Here's my take on external speakers, every radio has a unique characteristic as far as how it sounds and drives a speaker, take a Motorola external speaker for example, it'll sound fine on one radio but muffled on another. Also depends on the system that you are listening to whether it's p25 Phase 2 and also the microphone that the call taker or dispatcher and officers use, a lot of officers will use different brand microphones and some of them sound horrible. I have a Radio Shack external speaker that is too sensitive, even on volume level 1 can hear it from the other room, also when the audio circuit engages you can hear a distinct hiss. I have a pair of home audio speakers that actually sound okay with no hiss and that's leaving the 1-in soft Dome Tweeter in the circuit. Make sure you try and get the speaker impedance to match what the scanner is designed for, base frequencies take a little more power to reproduce then you don't want to hurt your scanner. Using an external speaker Jack is best but if you have to use a headphone jack I would go the powered route. Best bet is to experiment with different speakers, I don't mind supporting the guys but maybe try one on Amazon and if you don't like it you can always return it, best of luck.
What do you think of the BC7 speaker? A little more cost friendly. Do these speakers have any bass to them? Or are they tinny sounding?
Here's my take on external speakers, every radio has a unique characteristic as far as how it sounds and drives a speaker, take a Motorola external speaker for example, it'll sound fine on one radio but muffled on another. Also depends on the system that you are listening to whether it's p25 Phase 2 and also the microphone that the call taker or dispatcher and officers use, a lot of officers will use different brand microphones and some of them sound horrible. I have a Radio Shack external speaker that is too sensitive, even on volume level 1 can hear it from the other room, also when the audio circuit engages you can hear a distinct hiss. I have a pair of home audio speakers that actually sound okay with no hiss and that's leaving the 1-in soft Dome Tweeter in the circuit. Make sure you try and get the speaker impedance to match what the scanner is designed for, base frequencies take a little more power to reproduce then you don't want to hurt your scanner. Using an external speaker Jack is best but if you have to use a headphone jack I would go the powered route. Best bet is to experiment with different speakers, I don't mind supporting the guys but maybe try one on Amazon and if you don't like it you can always return it, best of luck.
@@morejelloplease Great advice thanks for the info!
I have the BC7 speaker hooked up to my SDS200 and it works great. - Jonathan