Final post on my quest for the ultimate headset for my K3. First, a TON of thanks to Lu, W4LT. His step-by-step for replacing the mic housing on the SB40 with the housing from a Heil BM10 was first rate!
Here's what I ended up doing. I replaced the microphone housing on the SB40 with a microphone housing from a broken Heil BM10. Heil still sells the housings and windscreens. In place of the crappy SB40 dynamic mic element I replaced it with a Heil HC5 that a friend had. It's a pity that Heil no longer sells the HC4 and HC5 elements separately. Ask around though...you'll find someone that has one laying around. In doing the above mods to the SB40 you end up with a VERY comfortable headset with a great sounding mic element. I just could not get the stock SB40 element to sound good. The HC5 rocks. By the way, I don't own a Yamaha CM500 but others have said it is identical to the SB40 except for the CM500 has an electret element and requires bias. On 3/17/2012 11:50 AM, Lu Romero wrote: > Gary: > > I own both a Koss SB40 and two Yamaha CM500'ds. > > The Koss and the Yamaha are exactly identical, save for one > thing... The microphone capsule. > > The Koss SB40 has a dynamic capsule while the Yamaha CM500 > has a electret condenser capsule. Other than that, the > headsets are exactly identical in every detail except for > the name. Probably made in the same Chinese jobber. > > But here is where the simialarity ends: The Yamaha > electrect capsule is flat and can be made to sound really > great on the K3. The Koss dynamic capsule is all bass, very > mushy, and has low output. Even engaging the K3 equalizers > and tweaking a lot, I could not make my SB40 sound very good > at all. The capsule just sounds ugly. > > The fix for this is to remove the two screws that hold the > capsule on the SB40's boom and remove the offending > microphone that looks surprisingly like a cheap Chinese > dynamic earphone (its actually the same exact size as a IPod > headset element and looks identical!) and replace it. In my > case, I had an old Heil BM-5 with a bad earpiece but a > perfectly good DX4 capsule. I removed the plastic mic > holder from the rigid Heil boom, and with a slight widening > of the boom inlet with a Dremel tool, it fits right on to > the SB40 boom! Solder up the existing wires from the Koss > mic and you have a wonderfully comfortable headset with a > very flexible boom that, in my case, works great on my > secondary Kenwood TS570 rig. > > Of course, YMMV, but it works for me here! > > Lu - W4LT > Using the "AL/K-Line": K3/P3/ALS600/MFJ998 > Al Kaline: 1960's Detroit Tigers Slugger > > --------------------------------- > > Message: 20 > Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:33:06 -0500 > From: Gary K9GS<garyk...@wi.rr.com> > Subject: [Elecraft] Koss Headsets for the K3 (Was: Re: > Yamaha CM500 > Headset)www > To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net > Message-ID:<4f62b472.6020...@wi.rr.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > An update: > > I stopped by the Koss Factory Store today. I looked at the > SB49 first. > (The SB45 is identical to the SB49 but without the volume > control in the > cord). I didn't really like the way the SB49 fit. It's a > very > subjective thing but comfort was what I was looking for. > The other > thing I didn't like was the flexible boom for the microphone > was very > "whippy". It was almost like a wet noodle. Not good..... > > Next I looked at the SB40. The fit was great and very > comfortable for > the 5 minutes I wore it. The mic boom was stiffer too. The > SB40 has a > dynamic mic element. I ended up buying the SB40. The price > was $39.00 > plus sales tax. > > I was all set to buy a Yamaha CM500 but I really wanted to > see how they > fit first. I looked at a couple places and couldn't find a > local store > that had the CM500. For this reason I look at Koss. The > other thing > Koss has going for it is the limited lifetime warranty. > Being that I > live near the factory this is a big advantage. Second is > that I've > owned other Koss products and have always been very happy > with them. > > As I said I've never used the Yamaha CM500 but the Koss SB40 > looks very > similar. > > I'm also kind of a headphone junkie. With the K3 I figure > that most > modern headsets have much more performance (frequency > response, etc) > than one needs for communication. So they are all pretty > much up to the > task. Same for the microphone. With the TX and RX Eq > features of the > K3 I decided to concentrate on fit and comfort. I think > that juist > about any headset and microphone can be made to sound good. > > I haven't used the SB40's yet but will report back once I've > played with > them a bit. Here's the link to the Koss website: > > http://www.koss.com/en/products/headphones/communication_headsets > > > > -- 73, Gary K9GS Greater Milwaukee DX Association: http://www.gmdxa.org Society of Midwest Contesters: http://www.w9smc.com CW Ops #1032 http://www.cwops.org ************************************************ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
