TRX-2 Audio Quality

New TRX-2 owner and enjoying it....but it's a learning curve.

Question about the P25 audio quality... Is there any specific setting to make P25 audio sound less "digital"? I've got a solid signal but the audio sounds almost robotic or too digital if that makes any sense. Got 5 bars on the signal meter and tried playing with the attenuation setting thinking maybe my signal was too strong but that didn't help. Tried 3 different speakers and it helped a little bit moving to a better quality speaker but not as much as I hoped.

Any suggestions? Might try a speaker with some tone controls next....??? Maybe adding some bass won't make it sound like I'm listening through a tin can. Speaker I'm using now is a Kenwood KES-3.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

-J

If you are used to listening to analog, digital will just sound digital - for a while - until your ear "tunes" to the new sound.

However, maybe the "digital sound" you are asking about is more than that.

With a good clear, undisorted signal, my Whistlers (and GREs) before them have excellent digital audio - but only if the signal isn't being distorted in some way.

Can you grab a recording and post it here?

Play with the DSP setting.

Audio Sample

Hi, sorry it took so long to get this sample....been out of town for work.

Listen to the dispatcher on this call....to me, through my speakers, he's very digital or robotic sounding....have a hard time understanding him in some spots. At the end of this recording, you hear 1C46 call in a license plate...he sounded great and easy to understand. Is this just the nature of P25, something in my configuration, or just my old ears that need adjusting? It's usually the dispatch that seems to sound distorted at times.

(sample audio attached)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qgk6d3rxwnuicuw/20180113-223936.AU?dl=0

Thanks!

yup thats p25..on my pro652 its sounds better than that...on my bcd436 its much worse...i too am trying to find a speaker with bass /treble control ....its not gonna sound like analog

ColoradoF350 said:

Hi, sorry it took so long to get this sample....been out of town for work.

Listen to the dispatcher on this call....to me, through my speakers, he's very digital or robotic sounding....have a hard time understanding him in some spots. At the end of this recording, you hear 1C46 call in a license plate...he sounded great and easy to understand. Is this just the nature of P25, something in my configuration, or just my old ears that need adjusting? It's usually the dispatch that seems to sound distorted at times.

(sample audio attached)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qgk6d3rxwnuicuw/20180113-223936.AU?dl=0

Thanks!

Click to expand...

To me that sounds perfectly fine. It is just the nature of digital, it takes some time to get used to. When the county I live in first switched to a P25 Phase II system it seemed difficult to listen to after years of analog listening, now after listening to the digital for a couple years it sounds totally fine to me.

That is the normal sound of P25.

If you have the option of turning off the AGC, try it. It makes a huge difference in sound quality on my GRE 500 and 600

I finally got around to playing your recording - it sounds great to me but I have been listening to P25/digital for many, many years. I remember when I first started listening to digital - even hearing it on an officer's Motorola portable directly - and wondering, how can they understand that? Now, years later, I don't even think about it - it now just sounds "normal". And, to add to that, I now absolutely HATE listening to analog - particularly when there is some interference and/or it is a weak or scratchy signal.

I don't see anything you try to do "improving" the audio. Digital just sounds different.... over time, your ear will adjust - trust me.

Now, on the other hand - weak digital signals (I deal with it every day where I live now) and digital simulcast - hopefully you'll never encounter them but mostly likely at some point you will -- and then, you'll have a case!

Thank you!

Thanks to all for the replies and info....

Sounds like I just have to tune my ears instead of the scanner!

-Joel

ColoradoF350 said:

Thanks to all for the replies and info....

Sounds like I just have to tune my ears instead of the scanner!

-Joel

Click to expand...

Yes, your ears will adjust to it. Most of us who were around when everything was analog went through the same thing with digital modes. That recording actually sounds quite good to me. Wait till you try monitoring some DMR. To my ears at least it is quite inferior to P25. But after a bit I was able to understand most of it as well.

Tin can audio, nothing new there from these scanners. Uniden has the same problems. It would be nice if Whistler and Uniden would put some audio controls in a menu so the end user could adjust tone/treble to their liking. Internal speakers are useless in a mobile environment. External speakers need heavy amplification and tone control achieve quality audio. Happy scanning !

Skypilot007 said:

Tin can audio, nothing new there from these scanners. Uniden has the same problems. It would be nice if Whistler and Uniden would put some audio controls in a menu so the end user could adjust tone/treble to their liking. Internal speakers are useless in a mobile environment. External speakers need heavy amplification and tone control achieve quality audio. Happy scanning !

Click to expand...

It doesn't sound much better (if any) on a lot of commercial gear out there. Some of the stuff I've been involved with doesn't sound as clear, it has a mushy aspect to it. Bass/treble and other audio controls might help a tad but digital modes are never going to sound as good as a full-quieting analog signal. It's just the nature of the beast. That's why our ears -- and the signal processor between them -- have to become acclimated to it. Just sayin'...

DJ11DLN said:

It doesn't sound much better (if any) on a lot of commercial gear out there. Some of the stuff I've been involved with doesn't sound as clear, it has a mushy aspect to it. Bass/treble and other audio controls might help a tad but digital modes are never going to sound as good as a full-quieting analog signal. It's just the nature of the beast. That's why our ears -- and the signal processor between them -- have to become acclimated to it. Just sayin'...

Click to expand...

I agree in some aspects. Sans for the P25 phase II multipath distortion, I thing the digital audio from most scanners is good. Almost as good as commercial gear minus some volume. It is the analog audio that needs work in most scanners. Problem is when the one gets the analog audio right it compromises the digital audio. The scanners only need tone control on analog audio to lose the "tin can" cheap sound most have. I'd make it an analog adjustment only.

Back in the mid 90's when digital two way slash phone radios (Nextel) came out, they used the same encoding mechanism for phone calls as the P25 type radio function...needless to say, after enormous complains about "everyone says I sound like I have a cold on the phone", they upped the bitrate for the phone side. Digital just sounds digital...at least until something with a more efficient codec comes along in 20 years. The problem is with spectrum squashing, they will just retain the same voice quality, or lack of voice quality, but cram it into even narrower bandwidth.

Paul