{"id":33346,"date":"2018-08-01T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T10:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=33346"},"modified":"2018-07-31T07:35:20","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T11:35:20","slug":"guest-post-toms-self-described-stupid-radio-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/guest-post-toms-self-described-stupid-radio-trick\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: A DSP Hi-Fi “Stupid Radio Trick”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor, TomL<\/a>, who shares the following guest post:<\/p>\n

\n

Stupid Radio Trick \u2013 DSP \u201cHi-Fi\u201d<\/h1>\n

by TomL<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you can remember the 1960\u2019s, there was an audiophile rage going on called Hi-Fi. \u00a0The base unit consisted of a ponderous piece of furniture consisting of a rectangular cabinet and equally large mellow sounding speaker of fairly smooth frequency response, say in the range of around 40 \u2013 15000 Hz. \u00a0They would have a built-in radio (using vacuum tubes) with large analog scale. Most would also have a \u201crecord player\u201d embedded on the top to spin some vinyl discs (78 or 33 rpm).<\/p>\n

For pedestrian consumers, it became a decision of how to keep up with the Joneses, so-to-speak. \u00a0And that meant a trip to Sears to look at the latest offerings. When the decision finally came to purchase, of course no one could buy it outright. \u00a0So, to add to the suspense, one had to put money down on \u201cLay-A-Way\u201d plan that did not allow you to take possession of your prized choice until the last monthly payment! \u00a0One had to visit or mail in a check every month.<\/p>\n

So where am I going with all this? \u00a0Well, as you can see from the photo [above], I have purchased three portable radios for three very different purposes. \u00a0\u00a0All three were painstakingly studied and reviewed and weighed against all other possible choices. All are highly rated by the usual reviewers like RadioJayallen, SWLing Blog readers and other internet personalities. \u00a0The Sangean is for home use and listening to baseball games when I did not want to fire up the stereo hooked up to the Grundig Satellit 800. The small Sony ICF-19 is a phenomenal knock around radio for the car and listening while out to lunch or a walk in the park. \u00a0The large Tecsun S-8800 is a possible replacement for my ailing 20+ year old Sony ICF-2010 for shortwave use.<\/p>\n

Well, I was tired of listening to any one of them in terms of sound quality. \u00a0The Sangean has too much upper bass\/lower mid range, the small Sony is very carefully maximized for total speech clarity, and the Tecsun seems to lack a little in the mid range frequencies (compared to highs and lows). \u00a0Staring at them, I thought to self, \u201cWhat if I turn on the Sangean and Sony together???\u201d What ensued was a revelatory sonic experience (it sounded pretty good)! One seemed to fill in the other in certain ways. But it was not perfect.<\/p>\n

Duh, I had the new Tecsun in a carry case while trying to decide if I send it back for a tuning quirk and dug it out and plopped it on top. \u00a0Turning it on, I heard more lows and highs, just like a Field Radio should have but with the mid range filled in! After very careful volume adjustment, I now have something that could rightly be called DSP Hi-Fi. \u00a0At least, that is what I am calling it for now. ?<\/p>\n

Violin and piano pop-out of an orchestra but not too harsh sounding. \u00a0Rock & Roll sounds loud and punchy without that boombox effect. Bass lows are there (could be better, now all I need is a small subwoofer connected to the Tecsun line-out ???). \u00a0Highs are there too but well controlled. Mid range voice clarity is stunning, as if someone is in the room with me but not sounding too forward! It is not room-filling but acts more like a near-field monitor. \u00a0I like that I can line-up the speakers over each other.<\/p>\n

The really fortunate thing is that all three radios have complete DSP for FM and receive my favorite over-the-horizon station with very similar reception quality. \u00a0Also, they process DSP with a similar delay before output to its respective speaker. The sound is fairly coherent and even though it is still mono output, the full range of musical fidelity can be appreciated better. \u00a0It is not audiophile quality but it is very satisfying and I can actually hear more details in the music than with any one of the radios by themselves. Just goes to show you that you CAN teach a new Radio dog old Tricks (LOL)!<\/p>\n

Happy Listening,<\/p>\n

TomL<\/p>\n

\n

I love it, Tom!\u00a0 Thanks for pointing out that sometimes it takes a “stupid radio trick” to really produce some amazing audio fidelity! This reminds me that in the early 90s, I used to have a Zenith Transoceanic and RadioShack DX-440 on my radio table in my room.\u00a0 If I recall correctly, the Zenith was on my left and the DX-440 on the right. I used to tune to shortwave, MW and FM stations and produce a makeshift “stereo” effect by playing both at the same time. Sometimes, on shortwave, it actually helped me discern voices in weak signal work!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks again, Tom!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who shares the following guest post: Stupid Radio Trick \u2013 DSP \u201cHi-Fi\u201d by TomL If you can remember the 1960\u2019s, there was an audiophile rage going on called Hi-Fi. \u00a0The base unit consisted of a ponderous piece of furniture consisting of a rectangular cabinet and equally large mellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[373,3781,3194,3,139,26],"tags":[4342,7188,5119],"class_list":["post-33346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-am","category-fm","category-guest-posts","category-news","category-radio-modifications","category-radios","tag-guest-posts","tag-radio-modifications","tag-toml"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-8FQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21870,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/guest-post-more-anti-noise-ideas\/","url_meta":{"origin":33346,"position":0},"title":"Guest Post: More Anti-Noise Ideas","author":"Thomas","date":"October 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In a previous guest post, SWLing Post contributor TomL, shared his \"Evolving, Morphing, SW Listening Station\"\u00a0where he detailed the many ways he's trying to fight heavy radio interference at his listening post. The following post is TomL's update: More Anti-Noise Ideas (Continuing the hunt for better reception in a foul\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"toml-radios","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/TomL-Radios.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/TomL-Radios.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/TomL-Radios.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/TomL-Radios.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":58599,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/tef6686-dsp-chip-and-the-qodosen-sr-286\/","url_meta":{"origin":33346,"position":1},"title":"TEF6686 DSP Chip and the Qodosen SR-286","author":"Thomas","date":"December 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who writes: A couple of weeks ago, \"Radio Jay Allen\" sent out a review of a Chinese portable using a different DSP chip from NXP called the TEF6686 usually used in car radios with lots of features. I also notice that the description\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Qodosen-SR-286-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Qodosen-SR-286-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Qodosen-SR-286-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Qodosen-SR-286-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Qodosen-SR-286-1.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":56002,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/guest-post-listening-to-lra-36\/","url_meta":{"origin":33346,"position":2},"title":"Guest Post: Listening to LRA 36","author":"Thomas","date":"March 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0TomL, who shares the following guest post: Listening to LRA 36 by TomL I finally had time to go outdoors to listen to LRA 36, Antarctica.\u00a0 People were gushing about how well it is being received.\u00a0 My location was a park across the street from the Forest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DX"","block_context":{"text":"DX","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/dx\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/SanGabriel-LRA-36.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/SanGabriel-LRA-36.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/SanGabriel-LRA-36.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/SanGabriel-LRA-36.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/SanGabriel-LRA-36.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27718,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/toms-am-broadcast-band-recordings-during-eclipse-totality\/","url_meta":{"origin":33346,"position":3},"title":"Tom’s AM broadcast band recordings during eclipse totality","author":"Thomas","date":"August 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, for sharing the following guest post: August 21, 2017: Individual Recordings of MW During Totality by TomL I setup flimsy \u201cBackpack Shack\u201d loop antenna and preselector to my Sony ICF-2010 to listen to any propagation of MW signals as each transmitter experienced Totality.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Ferne-Clyffe-State-Park-Map.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Ferne-Clyffe-State-Park-Map.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Ferne-Clyffe-State-Park-Map.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Ferne-Clyffe-State-Park-Map.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48918,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/guest-post-listening-to-comb-stereo-on-shortwave\/","url_meta":{"origin":33346,"position":4},"title":"Guest Post: Listening to Comb Stereo on Shortwave","author":"Thomas","date":"May 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0TomL, who shares the following guest post: Comb Stereo on Shortwave by TomL Comb Stereo is an old technique being implemented over shortwave by the main sound engineer (Daz) at Radio Northern Europe International (RNEI).\u00a0 It ONLY works on Comb Stereo broadcasts which currently are RNEI, This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/CombStereo-1024x412-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/CombStereo-1024x412-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/CombStereo-1024x412-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/CombStereo-1024x412-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38936,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/guest-post-summer-daytime-dxing-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":33346,"position":5},"title":"Guest Post: Summer Daytime DXing 2019","author":"Thomas","date":"August 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0TomL, who shares the following guest post: Summer Daytime DXing 2019 by TomL I took note of the mediocre band conditions this summer amongst amateur radio operators as they were making off the cuff comments about still being in a solar minimum.\u00a0 Some had gone out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Screen-Shot-2019-08-09-at-7.14.04-PM.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Screen-Shot-2019-08-09-at-7.14.04-PM.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Screen-Shot-2019-08-09-at-7.14.04-PM.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Screen-Shot-2019-08-09-at-7.14.04-PM.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}