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Re: Sure it's not your amp ....

For what it's worth, I have built and listened to two different FE166 systems. One used ported 1-cubic-foot boxes, like the Fostex recommended ones but a bit larger and tuned a bit lower to allow for the 2 or 3 ohms output impedance of the SET amps. The other used small sealed boxes sitting on top of cheap powered "sub"woofers, making an effective 120Hz crossover. Both systems were driven fullrange; the subs took signal from the speaker cables.

Reducing the excursion in this way cleaned up a very large amount of the loud/complex/bass-heavy music problems. The high frequency characteristics remained the same, but were no longer sensitive to bass loudness. My purely subjective impression was that an FE-166 in a ported box is suitable for amps of 2 watts or less; beyond that point the speaker distortion will dominate the amp overload unless you are selective about the music (no rock, no orchestra, no organs!) With the sealed box, you'd probably be OK up to 10-15 watts.

All listening was done with parafeed SET amps using current-source loaded drivers, which provides a great deal of power supply isolation. I don't have a suitable experience base to comment on IM and modulation effects due to power supply limitations in series feed, but I can well believe they could be significant.

Eventally, I sold the ported boxes at cost to a non-audiophile friend who cranks them LOUD and loves them. So does his wife. I told them, repeatedly, about the excursion-related distortion problems but it simply does not bother them.

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  Michael Percy Audio  

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