Cobra HG S500 Highgear CB Speaker, One Color, One Size

Great product

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.

By far the clearest external speaker I've used. The only thing I can nit pick is that the noise canceling is not very strong, but over all very happy with it!

As described

Sounds amazing noise cancel is great. This thing is pretty big though it’s difficult to find a good spot in my jeep for it especially with the provided cable. I may have to splice in some extra length for better mounting options

I'm using a mobile transceiver with bottom mount speaker as a base unit. That won't do. Was worried the speaker may emphasize too much bass, but no, good midrange- and that's what you need to hear. Would buy again. It's a nice looking speaker too. Rather a bargain.

Cheap, easy to install and clear audio.

Sounds "muddy" and "bassy" compared to radio's internal speaker. Not my first choice. But it was cheap, well built, and it works. As good as you can ask for at this price point.