Mics and Audio
"The icing on the cake"

Note how low the setting is on the input of the EQ Plus, also note the higher setting on the output, I am using a Heil Goldline GM4 with wonderful results with that extra gain setting making up for the lack of proper audio amplifiers in the radio itself. The Pro's have that amplification I understand, but if you punch in a IC-756 non pro as the rig on the Giga Parts "cable finder" for a Goldline it will tell you that it's not recommended and not even give you the option to override it. My audio in the studio position, feeding the balanced modulator in the rear of the radio, makes for some really nice audio.
If you want really good audio, not the 6Khz wide and internal mods that the ESSB folks are using, you want just nice sounding, NATURAL audio, this little pair is what you need. And they look cool together too, don't they?
It dawned on me on Saturday in the ARRL International DX Contest, SSB of course, when several DX stations who were really running them fast, took the time to comment that my audio was, "super audio" "great audio" told me that my money was well invested. I love my audio gear. Some people say it's overpriced. I have to disagree. The both of these cost around 600 bucks. Considering that top of the line HF radios cost in the 10K range, 600 dolllars is a small price to pay for this excellent equipement.
If you are like me and thought the external audio gear was only for those guys who want their SSB to sound like AM, then you need to read up on Julius's site. It has a lot of useful information. Since using the 8 Band EQ I can attest to the fact that these units do just as they claim they do, if not better. The units do much more than EQ and give the ability to sound like a broadcast station, users claim audio from smooth rag chewing type to lot's of highs and processed pileup type audio and everything in between, the Noise Gate is very desirable for any ham with an amp, or noisy ambient. He has 3 main products, the 8 Band with Noise Gate is probably the most popular at $249, the Dual Band with Noise Gate is probably all you need with a decent mic and radio at $149, only 2 EQ bands but in a case like mine I only needed a little, The latest's and highest priced at over 300 bucks is the EQ plus, with compression and other effects. All can be ran as stand alone's, the EQ Plus has only 2 bands, but it has the Noise Gate, and all the compression and effects that the other 2 do not have. And you can connect 3 rigs to it, Many are using the EQ Plus with the 8 Band EQ and reporting they work very well together, many reported using the 8 band for a few years thinking there was no way to get any better audio and then adding the EQ Plus and being even further amazed at the improvements. I don't know, That's a lot of money to pay when I already have a rig with good, clean processing, but if you had a rig with a poor or no processing that might be just what the doctor ordered.
This is the one I ordered

Click on the image to buy yours!

This is one of those things you wonder how you survived without it, like e-mail and web. Very use-friendly, Really about any setting sounds decent, so it's not hard to learn to taylor it to your particular mic and rig.
Can't say enough good about the Noise Gate, I am in a terrible location for noise, and it sounds completely silent between words and phrases.
I went from only running the processor to only turning it on in the biggests of pileups, the W2IHY 8 Band EQ has some awfully nice settings with lots of highs that rival the HC4 and the processor. The whole thing is just so flexible, I can take the HC4 Heil element which normally has a tinny poor sound without the 940's processor, I can add some lows and mid-range and tone back those highs and get some of the smoothest rag chewing audio you would ever need. What the site says about the only problem is deciding what audio to run is true. I have equally nice sounding settings on the Wide Range Element in the GM4 Goldline that sound wonderful, before with no processor and my low voice, it was awful, now I taylor make my highs and mid ranges and tone back those lows, it's really hard to call, Lately I have been just using the full range element with no processing, just the 8 Band for ragchewing, and just flippin it off and going to the proc and HC4 for the big ones.
I will need more practice before I can switch from the rag chew modes to the dx ones on the EQ, I think I will wait and try that with the EQ Plus I am gonna order as soon as I can save up the extra pennies.
The 8 Band can be connected to 2 radios and the EQ Plus can be connected to 3 radios, that was one of the reasons I went with the 8 Band in addition to the excellent deal he made me on it. Now I will be able to run my Goldline on my backup rig, so you also get a high quality mic switch, if the EQ or Noise Gate isn't needed for a particular rig, each function has a bypass switch so you have all the flexibility you want. If you want to you can put another mic into one of the many inputs on the back of the unit and switch mics, my friend uses 2 mics at the same time, a Heil PR40 for the highs and a ElectroVoice for his lows. It sounds fine. All units have a PTT connector for a foot switch or hand switch for mics without PTT, the more I thought about it when trying to decide which one to buy, I finally realized the 8 bands would give you a lot more flexibility plus the mic switch and many more mic input and Z options. The main downside on the lower cost Dual is only one mic input and one output, and only 600 ohms for the Heil type mics. There are adapters for 8 to 4 pin, but you are limited in the impedance matching area. The EQ plus and 8 Band will match hi to lo, lo to hi, whatever mic can be made to work. That is another big plus in favor of the more expensive units. The site says most people's problem is deciding which audio "personality" they like best.
I can live with those kinds of problems :-)

Here are a couple of nics pics Bob Heil sent me of his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Display


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