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- Verified Buyer
My favorite part of the speaker is the headphone Jack. You can buy a small Bluetooth transmitter and plug it in and listen to your radio on a small earbud.This is the second of these I have bought; one in my truck, the other in the wife's truck.Quality is evident as soon as you get it out of the box.It sounds just as good as it looks.Like others have stated, COBRA could have taken a few seconds to include a written set of instructions; had I not have read some of these reviews that explained what goes where, I might still be in the dark.The BLACK double-wire with the 90* plug goes in the "EXT.SPEAKER" port on the rear of the C.B.The RED single wire goes in the "P.A." port right beside the "EXT" port.However, wiring thus dis-ables any ability to use a P.A. speaker.I have and use P.A. speakers quite frequently.I can holler at someone to "close that gate" or "move that tractor" or whatever, without having to poke my head out the window and holler like a redneck.So, I wired the P.A. speaker and the RED talk-back wire through a DPDT toggle-switch in a bracket attached to my over-head C.B.The RED wire is connected to the -(neg) portion of the plug; the extreme tip of the plug is not connected to anything at all.So, I had to determine which of the two P.A. wires had the same connection.The two P.A. wires going to the plug in the P.A. port on the back of the radio got connected to the CENTER terminals of the DPDT switch.The two wires going to the P.A. speaker got connected to the matching terminals on one end of the switch.The single RED wire, with it's plug clipped off, got connected to the appropriate terminal on the opposite end of the switch.Flip the switch one way yields P.A. speaker; flip it the other way yields talk-back function in the external C.B. speaker.Honestly, I have puzzled over just how it is possible to acheive the talk-back function by merely connecting a single wire to one side of the P.A. system.That single RED wire shows electrical continuity through to the same portion of the "EXT" plug when the speaker is not connected to anything.Although I cannot fathom just how it is electrically possible, the talk-back feature does work.Of course, one can simply tie the RED wire aside and not use the talk-back feature; the funny thing is that the same identical speaker minus the talk-back is a couple dollars more expensive.As for mounting the speaker, any driver with good sense is going to mount the speaker to the cab roof or top rear corner of the cab, right next to his head and close to his ear.Thus, with the stereo playing loudly, tires a sangin', Cummins a throbbin', and a million vibrations resonating through the sheet-metal, he can hear when someone tries to reach him on the C.B.Mounted anywhere else and the reason for even owning an external speaker is defeated.That being said, COBRA was plenty stingy with the length of the wires and they just barely reach to the back of the radio; I would have liked to have seen at least another foot of wire; I got it to work, but I thought I was going to have to splice on some more wire.One more minor gripe; the sexy-looking plastic bracket with two possible mounting situations, looks good in theory, but is not the best choice in actual practice.I found that, with the bracket attached to the cab roof, the speaker would not clear the head-liner when using the "close" orientation; the longer orientation put the speaker too far out and liable to whack me in the head.That being said, I altered the bracket, re-drilled some holes, made some shims, and got it to work in my chosen location.I would much rather see a generous metal strap bracket that I could custom bend to contour, custom drill, and then saw off any excess.Had I to do it over, I would just vise-bend a simple steel bracket and toss the fancy plastic bracket.With all that said, this speaker is LOUD and CLEAR.It will get your attention when someone is trying to get your attention.I wish I had of had these years ago; they are way ahead of all the many others I have used.It beats the internal speaker in my Yaesu mobile and doesn't feel as though it is cheaply made. The noise canceling isn't super strong but clearly eliminates most of the static on the upper end when the button is pressed, without dropping the audio level much.Due to the way the speaker socket in my radio is recessed, I had to change the plug from the angled one that was on this, to a strait plug end so it would reach into the hole and actually plug in. The wire soldered well, so all in all, it is worth the price and delivers a better-than-average sound, but comes nowhere near what a larger cabinet would. I read where someone added padding into the case to help with the hollow tone, so I'll also be doing this just to see if it helps remove the plastic case sound that these kinds of speakers tend to always have.It's not a bad unit sounds it's OK volumes pretty goodSo I purchased this speaker to replace the anemic 2" speaker I currently have for HAM radio. This speaker has a very nice and powerful sound. The only issue is the audio sounded very hollow. The sound would get muddy when you turn it up. I added some polyfil (essentially, pillow stuffing) to the enclosure and it made a great improvement to the sound. I wish it had a tone control for treble adjustment (needs more).I will be picking up a 300 model for my vehicle since it is the same as the 500, but without the talkback (I did not need that).All in all it does the job with great build quality, for a good price.Also have speaker only version of HG S500. Was excellent in car..good loud clear understandable voice speaker. Same, but using both in house now, with same great results. Do not recommend for quality music. / I have HR2510 CB radio that I need to hear myself with. Reviews explained red & black wires disposition, but did differently to make talkback correct, although have PA and ext speaker connections/jacks on radio. No instructions included. Works great but you may require help to wire it correct for YOUR radio. Good up/down bracket adjustment locks tightly. Speaker has ext. jack on side for headphones. Highly recommend over smaller versions, regardless of brands. Long enough cord to have speaker a ways from radio with mike, which will keep down feedback. Noise cancelling mike works well, but with my very sensitive Silver Eagle base mike. I added 15 foot extension mike cord for testing & whatever, so prevents feedback. LOUD speaker output & loud when feeds back, too. Ouch to my ears. Best communication cb/ham speaker for voice I've had, and I'm 70 years old. Price worth it for this speaker, and unless talkback is what you want this for, the speaker only version is same quality, too. I doubt you'll find better speaker for voice, unless quite expensive. Loudness works wonderfully in car with windows rolled down. Just check dimensions for car use mounting. Solid bracket. Sits nicely on table top.The Cobra Cb speaker with talk back is a great product especially if your cb radio doesn't have a talk back feature on the radio. The black plug goes into the external speaker jack on the back of your radio and the red plug goes into the PA jack on the back of your radio. The talk back feature lets your hear your voice while transmitting and will assist you in setting your mic gain especially if you have a squeal. The talk back feature also assists you in setting your echo if your cb radio has an echo board in it. If you are running extra power through your radio you can use the talk back feature to assure your modulation sounds good. Cobra made this talk back speaker right and it works well for all of my radios. You can use the talk back speaker in your mobile or on your base. I highly recommend this product wether you are using a CB Radio or a Big Radio.The talk back speaker will not work if you are using a power mic.It works only with a dynamic mic.
