jeffrey420 said:
I've personally tried the smaller non powered spkr. (19-318) and had a harder time hearing it as opposed to the 97 by itself. I liked the looks of it, but as far as volume it was a waste.
Jeffrey:
On the pro-97 they have a "hearing protection feature" which saves your hearing if you were to plug in headphones it would not be very loud. Unfortunatley, it will drastically reduce the volume of external speakers also. What a lot of people do (there are a few threads about this topic) is take a small piece of wire, wrap it around the antenna base (metal part) then wrap it around the speaker plug (also on the metal part) before plugging it into the scanner......problem solved! The volume will be extremely loud with the external speaker when you have the wire hooked up. Some people also use a paper clip. This just bypasses the volume limitor, and does not harm your scanner. I have it on all my handhelds.
As for the 2055 speaker, you will not have to do this wire trick because there are two seperate plugs, one on the front for headphones, one on the back for a speaker. The one in the back works GREAT with the small speaker. I have it on my 2096 & 2055. I can drive with the windows open at 60+ MPH and I never have to put the volume past 1/4 of the way.
In my opinion it is definitley worth the $30 bucks....go for it, you wont be dissapointed on the performance, especially on the 2055! It sounds great....LOUD & CLEAR!!!