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Old Western Electric Phones - Voice Quality

Started by TimT847, October 11, 2018, 04:02:00 PM

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TimT847

I'm having problems with voice quality over my older western electric phones.  When I call out using one of these phones, the person on the other end hears a quiet somewhat muffled voice.  Are there any adjustments in the configuration that can be made to improve this?

N7AS

If I can remember that far back, (at my age, I can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago) I think they used carbon mic elements. I can guess there would be no adjustments that can fix that.
Grant N7AS
Prescott Valley, AZ
https://www.n7as.com

A journeyman electrician sent his apprentice with a 5-gallon bucket and was told to put the ends of the service drop in the bucket and fill it with volts. He was there all day.

drgeoff

The standard "cure" is to bang the handset several times against a padded firm object.  This separates the carbon granules which tend to clump together over time.

There is no alternative adjustment that can be made to an OBi or anything else.

SteveInWA

I have a very old (1947) WE 302 phone connected to an OBi 200.  Yes, the sound quality isn't great, compared to modern phones, but it's acceptable.  Aside from the good advice from drgeoff...

Try going into OBi expert mode on the OBiTALK portal page for your device.  Go to the "Physical interfaces" --> Line 1 section, and find ChannelTxGain and ChannelRxGain.  I bumped mine up to -3 and -2 respectively.  I have a modest hearing loss, but I can hear comfortably and people can hear me at those settings.  You can experiment with higher or lower settings to find what's best for you.

drgeoff

#4
TimT847 has an OBi202 so Physical Interfaces, Line settings do not exist.

Instead, received and transmitted levels can be adjusted on the Physical Interfaces, Phone Port 1 or 2 pages but be aware that ChannelTxGain affects the volume of sound coming from the earpiece of the phone plugged in to the 202.  To increase the volume heard at the other end of the call you need to adjust ChannelRxGain.  

SteveInWA

Yeah yeah, that was a typo.  "Phone 1" not "Line 1".

Lavarock7

I agree. Removing the carbon-filled mouthpiece and rapping its edge on the table always fixed mine.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8908.0
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