For HiFi headphones, Grado is superior to any mass-market brand.

On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 18:03:36 -0800, tommyknocker
wrote:

I am SO frustrated. For the second day in a row I've been unable to make
out Radio Exterior de Espana's newscast over the speaker of my FRG8800.
I've tried SSB (cuts down the static), the tone and the attenuator but
they seem to be just below audibility level. I'm gonna follow some
advice I was given here a couple weeks ago about using headphones. But I
want to get good quality ones, not cheap jogger's ear buds. What brands
of headphones do you guys use?

tommyknocker wrote:

I am SO frustrated. For the second day in a row I've been unable to make
out Radio Exterior de Espana's newscast over the speaker of my FRG8800.
I've tried SSB (cuts down the static), the tone and the attenuator but
they seem to be just below audibility level. I'm gonna follow some
advice I was given here a couple weeks ago about using headphones. But I
want to get good quality ones, not cheap jogger's ear buds. What brands
of headphones do you guys use?
======

I wouldn't recommend hi-fi headphones. The response of such covers a wide
range of frequencies, and would likely exacerbate low frequency rumbles,
hums,
etc. Similarly, one shouldn't have need for the crisp high-frequency
crackles of
clicks, crashes, etc that such hi-fi phones would deliver. Nothing would
seem
better than a bonafide pair of military-style metal disk phones that
responded
to voice frequencies, steeply rolling off below 100 Hz and above 1000 Hz.
In
this regard, I have used an old stenographer's caliper headset which covered
just
about that range of frequency for good result. On the other hand, if I am
in the
mood for listening to music over a superb signal, then I use my standby
JRC-ST-3
headset, having performed some internal surgery to bypass the 8:300 ohm
xfmr,
and rewired the earspkrs to a DPDT switch providing a switchable choice of
'in-phase' or 'out-of-phase' listening ... a dramatic effect. Try it.

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Now you've got me thinking... :-) I have two Grundig portables, a YB400 and
an S350 and the YB comes with some earphones (which although sound
reasonable, I don't like - I don't like ear buds). But now, here is my
puzzle: what is the recommended earphone impedance for those radios? I
couldn't find it specified anywhere! Is there some sort of standard one? If
yes, do all earphones on the market have that same impedance?

And about the response frequency, it appears that hifi earphones are not
suitable for SWL. What is the suitable frequency range then? (70Hz-11KHz
maybe?) Back in high school, I used to use (tele)phone speakers quite
successfully in my DYI HF projects. But then we had phones with detachable
speakers ... They were with very narrow audio response and with quite a
high impedance (500Ohms ?).

Nic.
http;//www.csd.uwo.ca/~nic

"tommyknocker" wrote in message
...
I am SO frustrated. For the second day in a row I've been unable to make
out Radio Exterior de Espana's newscast over the speaker of my FRG8800.
I've tried SSB (cuts down the static), the tone and the attenuator but
they seem to be just below audibility level. I'm gonna follow some
advice I was given here a couple weeks ago about using headphones. But I
want to get good quality ones, not cheap jogger's ear buds. What brands
of headphones do you guys use?









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Nicolae Santean wrote:

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Now you've got me thinking... :-) I have two Grundig portables, a YB400 and
an S350 and the YB comes with some earphones (which although sound
reasonable, I don't like - I don't like ear buds). But now, here is my
puzzle: what is the recommended earphone impedance for those radios? I
couldn't find it specified anywhere! Is there some sort of standard one? If
yes, do all earphones on the market have that same impedance?

And about the response frequency, it appears that hifi earphones are not
suitable for SWL. What is the suitable frequency range then? (70Hz-11KHz
maybe?) Back in high school, I used to use (tele)phone speakers quite
successfully in my DYI HF projects. But then we had phones with detachable
speakers ... They were with very narrow audio response and with quite a
high impedance (500Ohms ?).

Nic.
http;//www.csd.uwo.ca/~nic

"tommyknocker" wrote in message
...
I am SO frustrated. For the second day in a row I've been unable to make
out Radio Exterior de Espana's newscast over the speaker of my FRG8800.
I've tried SSB (cuts down the static), the tone and the attenuator but
they seem to be just below audibility level. I'm gonna follow some
advice I was given here a couple weeks ago about using headphones. But I
want to get good quality ones, not cheap jogger's ear buds. What brands
of headphones do you guys use?

The impedance of the headphones for a shortwave receiver is not that
important, providing they are not high impedance, such as several
hundred ohms, which would significantly lower the volume. Most
headphones will be below 50-ohms. As for the frequency range, shortwave
broadcasters don't transmit much audio above about 5-Khz, so that would
be a good top end for the headphone response. This is well below the
full fidelity range of Hi-Fi headphones, which is why they are not a
particularly good choice for shortwave, unless you have significant
hearing loss on the high frequency end of the audio spectrum.


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