Big Speaker!

Hi All,

I hope you're OK and enjoying your radio.


I've been building again to address some issues as a radio operator....

Listening fatigue.....that awful feeling when your ears just can't take that 'frying bacon' sound any longer!


Anyone who's listened to a HF or SW set for any period of time must have had that experience when it almost feels like yours ears are literally bleeding. Headphones can be great for picking up stations from the background noise but exasperate the problem even more.

Of course there's modern day solutions like DSP noise reduction but despite my best attempts at listening to such it does sound like Metal Mickey chewing on a bag of nuts with his head in a bucket, in a bathroom, with the bath running and shower flowing. That terrible metallic/watery sound! Some may get used to it and also have a vested interest in such expensive speaker systems but I just can't get on with them.

So I dug through my speaker collection, (I collect junk from everywhere so must have some twenty or so speakers in a big box!), hooking them up to my radio and using an audio spectrum analyser on my phone to check them out frequency wise. Pretty much all of them were former 'Hi-Fi' type speakers or the typical piddly little things found in most radios and were truly awful with big high frequency responses.

I also had a few 'big' speakers which I tested, again most were Hi-Fi types and had either very 'muddy' sounding audio or surprisingly high frequency responses. One however had a rather pleasant sound which turned out to be an eight inch bass driver I had originally purchased for a guitar practice amp. (A later Marshall amp replaced that. )

So out came the table saw and a big old bit of 18mm plywood to build this......



None too shabby.
 

The 'audiophiles' out there may argue such stuff as 'closed-damped-ported' type speaker boxes but an open back is easy/simple to build and reduces that bass response somewhat.


Now this is one big huge ugly speaker but with a bit of homemade black ink, (carbon black, meths, shellac and some carnauba wax), the ply is toned down somewhat, (much better than a rattle-can affair), and with a set of feet again from the junk box it doesn't look that far out of place....



Yeah, messy station at the moment but plans are afoot to build myself a proper desk when my gammy leg allows.


It doesn't look too out of place on my radio shelf but might makes those of the tidy 'micro-system-persuasion' station a little queasy.



The important thing is how does it sound?

My honest opinion....absolutely blooming fantastic!!!!!


The high frequency 'shoosh' is all but gone that big old cone not being fast enough to respond to high frequencies. In fact on the audio analyser it cuts off in an almost cliff like edge exactly at 2.7kHz. There's obviously some bass response but the old Yaesu's I.F. SHIFT/WIDTH easily takes care of that also handling those of the ESSB habit of transmitting wide band audio. For AM use such as listening to the VMARS net it totally excels even allowing easy listening to those barely moving the S-meter!

Shortwave broadcasts are a joy to listen to and fulfill my continuous SWL desires wonderfully popping some much needed bass with a little twist of that I.F. SHIFT/WIDTH knob on the radio again.


I've been quite surprised at the audio quality (not Hi-Fi but 'radio' quality), especially for those stations sitting right in the back on the box. You can crank the volume and even pop in a bit of RF amp gain without being bombarded by the crackle of the cosmic background radiation thus pulling voices in from afar. Being just a passive speaker affair without an extra audio amplifier it doesn't suffer any effects from RF......but then you shouldn't be getting RF back in the shack anyway.

Job's a good'un and I'm well pleased with my efforts.

It no longer feels like my ears are bleeding and I can spend many happy hours in front of this big old ugly box listening to my radio.

Now I'm on the hunt for an old 'Victor' type speaker grille, (or may have to make one), so that it looks more akin to a vintage/collectable speaker.



More of my my musings and waffling but I do so enjoy it.


All the best,
Victor

Nice job Victor
I wish I hadn't thrown away old speakers. Especially my huge Aiwa speakers her indoors always complained about
Still have the system though

I do still have speakers here and there and did think of utilising one as you have, when I get a homebase sorted .

I also had an old set of stereo/mono switchable headphones as you previously mentioned. They also had every conceivable adapter socket.

Like other possessions they succumbed to the "wife and kids" syndrome

PS.
Personally I would of stained it.
I prefer wood as wood


PPS .

I hate that FM Muppet band SCRCHHHHHH

A few weeks ago another breaker and I went onto AM.
Oh what joy . A relaxing hisssss and just how I remembered it before legal FM

Cheers Nige, much appreciated mate.  


Hee! I could have painted it bright pink and put 'my-little-pony' stickers on it with the actual speaker performance being the main criteria.

I know what you mean with AM especially if the frequency is clear then such transmissions sound flipping wonderful!


You take it easy and have a great weekend.

Very well made Victor. I am sure it will bring much enhanced listening pleasure to you.

A long time ago I used to pick up loads of speakers and other audio equipment from car boot sales and had them connected to rigs. Almost nothing left here or at my dad's old place for me to play with now, sadly all cleared out long ago.

Understand your thoughts on DSP units. My little one works awesome with the G90, extracting signals that are so low in the noise that you think you might just be imagining something is there into fully intelligible enough ones that can be worked. However, every other radio I have plugged it into, the results are not so good, similar to that which you describe. And I bet it cost a darned site more than the total cost of your speaker.

No room for a speaker that size in my little corner sadly, otherwise I might start visiting car boots again. I know what my Mrs would say if that appeared by the side of our bed. Her opinion will differ greatly to ours.



* Side note to your last comment, I was once a member of the My Little Pony fan club. Pranked by a work colleague. Had regular mail from Hasbro for years

Looks good that Victor very good indeed.
Not got any old speakers myself but did pick up some Wharfedale Modus 4 of them for a good price.
The sound from them if excellent very much how you describe yours.
2 in use and the other 2 still in the box over in the shed.
Well worth buying if you see some at the right price if anybody is thinking about going the external speaker way.
This is a pic i pinched of a bay advert.

Forgot to put they stand about 6 or 7 inches and are around 1.5kg ? i think but heavy solid.

Ha! Ha!   Laughing hard at your 'my little pony' club shenanigans Neal!

I've heard your ventures with DSP and your G90 from that video you made and was very impressed as it all marries up well. I have played around with all sorts and I know that if the audio bandwidth is reduced first those DSP units seem to fare better....just unfortunately not for my old radio.

Yep, lucky having a room to myself and can fair old get away with filling it with junk without annoying the missus.

Got to say that I'm loving this speaker and glad that I made it as my listening pleasure has increased multiple fold. Now finding myself spending some happy hours just simply listening to both Amateur and SW broadcast stations. Job's a good'un.


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Those speakers look like they're up to the job Alan.

I rejected some 4" cones I had as they didn't sound great and the iphone audio spectrum analyser app confirmed that. (Handy little app!) I have various 'book shelf' speakers that I tested and they were also too 'Hi-Fi' for radio use. I did experiment with an old Sony graphic equaliser which although you could dial back the audio frequencies it still relied on the actual speaker response. In the end that fat old 8" cone did the job nicely. (A 12" affair from a bass guitar amp was way too 'muddy'.)

Anything that can enhance our listening experience is all good.



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Cheers guys, much appreciated.

great job Victor, I think it looks great and more importantly sounds great well done buddy

Hiya Paddy mate,

I hope you are keeping well my friend.


Much appreciated and yes, sounds flipping wonderful! (Even if I do say so myself. )

Good work Victor, glad it worked so well for you.

Sound and hearing are so varied and subjective, your approach of building something to your personal requirements, is probably the best way to go.

Very nice work done Victor, back in 1980 1985 i used a big hifi speaker, may of been a Hitachi , got great sound.

A good speaker or headphones makes radio much more pleasant. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

I am after all just trying to enjoy my radio in whichever way I can, even to the point of mustering together 'junk' that surrounds me.

I hope you all enjoy your radio as enthusiastically well.


All the best,
Victor

You could of filtered the crackle through a set of the Duke of Hazard Dixie Horns..out a wee ping to it..lol