Review: KCS Fostex 206esr BLH plus B.A.R. (long)

High Efficiency Speaker Asylum

Need speakers that can rock with just one watt? You found da place.

This is a brief review of my current main system speakers, the Kalinowski Custom Speakers (Kloss on the asylum, Johnk on audiogon)combo of his Fostex 206esr BLH design (21d x 41h x 15w 125 lb 98dB 8ohms, 1 1/2" baltic birch with full cherry veneer, french polish,4 layer damping with defex, wool, cork, silicone) along with his B.A.R design, with the Fostex FW305 12" woofer single cap x-over to a Fountek neopro5i ribbon controlled by a Fostex stepped attenuator. Yes, I run both pairs at the same time. Its a long story. My speakers years ago were a pair of Bose 901's (all midrange) sitting on top of the ESS AMT1 (HEIL amt tweet with 12" bass; sold that, bought Klipsch Chorus new in '88; then 4 years ago, when the audio bug bit, I bought my first high end speakers--B&W N803's--new--ouch for $5g. Got my first tube amp, Cary V12, thought it was great. But the metal domed tweeters hurt my ears and the heat from 12 tubes was too much. That's all sold. Three years ago I found audiogon, AA, and wandered into the world of low watt SET. Long expensive journey trying to get the amp-speaker-roomsize combo figured out. Then Cary 300b and Coincident Victory (they really need 20 watts to sing, regardless of specs). That's all gone too. I bought a pair of madisound B16's with Fostex 166 esr, the cobalt mag limited ed drivers, from JohnK on audiogon. Nice, but needed a sub and a tweet. Bought another pair from him, large cab bottom firing Fostex FE208 sigma, and paired them with Klipsch Forte. Wow. I could finally use a 2A3 amp and play it LOUD. I wanted more. I purchased the BAR system a year ago, and the 206esr 3 months ago, and I am DONE. I wanted to briefly (there's more, trust me)describe the journey, and say "I wish I knew then what I know now" but the journey, though expensive, was fun--
and frustrating.
Amps now include the nice DIY 6p5/6sn7/push pull 45 monobloc at 6w; AudioNote kit1 PQ 300b; James Burgess 417a/2A3; Korneff 6sn7/76/45 integrated, and an Almarro 318a. Preamp is Cary slp98p with vintage Denon phono head amp; Sources are VPI scoutmaster with DV 17D2 cart; and BAT D5 cdp. Speaker wire is, well I won't say, but it didn't matter much. The room is small, 9 x 14 x 9h, I like it near-field, plus that's all my wife lets me have. I was limited as to placement, and there is no toe in.
So what does it sound like? I KNOW its just 'not done' to run two pairs of speakers, but it works. The holographic/sonic image is a 3-6 ft wide area behind and above the top of the speakers. The sweet spot is about 18" wide, there is no comb filtering. Sitting in the sweet spot, I can NOT tell there is sound coming from the drivers. Its weird. They are of course extremely revealing and very easy to drive, wired in series (amp to speaker 1, then black to black etc to speaker 2). Even the Korneff at 2w can blow me out of the room, with some recordings not all. The 12" is 95db sens., the 206 is 98dB and the ribbon is 102 dB. OK. Bass: The best I've had yet, most comes from the 206 BLH. The deepest string bass and organ notes make your intestines purr, that nice visceral involvement that has little to do with the ears, and is so much a part of the 'live' experience. The bass notes are well formed and discrete, much more articulate than (most) subwoofer bass. The frequency extension through the critical mids (200hz-2000hz) is, to my ears, seemless. It is well balanced without 'humps and bumps' in the frequency spectrum. It is very easy to listen to for hours. The amps help there of course. The high frequecies of course are fast and focused, both with the 206 driver and of course that amazing big ass ribbon, with shimmer and sparkle in spades, percussion,bells,cymbals etc so real. And the ribbon on top like that does wonders for the spatial effect--much like the B&W tweeter tube on top of the nautilus systems, but without the fatigue. Price? $3000 delivered to your door for the 206 cabs--that's almost 300 lbs shipped, not cheap. and the BAR was a little less. So for $5g, same as the N803's but so much better, I am truly satisfied. I use low watt, but have tried my 60w pp kt88 mono amps, which work quite well also. I have found that (duh) hi eff is just so much more revealing regardless of amp used, the sound seems to float out vs. being hammered out of an 86dB box. I have purchased 4 sets of speakers from John, everytime a great experience, and a bargain.

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Topic - Review: KCS Fostex 206esr BLH plus B.A.R. (long) - set.nut 14:24:54 01/29/07 (1)

Re: Review: KCS Fostex 206esr BLH plus B.A.R. (long) - Kloss 06:40:01 01/30/07 (0)

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