Here is some technical junk to think about in relation to your question as well.
Given a stock radio, what are some of things that would hinder you from producing a well rounded, efficiently utilized band-pass, such that your highs and lows are well balanced with one another? Two things come to my mind immediately, the stock IF Filters, and the Mic Input circuitry; not too mention a stock Mic
So how do IF Filters affect your audio? Well, most ham gear right off the manufacturing floor are shipped with mediocre IF Filters; ceramic Murata’s come to mind. Their filter slopes are not as sharp as we would like them, and they exhibit quite a bit of band-pass ripple. Because the filters slopes are not sharp, this forces the manufacture to offset the filter's position from the carrier injection point such that you do not produce enough lows, yet quite a bit of highs; they don’t want their gear to be accused of poor opposite sideband suppression. The inherent ripple in the stock OEM ceramic filter will attenuate groups of frequencies in your audio, while bringing out other frequencies into the forefront. Unfortunately, this ripple is not selective, thus does not choose which frequencies are best suited for the operator's voice. You couple this with a suedo designed Mic input circuit that has been carried over from one product line to the next, despite inherent design flaws that produce a less than flat response (Mark V starts its downward slope at 1.8Khz, just like the FT-1000 & 1000D), and then add a stock Mic which has it’s own band-pass and ripple issues to that smorgasbord, and your left with some pretty rough sounding audio.
So how do you adjust for that? Well, you can take the extremist route; trade out the OEM IF Filters for some nice crystal Inrads with a wider band-pass, move the -6db point of the IF Filter closer to the carrier injection point because you now have sharper slopes, thus picking up more lows. Then tap the balanced modulator thus bypassing the 1960’s Mic input circuit, and add some audio rack gear, ultimately giving you an over-the-air signal that sounds like you’re sitting right in my study. Or, the easier route would be to keep the same stock IF Filters (thus >3Khz xmit band-pass), maybe adjust the carrier offset a little to gain a few more lows, add some audio rack gear (particularly EQ) to abate the ripple and mic input circuit anomalies, and sound better than the plain stock radio ever could. W2IHY is making a killing offering audio gear just for that purpose. Chances are, if you hear someone on the band that is less than 3Khz and has well balanced audio, he has either added some audio gear to his mix, and or adjusted his carrier offset, and may be using a professional Mic over that of the stock Mic. In any case, his rig is not stock, whether internal or external.
I hope this helps in answering your question.
73,
Mike
