The Gale Centre Speaker
This will be a very brief post but I thought it too good not to share. For some time now I’ve had my FT847 in a less than ideal position meaning I’ve either had muffled audio from the internal speaker or poor/thin audio from a cheap external ‘CB’ type speaker.
Many years ago I tried using a standard hifi speaker for communications but found the frequency response to be less than ideal for voice; boomy bass and great treble but an apparent total lack of mid range ‘voice’ frequency.
Recently, I was given a cheap (when new, even cheaper to me being free!) Gale centre speaker from an old surround sound setup. It took a couple of days of this speaker sat on a shelf before the brain gears started whirring. A centre speaker is *designed* for speech, it’s job is to make vocal passages stand out in amongst the booming noise of the other 4 speakers and ground shaking sub.
5 Minutes later, a 3.5mm jack soldered to a cable and the difference is incredible. This is being driven directly from the 847 output with no external amplifier. The output is incredibly crisp with plenty of clarity-giving mid range, whilst also having the wider frequency response for that ‘BBC’ broadcast sound. It’s fantastic – don’t throw that old centre speaker away, it’s probably just as good (if not better) than an expensive dedicated communications speaker!
Interesting read as always, Steve. I’m surprised no amplifier would be required but if it works without one, so much the better 🙂