Best sounding AM audio ... informal poll and discussion

[W1VD]

A couple recent threads have touched on this subject so an informal poll might be interesting. Suppose this could be broken down into a number of categories like, no processing, mild or heavy processing, best suited for DX, best military etc but most folks probably have a few stations in mind that have their audio 'tweaked' just right.

No doubt a lot of subjectivity is involved here - not all voices are created equal, not all receivers are equally capable of clean wide bandwidth demodulation. Then there's the listener's bias and hearing deficiencies. But, if some call signs show up repeatedly maybe these folks would share information on their transmitters and audio chain setups.

This requires sticking one's neck out so I'll start ... BTW, receiver here is a Perseus SDR using 12 or 25 kHz bandwidth and sync detector.

K1JJ - clean (very low distortion) and well balanced (Class E slight edge over Fabio)

W1AEX - clean and well balanced

WA1QIX - same as above - room filling audio

WA1OXT - same as above - a bit heavy on the bass - impressive room filling audio   

I've noticed a good low distortion and well balanced signal entices me to stick around and listen when I might otherwise spin the dial ...

 

           

[w3jn]

Matters more to me the content of the discussion and how interesting the other people in the QSO are.  I'm pleased to work guys using riceboxes or old mil rigs with carbon mikes.  It's all good to me.

Low distortion audio, regardless of the audio bandwidth, is undeniably MUCH more pleasant, and less tiring, to listen to.  The SE-3 stink detector is a big plus here.  And no matter what the other guy is running, if your receiver sounds like hell, even the best audio won't make much difference.

[k4kyv]

Matters more to me the content of the discussion and how interesting the other people in the QSO are.  I'm pleased to work guys using riceboxes or old mil rigs with carbon mikes.  It's all good to me.

Low distortion audio, regardless of the audio bandwidth, is undeniably MUCH more pleasant, and less tiring, to listen to.  The SE-3 stink detector is a big plus here.  And no matter what the other guy is running, if your receiver sounds like hell, even the best audio won't make much difference.

Kind of like broadcast station audio.  "HD Radio" hasn't taken off largely because 99% of the public couldn't care less about the alleged improvement in audio quality while program content still sucks and is not getting any better.

I like good voice quality on AM, but I also like good intelligibility through typical amateur band  conditions, and sometimes a compromise is necessary.  The best practice is to be able to adjust your audio to conform to band condx at the time. But wouldn't it be kind of boring if every station you worked had exactly the same audio quality?

Something I have observed is that people get acclimated to slopbucket audio.  I was tuning across the band one day and listened in on a few SSB QSOs.  Their audio sounded pretty typical slopbucket, with the grainy metallic voice and harsh piercing quality, but if the stations had been talking about something interesting I probably would have listened for a while and not given too much thought to the sound of the audio I was hearing. Then I imagined for a moment that I was hearing this audio from an AM station; it would have sounded not only extremely crappy and restricted, but downright bizarre! I would have told him right away that he had a severe problem with his audio. I have actually heard this sound in a few cases when a slopbucketeer was trying to get his rig to work on AM. Yet, slopbucketeers may listen to that same sound every day for several hours and think nothing of it, and even piss 'n moan about the fuller and more natural quality of audio they hear from the ESSB crowd (the ones who actually do it right).

[KM1H]

Out of the box the old HT-9 with a quad of 6L6's has excellent fidelity due to its late 30's design before the space shuttle audio and the QST continual pushing for narrow bandwidth of the postwar 40's took over.

Maybe a question should be: Are there any postwar TX that sound good without mods?

Carl
KM1H

[K1JJ]

Jay,

Good topic, OM. You picked the stations I would have - and agree with the comments.

Some qualities have to do with the manner of speaking and of course voice quality. I especially like Rob/W1AEX's low key voice and his non-confrontational style of speaking. I could listen to him all day...    In contrast, what I call "repeater audio" (and mannerisms) grates me to the point of having to spin the dial. I can listen to CB jargon and be entertained - but the audio gain cranked wide open with clipping, restricted repeater sound with the TV blaring in the background puts me over the top...

To add a few things to your comments, let me use Steve/QIX as an example:

The "room filling audio" that Steve has is in one part because of the absolutely QUIET background he has. His signal can be against the pin and when he stops talking, you hear nothing - no hum, no noise of any kind. This is important. Of course, you need a big, fat carrier to pull this off or band noise will start to creep in and killl the quiet background. He also has a low end that goes down to DC with no phase distortion, transparent at all audio frequencies - like all class E direct coupled rigs. This permits him to run the opposite phase of most every transformer coupled rig. This produces a different "sound" in his low end compared to other rigs. The waveform looks different and so does the sound. I see it on my own class E rig compared to the 4-1000A plate modulated rig. I realize this is a debatable idea, but I have proven it to myself with my own phasing rig choices here.

In addition, Steve has a talent for adjusting his own audio in his own monitor. Most of us can't do this without some help from recordings, but every time he comes on with a new rig, he has it adjusted for his own voice near-perfect.  This cannot be overemphasized - tailoring the processing and EQing to ones own voice anomalies are the key to good sounding audio.

Steve also uses a well designed, well working homebrew 5-band audio processor that is transparent. I've recorded Steve in full high fidelity and often play it to visitors to the shack. It just rattles the room and jaws drop when they hear how good he sounds using a 100 watt stereo system with four large speakers in the four  corners of the ceiling/wall.

There are others. One station that stands out is Don/KYV. It amazes me how clean his rig sounds when using the several inter-stage transformers he does. Don certainly has mastered that technology. Don also has found the sweet spot for his voice in his audio EQing, etc. It is easy to listen to and very effective audio. There is no false bass and he accepts the way his voice sounds, which is very natural.

There's many, many more great sounding stations on the air, but I'll save those for others to comment on..


BTW, Jay, now that you’ve spent the time adding new audio gear and tweaking the system, I’d say your audio is the best I’ve ever heard it by a long shot. In the past it was rather bland – and was a little mid-rangie sounding. Now it has a big low end and room ambience like never before. Your voice, like mine, is average, but you finally found the right combination to get the big-boss sound there…

T

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I'm with Johnny - I'll work pretty much anyone provided it's an interesting conversation, fun group, etc. I do enjoy the nice, crisp, clean audio of someone like a 'JJ or listening to G when the 21E was working into his phased array.

Thin audio gets difficult to deal with and tiring over time, but so does a monotonous, repetitious contact with someone who has broadcast-quality audio.

Half the fun to me is hearing the interesting rigs that show up on the air. Hearing WA2PJP using his 'new' Heathkit Injun station with stock audio is as cool to me as hearing K1JJ quiet the frequency with his rock crusher signal. As Don says, the variety helps keep it interesting.

Joe just doesn't do a good Tom Vu impersonation.  

[ka3zlr]

Yea,

 All Yuunns guyz zound good to the Zed.LR Station 

But with the new laptop I can make anyone zound good...

Yessum.

Jack.

[K5UJ]

I think there are two ways hams (not just AM but SSB ops) get into difficulty with audio processing gear not including obvious malfuctions like ground loops:

1.  The all knobs fully CW problem.   Not much to say about that--everything far far over done.

2.  The second problem is harder to nail down.  It involves a musunderstanding of what processing is supposed to do.  Basically it is supposed to level, and increase average audio power but within a tight limit of amplitude and frequency.  It is a misuse of audio gear to try to alter one's characteristic voice sound.  When  a ham tries to do that, he needs to contact the FBI and get what they use for folks in the witness protection program.  

Most everyone when first hearing themselves played back on a recording experiences a creepy feeling of embarrasment.  There is a real cringe factor and it can be pretty uncomfortable to hear yourself as others hear you if you are not used to it.  Often, there is an immediate reaction and it is to turn to the processing boxes and start trying to take a squeeky voice and make it sound like one of those guys who does voice over work for movie trailers.   Big mistake.  Processing boxes are not supposed to be used for that.   They can't or shouldn't be used in an attempt to get rid of nasal sounds, raspy sounds, no bass, or anything else that's basically a God given natural characteristic of our speech.   That doesn't mean these things should not be changed or can't be; it means processing boxes are not the tools to use.  

The first thing is to get used to hearing oneself by getting some kind of recorder and playback ability and doing some taping while working someone or reading some text etc.   Some voices have distictive characteristics that may at first seem bad but wind up seeming to be desirealble.   For example I think a lot of natural midrange adds to intelligibilty and is an advantage.   It may be disappointing if you want to sound like you have football sized gonads, but the guy who naturally sounds like he sings bass for the Oak Ridge Boys may have trouble being understood on the opposite coast.    Other sounds like excessive nasality may need the attention of a speech coach or therapist.  But really, processing gear is only there to set up levels, high and low cutoffs and density and peak limits.  That's about it.

Rob

[w3jn]

Out of the box the old HT-9 with a quad of 6L6's has excellent fidelity due to its late 30's design before the space shuttle audio and the QST continual pushing for narrow bandwidth of the postwar 40's took over.

Maybe a question should be: Are there any postwar TX that sound good without mods?

Carl
KM1H

The HT-20.

[ka3zlr]

I subscribe to Dons Theory down with the audio and up with the Wick...

[Jim KF2SY]

I also generally agree with the list (including Jay) that Jay W1VD posted, and I would also add Stu AB2EZ, and many, many more Northeast hams, & other area's.  Too long to list.


But, outside the Northeast, I too think Don K4KYV with his 2 mic's , his natural voice and whatever else he is doing with processing, has the most pleasing audio to my ears. Even in poor band condx, I can always hear almost every word, and could listen to him read directions on a paint can.  

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Out of the box the old HT-9 with a quad of 6L6's has excellent fidelity due to its late 30's design before the space shuttle audio and the QST continual pushing for narrow bandwidth of the postwar 40's took over.

Maybe a question should be: Are there any postwar TX that sound good without mods?

Carl
KM1H

The HT-20.

32V series too, just shove a crystal D-104 into the connector and away you go. Early KW-1s are in the same category.

How about the trusty Ranger? Maybe not 'broadcast-quality' but not too bad out of the box. 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Great audio

K3ZRF
W2VW (on many different rig over the last 20 years)
W3GD (awesome voice)


Interesting to listen to

W3DUQ
W8VYZ
W5PYT
WA1HLR


Great local and DX audio

K4KYV


I'm sure I'm forgetting numerous other notables.

[Mike/W8BAC]

My All Time Favorites:

WA3VJB   Clear, Crisp, and a great voice

W9AD      Always a pleasure to listen to and really smart with processing

W0VMC    I see all of your heads bobbing up and down! Robert has it in the bag

W9GT      Jack is the channel master here.

K3ZRF      Awesome

WA1QIX    Mentioned already

K1JJ        Always worth a dial spin

WA3HUZ, WA1HLR and ........

My list is much longer but those come to mind.

[Jim, W5JO]

My All Time Favorites:

WA3VJB   Clear, Crisp, and a great voice

W9AD      Always a pleasure to listen to and really smart with processing

W0VMC    I see all of your heads bobbing up and down! Robert has it in the bag

W9GT      Jack is the channel master here.

K3ZRF      Awesome

WA1QIX    Mentioned already

K1JJ        Always worth a dial spin

My list is much longer but those come to mind.

Out  where I live, I can't hear them to give a report.  Mike, WA5CMI and many others in the Southwest have great, understandable audio, a prerequisite for me.

[ka3zlr]

Could put out a Poll for the most Heard...for me it's The Tron.

The Best Audio would have to be Don in my Receivers.


73

Jack.

[DMOD]

Out  where I live, I can't hear them to give a report. 

Can hear the East Coast crowd in winter fairly well; right now, forget it, too many thunderstorms.

In my area, it's

K5UJ (Great Innovonnics Sound)
K4KYV
W0RQ
W1HRX
K0JM
K9AD
W1IA
K0JM
KA0ARA
W9AD
WA1QIX
K1JJ

Phil - AC0OB
 

[N8LGU]

What? No votes for 51 watts Fred?

[K5UJ]

Out  where I live, I can't hear them to give a report. 

Can hear the East Coast crowd in winter fairly well; right now, forget it, too many thunderstorms.

In my area, it's

K5UJ (Great Innovonnics Sound)

Phil, the check is in the mail!    But seriously, it's sort of cheating when your "modulator" is a PC board microchip.  The real challenge will begin when I try to put an old tube rig on the air. 

The interesting thing that has come out of this to me so far is that we all have our lists, but they seem to be somewhat regional which reveals how with AM, you can have great audio but if you aren't strapping, a lot of people won't know most of the time.   Two hams I can think of immediately who have the signals to quiet the band noise so I can listen with a wide passband and speakers are Don KYV and Bill KD0HG.  Ditto for W9AD but he's about 20 miles away from me 

Rob

[w1vtp]

You guys forgot about W1GAC. He had better audio than most people using his compact “peanut whistle” rigs.

P.S. Ozona Bob was mentioned, but to be honest his audio was never really all that great. Sometimes it was pretty bad and had a hum whenever he used the Techrad, but he was interesting to listen to.

Agree.  I visited Bob K1AJL once and it was quite the experience.  Gotta say he was congenial enough.  I love the concept of the power supply JS'd in the basement even tho' it flys in the face of safety and preservation of the fine iron he had.  It worked and it certainly elicited comments.

Wish I had had the presence of mind to take pictures

AL

[K6JEK]

The primary modulator matters a lot.   Some people just have great radio voices.

Out here you wouldn't get much of a fight if you picked No Money Mike's as the best sounding transmitter.  That's Mike Dorrough K06NM.  But you'd also get some votes for Sharon, K6IRD, -- better primary modulator.

 

[Mike/W8BAC]

Hi Jon,

A few of my favorites from out your way are.

WA6HDY Bernie

W9FGJ   Willis

W6BM    John, used to play "Amateur Radio News Line" on Wednesday's

And one other, call escapes me. He collects rare old cars and has a 16 mm movie theater in his home. Any idea who that is?

[ka3zlr]

Be Different to have a Straight Mic night an see who's who.

No Processors No deessors No compressors no Junk and see
where we stand.

I would enjoy looking at all the sig's on the Analyzer.

73

Jack.

[W1AEX]

Agree.  I visited Bob K1AJL once and it was quite the experience.  Gotta say he was congenial enough.  I love the concept of the power supply JS'd in the basement even tho' it flys in the face of safety and preservation of the fine iron he had.  It worked and it certainly elicited comments.

Wish I had had the presence of mind to take pictures

AL

Bob's station certainly was unique. I never visited his station, but spoke with him often and found his description of the 2 x 4's on-the-floor (wooden tube holders) for the modulator in the basement to be priceless.

Thanks for the audio comments Jay and Tom!

I am told frequently that my transmitters sound pretty similar. (Except for the Pro III, but that's not actually an AM rig...) Tron told me a long-long-long time ago, that once you address your rig's audio deficiencies (as well as you can) with appropriate parts, that the next thing to do is to sweep the rig, and then adjust your audio for a flat response across your intended audio bandwidth. Using that as your starting point, add enough presence rise in the upper mid-range to give it some punch. Add only enough low end to make it sound natural, and then leave it alone... At any rate, I don't have any broadcast transmitters, so without exception, all my stuff needs some form of the "smiley look" on the EQ to actually produce a reasonably flat response from 70 - 5000 cycles. From there, each rig is a little different, but it's pointless to make changes until you've got it flat.

That's my 2 cents.

:O)

There are a lot of great sounding stations on the air that exhibit no over-emphasis in any part of the audio spectrum. Unfortunately, these are all east coast stations simply because I don't work many west coast, southwest, or mid-west stations, but this would be my short list, in no particular order:

W2XR Bruce - natural sounding, very loud and smooth audio
KD3CN Karl - clean, natural, and pleasant sounding station transmitter(s)
W1IA Brent - smooth and loud, very well adjusted audio
K1JJ Tom - exceptionally clean with a loud, strapping, muscle-radio sound
WA1QIX Steve - broadcast quality, very high average audio level with no artifacts
W1VD Jay - loud and natural sounding, very clean and smooth audio
WA1HLR Tim - loud and clean (well... except for the SBE) very natural sounding
K3ZRF Dave - Distinctive sound, clean with excellent presence
WA1SSJ Wayne - he sounds the same in person as he does on the radio, which is the whole point, I think...

From the past:

W2WAS Joe - Oakridge Boys voice with an 813 rig that could handle it.

[K6IC]

My 2 c

Agree with Jon,  that No Money Mike,  KO6NM,   has a great voice and to me just about the best-balanced audio.

K6JEK, Jon,  your Class E rig has always sounded teriffic.  Wish we could hear more of you.  Your personality is a real bonus !

## EDIT: And not to leave out W6THW,  Mike,  very well balanced big signal.  His nice site:
http://w6thw.com/picture/k6glh.jpg

 Plus W6GLH Gary,  has always sounded great.  His newly Home-Brewed 450 X 450 rig has it all,  also sounds teriffic:
http://w6thw.com/picture/k6glh.jpg

 ...  Very difficult to stop adding others ##

And Mike,  Sam  W6HDU,  in Alameda,  CA, sounds great,  BUT,  I've not heard Sam for at least 3 years probably more like 4.

Yes,  Willis, W9FGJ,  also sounds teriffic.

Having a quieting signal IS essential,  and there are probable many who sound great,  but are not strong enough,  on average,  to make most people's lists ...  etc

Vic