Review on Superior Sound Quality and Clear Communication: Yamaha CM500 Headset with Built-In Microphone by Lamont Wilson

For a long time I've been looking for an alternative to the handheld microphone that comes with the Yaesu FT-857D amateur radio station. I use it exclusively for amateur radio satellites like the AO-7, CAS-4A, 4B and XW series, all of which have 70cm uplink and 2m downlink lengths. The sound quality of the included handheld microphone is terrible. It's bass-heavy and smooth at the same time, and no amount of DSP correction in the FT-857D can make up for that. At this point I tried my Heil headset with the HC-2 Element (DX). This is a dynamic element, so no offset is required. The sound quality immediately became very good as soon as I swapped out the handheld microphone for a Heil headset. I had to buy an adapter cable to get the headset to work with the Yaesu radio's modular microphone jack. (DXEngineering) The same adapter will work with an upcoming Yamaha headset. A ham radio friend recommended this Yamaha headset and it was MUCH cheaper than the salvation so thought I might give it a try as I could then dedicate the yamaha to the FT-857D and use the salvation on my other radio. Setup: 1. Black box with 2 x AAA batteries REQUIRED for Yamaha to work with FT-857D on Transmit.2. Yamaha on Transmit (FT-857d)3 REQUIRES a 3.5mm stereo to 3.5mm mono jack adapter. Both the VOX gain and the microphone gain had to be adjusted significantly to switch from Heil to Yamaha. The audio gain had to be reduced from 35 to 3! Otherwise, the input radio circuits would lead to distortion. I settled on Vox Gain at around 45 as I lowered the mic gain. At that point, I received a reliable Vox activation. These adjustments were necessary because Yamaha uses an "electret" pickup, which has MUCH more power than a Heil dynamic pickup. Performance/Quality: Yamaha produces a fuller (but no bass) and cleaner sound than the HC-2. Heil DX cartridge. This is especially true at very low signal levels. Intelligibility is excellent on both the Heil and Yamaha, but the Yamaha has a fuller sound, surprisingly punchy, while the Heil sounds a bit tight, but still not bad. Unhurt. (Software SDRC with FunCube Pro + Software Defined Radio). The differences between the 3 microphones (Yaesu Hand, Heil Headset, Yamaha Headset) range from amazing/amazing to very good/even better. Build Quality: The Salvation is clearly made of better materials with stronger cables that are unlikely to break. Easy to use. Yamaha seems "cheap" but it works VERY well on both transmit and receive. Note that it has better audio quality than the Heil HC-2 for satellite work (in my opinion) for less money. Based on this, I recommend Yamaha for radio amateurs.73, N0AN