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Re: Give me your 2 cents, full range & cabinet.

65.219.11.215

Posted by DaveJ on October 1, 2003 at 09:37:51

In Reply to: Give me your 2 cents, full range & cabinet. posted by Dayyan on October 1, 2003 at 00:21:00:

Hi there Dayyan,
I've built up 2 sets of speakers on 2 different Fostex fullrangers and have had a chance to listen to another design using Radio Shack drivers.

The first set I built was the Fostex FE103E in the Fostex recommended backhorn design. I had them set-up for a couple of months before I decided to try something else. They have a very nice sound, but not much meat in the lower octaves. There were some areas in the midrange that I wasn't happy with either. They may just need some more tweaking. I would say the construction was moderatley difficult. A lot of cuts to make sure are square.

Next up was a set of ported enclosures using the Fostex FE207E 8" fullrangers. These are the ones mrh(Mark Hardy) heard down in Connecticut a couple of weekends ago. It's a simple rear-ported enclosure of just under 1 cubic foot. Construction was the ultimate in simplicity. Pretty hard to mess a rectangular box :) These were a big step-up in performance from the 103E speakers. Not only was there more support in the bottom octaves, but I think the midrange is much more open and relaxed. I didn't notice any major differences in the upper octaves. No harshness form the whizzers that I can detect. These do need a decent set of stands though.

Cost wise the 2 projects were probably similar. The higher price of the 8" drivers was offset by the simple (for now) 3/4" MDF cabinet. I used baltic birch in the backhorn design, so this pushed up the cost of that design. I picked up some 3/4" baltic birch last week to try as the front baffle of the larger speakers. I'm curious if there will be a noticeable difference in sound quality.

The FE207E's are definitely worth a nicer cabinet than the unfinished MDF ones where they live now. Once I settle the front baffle issue, that's the next step.

I got to hear Mark's Radio Shack 40-1354's in an ML-TQWT enclosure at the same get together a couple weeks back. Very nice sound through most of the spectrum, a little lacking in the lower end, but that's not what these were designed for. His cabinet work was several steps above mine though.

We used all of these speakers on a set of modified Bottlehead 2A3 amps. I think it was a better match than the KT-88 push-pull I'm currently using at home.

I would say pick your favorite (good luck, there's a lot of choices) and have at it. I can supply the dimensions I used on the 207E's if you are interested.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

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