Bobby1957
Newbie
Can you experiment with different types of capacitors and resisters between +/- posts on a speaker in a cb radio without damaging any internal radio components?
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Speaker modifications in cb radios
- Thread starter Bobby1957
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Hello B1957: Sure you can, but why would you want to? Just don't touch the two speaker wires to gather shorting them out, possibly damaging the audio amplifier transistor or chip.
There are great sounding speakers out there that will greatly enhance the sound that you don't need to experiment around unless you just want to. And in most cases just adding any external speaker usually sounds better than the mass produced minimum cost speakers used in the radios. Most all radios have a 1/8 inch mono type receptacle in the back of the radio just for the external speaker.
I like the Wilson Chrome Plated External Speaker, it sounds great and the its made from steel.
See: https://www.bellscb.com/products/accessories/Speakers/All_Speakers.htm
Motorola External Speakers are all over the internet for sale that also sound great.
I use a Clear Speech DSP ( Digital Signal Processor ) External Speaker in my truck it removes some noised and sounds great, easy to use and install.
See: West Mountain Radio - CLRspkr ClearSpeech® DSP Noise Reduction Speaker
Palstar makes a great sounded external speaker, not cheap but sounds fantastic.
See: Palstar - Speakers
I also use a "Sonic Cushion" that levels out the different (low and high) volume levels heard from SSB (Single Side Band) Mode. The speaker wires are feed to a GE-47 Light Bulb, a 25 Ohm variable resistor is wired also across the speaker wires, one leg of the resistor and the middle wiper connection is then feed to the speaker or DSP Unit that's wired to the speaker. Works great!
Using head set is also a good call, when that far away DX station is hard to hear and doesn't want to reply to you.......
See: Heil Headsets Technology for Amateur Radio - Heil Sound Amateur
Good luck, hope this helps.
Jay in the Great Mojave Desert..... just down the road ah ways from the fillin station, Miss Dinah has a price cut on gas, but the ammo and groceries are a bit steep
There are great sounding speakers out there that will greatly enhance the sound that you don't need to experiment around unless you just want to. And in most cases just adding any external speaker usually sounds better than the mass produced minimum cost speakers used in the radios. Most all radios have a 1/8 inch mono type receptacle in the back of the radio just for the external speaker.
I like the Wilson Chrome Plated External Speaker, it sounds great and the its made from steel.
See: https://www.bellscb.com/products/accessories/Speakers/All_Speakers.htm
Motorola External Speakers are all over the internet for sale that also sound great.
I use a Clear Speech DSP ( Digital Signal Processor ) External Speaker in my truck it removes some noised and sounds great, easy to use and install.
See: West Mountain Radio - CLRspkr ClearSpeech® DSP Noise Reduction Speaker
Palstar makes a great sounded external speaker, not cheap but sounds fantastic.
See: Palstar - Speakers
I also use a "Sonic Cushion" that levels out the different (low and high) volume levels heard from SSB (Single Side Band) Mode. The speaker wires are feed to a GE-47 Light Bulb, a 25 Ohm variable resistor is wired also across the speaker wires, one leg of the resistor and the middle wiper connection is then feed to the speaker or DSP Unit that's wired to the speaker. Works great!
Using head set is also a good call, when that far away DX station is hard to hear and doesn't want to reply to you.......
See: Heil Headsets Technology for Amateur Radio - Heil Sound Amateur
Good luck, hope this helps.
Jay in the Great Mojave Desert..... just down the road ah ways from the fillin station, Miss Dinah has a price cut on gas, but the ammo and groceries are a bit steep
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Surplus Motorola speakers, for the win.
Put an 1/8" mono jack on one of those and you'll be happy. Bigger speaker, better sound.
Put an 1/8" mono jack on one of those and you'll be happy. Bigger speaker, better sound.
+1 on mmckennas recommendation. They're plentiful and cheap now. On that note, what problem are you trying to solve?
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bobby-
Can you stick a penny in a fusebox without damaging anything?
Seriously, the answer is "maybe". And the chances are good enough to say "Just don't do it." If you don't know about circuits and how to actually change audio characteristics, don't mess with it. If you do know about audio...you won't want to mess with it, you are going to spend less time and money just buying a better speaker.
Can you stick a penny in a fusebox without damaging anything?
Seriously, the answer is "maybe". And the chances are good enough to say "Just don't do it." If you don't know about circuits and how to actually change audio characteristics, don't mess with it. If you do know about audio...you won't want to mess with it, you are going to spend less time and money just buying a better speaker.
Don't. Doing either will increase the load drawn on the amplifier, and possibly damage it. Also with modern op-amp style amplifiers, any effect doing so might have on the tone will be canceled out by the amplifier compensating for the additional components.
Bottom line: it's unlikely to have any audible effect on a newer radio, and you have a good chance of blowing the audio amp.
Although he hasn't responded with what he desires to accomplish, the proper resistor/capacitor combination wired at the speaker could produce something akin to a tone control circuit. Doing it wrong however can ruin things. Tone controls don't generally show up at the speakers though, that's were crossover circuits are placed.
prcguy
Member
Generally you would use an inductor/capacitor combination and you would be simply be making a speaker cross over. A single inductor in series with the speaker will roll off the high frequencies at the rate of 6dB per octave and a single capacitor across the speaker will have a similar effect.
You can get much better control of the frequency cut off by using a combination of series inductor and a capacitor across the speaker after the inductor which will roll off at 12dB/octave or add another series inductor for 18dB or two inductors and two capacitors for 24dB and so on. You can look up a speaker cross over calculator with a Google search to see what values will give the results you are looking for.
I've done this for two way radios in the past as a temporary solution when the combination of radio and speaker resulted in very harsh and shrill sounding audio and its useful for reducing annoying hiss. I've also packed dense pliable foam rubber around speakers inside radios and in external speaker boxes to enhance the bass and make the hiss a little less annoying.
For most low power audio amps in two-way radios and scanners you would not hurt the amplifier by using a cross over circuit at the speaker but for a high power amp feeding broad band audio to a single speaker that rejects a large portion of the audio spectrum and appears as a high impedance to the amplifier, you could run into trouble at high power.
prcguy
You can get much better control of the frequency cut off by using a combination of series inductor and a capacitor across the speaker after the inductor which will roll off at 12dB/octave or add another series inductor for 18dB or two inductors and two capacitors for 24dB and so on. You can look up a speaker cross over calculator with a Google search to see what values will give the results you are looking for.
I've done this for two way radios in the past as a temporary solution when the combination of radio and speaker resulted in very harsh and shrill sounding audio and its useful for reducing annoying hiss. I've also packed dense pliable foam rubber around speakers inside radios and in external speaker boxes to enhance the bass and make the hiss a little less annoying.
For most low power audio amps in two-way radios and scanners you would not hurt the amplifier by using a cross over circuit at the speaker but for a high power amp feeding broad band audio to a single speaker that rejects a large portion of the audio spectrum and appears as a high impedance to the amplifier, you could run into trouble at high power.
prcguy
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