[OT] 3.5mm stereo to mono adapter with switch?

Yes they do (the vocal chords can certainly be overdriven into producing distortion products not unlike the effect of amplifier clipping - and for basically the same reason) when shouting at the top of your voice.

It isn't just the greater volume that helps the 'shouted word' carry for greater distances and or cut through high ambient noise levels, it's also the much higher level of average energy in such speech compared to conversational levels of speaking.

An effect that didn't go unnoticed by the communist bloc countries' radio broadcasting propaganda divisions who developed a speech processor to mimic the effect without asking the radio news readers to do anything more than read out "The News" in a normal voice. The effect became famously known as "The Radio Bulgaria Effect". Anyone who has ever heard any of these "Shouty" stations on the shortwave broadcast bands will recognise the effect immediately.

For anyone wishing to mimic this effect with a simple audio amplifier (a line out signal driving a couple of anti-parallel Si diodes across a volume pot via a limiting resistor so that the resulting 1.4v Pk2Pk clipped audio can be attenuated to a user adjustable level) the resulting audio effect will be marred by the in-band IM distortion products that were obviated by properly designed speech compressors (whether by analogue clipping of an SSBSC translation of the audio to a few hundred KHz or by brute force digital signal processing techniques).

A reasonably effective speech compressor can be created using the basic audio signal clipping method when bandpass shaping of the audio is applied prior to the clipping stage to reduce IM by the lower bass frequencies with a similar if not entirely compensating inverse bandpass shaping of the output from the clipping stage.

Ideally, you'd want to split the speech band of 300 to 3200Hz into 4 or more bands, clipping each one independently before recombining them again but once you get to this stage of complexity, you might as well translate the audio up to 455KHz as a SSBSC signal and apply the clipping there where all the IM products will be removed several hundred KHz away from the bandpass filter used to feed the SSB demodulator which translates the resulting mess back down to its original audio frequency range, free of those troublesome IM distortion products but cursed now only by the less disruptive but inescapable harmonic distortions (or you can programme a DSP to create the equivalent effect without all the bulk of even a 'modern' "RF audio processor" with its need for crystal lattice filters, an oscillator driving a balanced modulator and demodulator along with ancillary audio buffering components built into a metal screening box.)

That "Radio Bulgaria Effect" might sound like gross distortion (and it certainly is) but it's a specially crafted form of distortion designed to enhance communication (of propaganda messages in this case) via a very noisy and unreliable channel, plagued by QRN and QRM in the shortwave broadcast bands. Whilst gross distortion due to overloading or overdriving an amplifier can, at fist hearing, be mistaken for the "Radio Bulgaria Effect", it falls woefully short of the intelligibility enhancing effect of the latter when dealing with a marginally usable communication channel.

Reply to
Johnny B Good
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Ok, fair enough (but it would support your argument better when using actual product description pictures rather than a random 'look-a-like' example picture).

I don't doubt such adapters are available but availability is no guarantee that they will be universally useful in every circumstance. However, since they're such a cheap item, there's no reason not to buy one or two to try out.

However, I suspect the headphone driver amps in portable audio players are likely to take unkindly to such abuse (bridging each channel output terminal together as a cheap way to create a mono mix of the programme material being auditioned).

Still, if you can create a couple of music tracks for testing the effect of such an adapter, it's a pretty trivial way to hear with your own ears, the effects (or not) of such an adapter. All you need is to edit an existing mp3 (or whatever) so that a section has the left or right channel completely muted (ideally, an effect applied in turn to each channel for say half a minute or so).

On playback, you'll be listening to the effect on a single channel (left or right on its own) of linking the two channels together with such an adapter. If you're unable to get hold of a switch-able stereo/mono adapter, you'll need to use a stereo headphones 'Y' adapter designed to allow two pairs of stereo headphones to be plugged into a portable audio player so that you can use the 'spare port' to insert and remove the stereo to mono adapter without having to unplug and plug the headphones.

I'd be very surprised if you can't detect the drop in volume and onset of distortion when bridging the live channel across to the silent one using the stereo to mono adapter (at least not in the case of a typical portable audio media player).

If you're going to the trouble of ordering such adapters, for their tiny cost, you might as well order a "One into two stereo headphones socket 'Y' adapter" or two whilst you're at it so you can verify or disprove all the sage advice that's been offered regarding the effects of bridging the output terminals of stereo amplifiers.

No need to just take our word for it when, for just a few pence extra, you can do your own independent testing. :-)

Reply to
Johnny B Good

Air rushing past tongues teeth or lips is fairly white noisish.

The actual vocal cords produce a timbre sure, but they are only part of what makes up speech

Try a little Xhosa.

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But, as you point out, most consonants

On the button.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Most of the complaints about poor audibility of speech on TV drama is often down to the use of personal mics buried under layers of clothing. As well as 'mumbling' by the talent. And layers of clothing remove the HF content of the speech. It's not going to do much at 250 Hz. ;-) And, of course, that HF content tends to 'beam' from the mouth. So much gets lost by having the mic in a less than ideal place too. ;-)

Slow deliberate speech can be understood on a narrow bandwidth system. But everything being equal, will be even easier on a full bandwidth one.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Maybe "harmonics" was the wrong word to explain those higher frequencies in speech.

On a completely separate matter, do you know why the Germans make such good microphones and headphones? They have had success in this area for many decades. Perhaps there is something which caused them to develop their skills in this specific area.

Reply to
pamela

Probably not the best way. But I'd guess the harmonics get altered too. If you hum a note, the sound changes as you open and close your mouth.

Engineering of all sorts a traditional German/Austrian skill. Still appreciated.

The UK used to make some pretty decent mics too - including a classic, the BBC designed PGS ribbon which was produced commercially by STC as the

4038. But like so many things that once the UK made - why get your hands dirty making anything when you can buy it elsewhere? Far better to concentrate on nice clean banking and financial services. After all, what could possibly go wrong there?
Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I yield, sir.

Reply to
micky

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