Best sounding AM audio ... informal poll and discussion

[Mike/W8BAC]

Thanks Vic,

Yes, it was Sam W6HDU I was thinking about. I always enjoyed listening to and talking with him and the rest of the crew throughout the eighty's and nineties. I've been lucky enough to get to know a fair number of Western AM'ers and Eastern operators since moving from Northern California to Michigan in 1998.

Mike
EX WA6VTN

[flintstone mop]

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.

A straight mic night might be scary and not be able to recognize some of the ops.

Glad that the Left coast reported in. I have read of the audio from No Money Mike and would expect that he would be a mile marker, like Tron, and Don. He is an audio engineer. 

I did have a rare moment that almost had to be sched to talk to Bill KD0HG. If it wasn't for his well modulated,balanced audio, I would'nt have been able to have any QSO. It was a short one this past Winter on 75M. Condx weren't the best. But it was distance that made it a little rough.

Fred

[Carl WA1KPD]

I like the audio from W3GMS. Very pleasant to my ears. May be his natural voice, never met him in person so I can't really say.
Carl
WA1KPD

[steve_qix]

There's one guy who is a real "sleeper", who has some of the best audio on the band, and by far the most asymmetry (including mine - this guy's is better).

Frank WA3JBT - really CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN (no matter what he's using), good balance, LOTS of audio - major asymmetry.  If your detector is not top notch, you'll probably get some distortion, but I can say with absolute certainty, there is none being transmitted.

Bill KC2IFR also sounds really, really good - didn't notice his audio mentioned.  Bill also has an incredible voice and that really adds a lot.

Regards,

Steve

[W3GMS]

Thank your Carl--WA1KPD the checks in the mail !!
Regards,
Joe, W3GMS

[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.

A straight mic night might be scary and not be able to recognize some of the ops.

Glad that the Left coast reported in. I have read of the audio from No Money Mike and would expect that he would be a mile marker, like Tron, and Don. He is an audio engineer. 

I did have a rare moment that almost had to be sched to talk to Bill KD0HG. If it wasn't for his well modulated,balanced audio, I would'nt have been able to have any QSO. It was a short one this past Winter on 75M. Condx weren't the best. But it was distance that made it a little rough.

Fred

Roger Roger Fred,

 I thought it would be interesting night 

You're Probably right...


Jack

[W2PFY]

I always thought that Captain Marvelous had a great sounding transmitter. You don't hear him on often these days

[k4kyv]

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

I never visited Blown-Away Bob at his QTH in Rutland, but he visited me 3 times.  Once when I lived in Cambridge, once while I was in Houston and once here.  That was also quite an experience. I talked with him many times over the air.  When he went SK I wonder what happened to all that audio iron.

"I carved this transmitter out of solid steel with my bare hands."

He may have had bi-polar disorder.  He was  congenial enough, but he  had a nasty side that he could flip over to unexpectedly.  No problem when you were in conversation with him over the air, but when  he was a guest in your house it could be a different story.

[Carl WA1KPD]

No need for a check Joe. Like Popeye "I knows what I like". K1VYU likes it too.
Sorry we did not meet at Nearfest, though I am sure you walked by the table. Maybe next time.
73
Carl

[Blaine N1GTU]

i have the best audio!
you just cant hear me

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I have to agree. Joe has always sounded very good and in recent years excellent. He straps into my location on 160 meters. In the early evenings I can open up the RX bandwidth and really enjoy the audio.

Another excellent sounding station often heard on 160 meters is Tim, W3TIM. Check out the attached recording from this past winter.

I like the audio from W3GMS. Very pleasant to my ears. May be his natural voice, never met him in person so I can't really say.
Carl
WA1KPD

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I found a recording of W3GMS from 2008.

[k4kyv]

No need for a check Joe. Like Popeye "I knows what I like".

[WB2CAU]

He may have had bi-polar disorder.  He was  congenial enough, but he  had a nasty side that he could flip over to unexpectedly.  No problem when you were in conversation with him over the air, but when  he was a guest in your house it could be a different story.

I witnessed those tantrums from Bob a few times on the air.  I have some of the minor ones recorded.  I found him quite entertaining, you never knew when he would freak out.  I liked the quality of his audio.  It sounded natural and had good presence rise for great clarity.  He was one of the kings of the long, old buzzard transmissions too. 

I am in agreement with the majority of the examples cited for good sounding stations.  But there was one or two mentioned in the list that I would put in the "good audio" category for communications "punch" but certainly not for low distortion, proving that it is all very subjective.  Some listeners have different ideas what "good" audio really is.  That's why it's impossible to please everyone. 

Eric

[K3ZS]

WN3B, Mike in Brookville PA.    I have not heard him for a few years ever since 40M went to long.    He uses a broadcast transmitter and won a
best sounding audio a few years ago during an ER Mag operating event.  I don't think he ever was on 75M.

[W3GMS]

Thanks Steve for the comments about my audio and for providing the mp3 clip. 

Concerning Mike--WN3B, he does have some great sounding audio.  It would be nice to hear him back on the air.  He is using a 1941 Gates 250C1 with a highly modified multi band RF deck.  I am fortunate to have the same rig, but its currently still on the broadcast band. 

Regards,
Joe, W3GMS       

[w3jn]

Let's not forget Dave, W3NP and Jeff W2NBC.  Both strong, clear, full, and undistorted.

[Bill, KD0HG]

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

Carl
KM1H

IMO, the Johnson Ranger I and II have pretty decent audio without any modifications.

[W3GMS]

Of coarse any vintage transmitter can be improved, but your right, some are better than others.  I always thought the Collins-32V2 and 3's sounded pretty decent stock.  Others that come to mind would be Rangers and B&W-5100's.  Of coarse KW-1's and the Johnson Desk KW's with the matching Ranger as a driver sound nice as well.  Johnson 500 sound pretty good out of the box as well.  In my opinion, the rig that shows the most improvement going from stock to being modified is the Heathkit Apache.  The modulation xmfr in the Apache is pretty darn good and getting rid of the stock driver xmfr along with some simple R and C changes really makes that rig stand tall!!
Saying all of that, I find it refreshing to sometimes here a stock unmodified rig.  We tend to forget how they use to sound since so many of the rigs have been modified.  I had a blast working Joe, WA2PJP several months back with his 100% rebuilt original Apache. 
Regards,
Joe, W3GMS     

[W2PFY]

We tend to forget how they use to sound since so many of the rigs have been modified.

That's the nice thing about the Military Net here on the Right Coast, Most if not all are stock and it's great to hear how they must have sounded in the day. When I was in the Army 1959  - 1965 most of the field stuff was FM. We did have the T-368 and the GRC-19's and one other jeep radio that was AM, but they never saw much use in my experience. We did a lot of RTTY & CW With the T-368 & GRC 19. I strongly believe that NOT everything needs to be modified. The problem here is that people want you to run equalizers and be hi fi no matter what it is. Not all my stuff is hi fi and as long as I own them, they will stay that way

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Which sounds better, carbon mic #1 or carbon mic #2?   

[wa2dtw]

My votes:
W1VD
WA1QIX
K1KBW
K1JJ
W2NBC
W3GMS
N3IBX (on the 1938 rig)

73
Steve WA2DTW

[N3WWL]

The artist known as W2INR...smooooooth room filling audio at it's finest.

[WB4AIO]

As to stock rigs that sound good, I remember in the 1970s Russ, WA2RII in Bernardsville, NJ, used to run a Johnson Kilowatt with the rare Johnson speech amp/audio driver (I can't remember if he had disabled the clipper, but if it was in the circuit, it was a minimal amount of clipping) and an Astatic JT-30 microphone.

And it sounded amazingly good.


With my best,


Kevin, WB4AIO.

[W2PFY]

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

Going down memory lane I remember when Joe had an 833A going. I don't remember what he used as a modulator. He didn't run it long but it sure sounded good.

Another rig was W2INR's old 4-1000 rig modulated by a pair of 833's. Someone who shares the title of the "Buffalo Book Ends" owns it. His name is Bill and that rig with his voice wins my vote as the all time best sounding tube rig. I'll agree that Garry's Collins was a good sounder as well. I think the only difference would be the voice of the operator. While Garry has a great sounding voice, Bill has that old time announcers voice. Today there is no such thing on radio as an announcers voice. They just want live meat.