think it's only useful on older radios without modern-day DSP NR features. My Icom IC-7300 has a generally highly regarded NR circuit, but in my situation it didn't (to my ears) sufficiently mitigate the noise without some muffled artifacts on its higher level adjustments. Using the CLRdsp in tandem with lower adjustments on the 7300's NR, I achieved excellent results in greatly reducing the noise levels, estimated about 90%, without distorting the audio on SSB and CW, even at its maximum setting. No garbled "underwater" sounds like NR features still in most newer radios. My attic dipoles are useful once again, and reception on the screwdriver is much more improved.

I have no idea why some of the previous reviews were not so good. Perhaps they didn't quite know how to adjust it, or were just expecting too much. All I know is that the CLRdsp has made my ham radio operation much more enjoyable to my ears.

73, Bob K7JQ
N1FRX Rating: 2020-12-12
Impossible to tweak Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought the 3 knob version. It was nearly impossible to get the settings to where it wouldn't chop up the audio into fragments. I sold it at a loss on Ebay and bought a BHI DSP, which is a FAR superior unit & works great.
DL6URK Rating: 2019-12-17
Needs Help Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
In my view, the DSP unit is not up to date. Even at the lowest level of noise reduction you can hear the typical underwater sound. That was very disappointing for me because the builtin DSP NR like the IC 7300 sound much better. I might have got used to it, so I give it 3 points. From my personal perspective, the signal from my analog transceiver was never improved, too expensive.
K2PJW Rating: 2019-11-11
I Love It Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently purchased the three knob version after trying a competitor's dsp speaker. The competitor's desktop dsp speaker worked great....until I transmitted. I tried it all of the way down to 5 watts and still had terrible RFI problems with it. I used ferrites, etc. with a little change bot ultimately had to return it. Then I purchased the West Mountain CLRdsp unit. Upon opening the box I liked the size and finish of the product. I was sure that I would still have RFI issues with the CLRdsp unit but I was hoping that after some ferrites, etc I could at least knock it down to a usable level so I could still use a dsp unit at my noisy qth. Guess what? No RFI issues! I still cannot believe it. I can run my AL811H at full output with ZERO RFI. Not just that but this little box works wonderfully. The tone control I set and forget. The filter control is adjusted depending upon what strength of signal I am trying to copy. I can really pull them out of the mud with this CLRdsp box. For strong signals I set it between the 9 and 12 o'clock position. For weak signals down in the noise I set it between 1 and 6 o'clock, the maximum setting. The noise fades away and I can copy the signal beautifully. I have to admit that I had to get used to the digital artifacts of the CLRdsp. It only took a couple of days for me to no longer notice. And now I cannot imagine operating without it. I use it with my TS-590SG and no longer use the onboard dsp in that rig. The CLRdsp just works better. Finally I cannot stress enough how fantastically immune to RFI the CLRdsp is. I use my Kenwood SP-23 as the speaker for the CLRdsp unit. I installed a higher power speaker in the SP-23 cabinet that DXEngineering sells as an upgrade for the SP-23's original speaker. It more than handles the power of the little amp in the CLRdsp. They work well together and sound even better. I Love it.
KC3BKJ Rating: 2019-07-04
Not Impressed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Here's the problem with one size fits all.

When it comes to noise filtering, audio engineers need to focus; either CW or phone but not both. Not being one such engineer, I am going to make an ignoramus bet that when it comes to reducing simple white noise for the purpose of enhancing a weak CW signal (which is the one and only reason I bought this) you can build a much better product by focusing on one or the other, and filtering for CW would be the simpler of the two.

The problem with the WMR ClearSpeaker is that although it most definitely reduces white noise hiss, this is done at the sacrifice of the desired received signal. Even the strongest CW signals turn more and more into a legato blob which becomes annoying at best. As you turn the filtering knob ever higher to reduce more white noise, the dits and dahs lose more and more definition. At speeds of 15 WPM, it's not so bad. But above 20 WPM, it's no longer fun. And the weaker the signal, the more pronounced this distortion becomes.

For phone, I can't see why anyone would prefer this over dealing with the noise. With either the weakest or strongest signals, the best way to describe the results is to try talking loudly to yourself with your head at the bottom of your bathtub. Somehow, what was clear speech with noise before rotating the filtering knob is less of both, after.
N9SSW Rating: 2019-06-02
I wanted to LOVE this thing, but just can't... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I really wanted to love this little box. Maybe I expected too much from it, but for it's very high price tag @ $190 for a new box I don't think so.

I bought this new directly from West Mountain at Dayton the last year it was at the old venue and paired it with my Yaesu FT-890 without trouble.

I was hoping that this little box was going to help me make that *marginal* contact, you know the station that you can *almost* make out everything they are saying, but not quite. Unfortunately that's not really what happens.

What it does do... It makes listening for long periods of time WAY MORE ENJOYABLE. The longer the device processes the audio stream the more white noise it removes. Playing with the Filter and Tone knobs quite a bit for the first several months experimenting with it finally I fiddled with it less and less and realized for my best enjoyment I typically have the Filter\Tone knobs both at about the 1 o'clock position (just a hair above half way). Going with more filter starts to make the sound output artifacty, less for me let too much noise through.

More contacts and marginal contacts... No. more comfortable QSO's with contacts I would have made anyway... yes.

What it doesn't do... It didn't magically allow me to make marginal contacts. Marginal is still marginal just less harsh and annoying to listen to, but you're not going to get that contact you would not have. There are actually some times when I believe that the box caused me to not make a contact I would have. Here is why... as you listen it removes more and more of the annoying static, the contact on the other end sounds pretty good. And then you key the radio and throw out your callsign. When you un-key the radio the filter forgets it's filtering and all that static has returned and the filter starts to do it's work again. The remote station replies to you and you miss the call because the jolt of the static being back in full force comes very harshly and by the time the filter gets back to where it was at before you keyed the radio the remote station has already finished replying to you and you really don't hear them call you back. If they are nice they will call you again and you can still complete the call, if not they move on and you never know they returned your call. This blast of unfiltered noise when you un-key the radio is REALLY annoying. If somehow the filter could not loose it's place when you transmit it would be much better.

When I first bought it, for the first few months I was upset that I paid so much for it and although it had a magic bullet price tag, it really wasn't the magic bullet I hoped for to get marginal contacts. It was great for reading the mail for hours at a time and really made the listening much more comfortable and enjoyable on the ears so I ended up keeping it.

I just recently retired my Yaesu FT-890 and CLRdsp combo and went with an Apache Labs ANAN 8000DLE SDR and the DSP on the 8000 is light years ahead of the CLRdsp and does not suffer from a "re-learn" period of several seconds when you un-key the radio.

If I knew I was going to re-purpose my FT-890 I would probably keep the CLRdsp but as of now I'm thinking I will sell it.

N5IIA Rating: 2019-01-02
Great Audio DSP Filter Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have the newest 3 knob (Filter, Tone, Volume) model and love it. I use it with my Icom-746PRO, and never use the radio's built in NR feature anymore. The West Mountain unit beats the pants off the radio's built in noise reduction. I plan to buy a second one for my Yaesu FT-857d in my mobile. The built in noise reduction of the Yaesu does a good job, but knocks down the audio output too much. With the West Mountain's built in audio amplifier, I will be able to drive an external speaker with ear splitting audio, and the benefit of it's superb filtering. You won't be sorry if you purchase one.
G4MJA Rating: 2018-10-20
Brilliant DSP filter Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Based on the recommendation from a friend in the USA I bought the latest model of the West Mountain CLRdsp filter & tried it for the first time today. To say I am impressed would be an understatement. I have DSP on my transceiver but it pales into insignificance against the West Mountain unit.I run the filter control between the 9 o'clock & 12 o'clock positions, the tone control at the 12 o'clock position & the band noise is just gone. The response of the filter appears to be almost instantaneous, at least that is my experience. It is a quality product with an all metal case & supplied with the necessary filtered cables for quick hook up. What did surprise me was how small it is, not a criticism just a comment. Quite honestly I would not run without it.Highly recommended.