AN 8" double vent
I live with AN8" for almost a year now (see my thread http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=61017&highlight= )
The speakers are now burned in thoroughly. It's not bad speaker. In fact, it's pretty good. It developed anoying buzz on certain frequencies in one of them. Apparently, the coil was rubbing against the magnet. The buzz dissapeared completely after 3 months. Accordion suspension is way too soft and has lost it's form on few places, but it didn't affect the performance. Friend of mine made similar enclosures, but with FE206. Naturally, we swaped drivers for a month or so.
The differences are subtle, but noticable. Fostex has better defined bass. It appears to go a tad lower in frequency range too.
Human voices are better reproduced by AN8. In the matter of fact, this is where AN really shines. It has more treble than Fostex, but it causes some listening fatigue for being a little to "dry" even clinical. Fostex produces highs with some dose of coloration or should I say mellow. If they are evenly priced, I would choose Fostex, but I'am quite happy with AN8.
Equipment used:
- 'El cheapo' DVD player ($100 range)
- 8xNOS DAC (kit bought from DIYFidelity.com.au)
- Charlize AMP
- Switch type attenuator (also from DIYFidelity.com.au)
I live with AN8" for almost a year now (see my thread http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=61017&highlight= )
The speakers are now burned in thoroughly. It's not bad speaker. In fact, it's pretty good. It developed anoying buzz on certain frequencies in one of them. Apparently, the coil was rubbing against the magnet. The buzz dissapeared completely after 3 months. Accordion suspension is way too soft and has lost it's form on few places, but it didn't affect the performance. Friend of mine made similar enclosures, but with FE206. Naturally, we swaped drivers for a month or so.
The differences are subtle, but noticable. Fostex has better defined bass. It appears to go a tad lower in frequency range too.
Human voices are better reproduced by AN8. In the matter of fact, this is where AN really shines. It has more treble than Fostex, but it causes some listening fatigue for being a little to "dry" even clinical. Fostex produces highs with some dose of coloration or should I say mellow. If they are evenly priced, I would choose Fostex, but I'am quite happy with AN8.
Equipment used:
- 'El cheapo' DVD player ($100 range)
- 8xNOS DAC (kit bought from DIYFidelity.com.au)
- Charlize AMP
- Switch type attenuator (also from DIYFidelity.com.au)
hm
===
You have a lot of experience with full range speakers,
a no. of questions please:
1. this type of speaker tends to have peaks at upper midband freqencies eg DX2 peaks at 2 and 10Khz. Does this lead to shouting which occurs in Lowther speakers?
Can this shouting be tamed, if so how?
Fostex is not so prevalent I believe.
2. Some DIY's here go even further to tame this variations of the highs( I think) by put in a cross-over and add an expensive ribbon tweeter, eg Aurum cantus etc. Is this necessary? Any comments eg have you tried or heard a unit with a tweeter installed?
There are a few more questions but that is enough for now....
===
You have a lot of experience with full range speakers,
a no. of questions please:
1. this type of speaker tends to have peaks at upper midband freqencies eg DX2 peaks at 2 and 10Khz. Does this lead to shouting which occurs in Lowther speakers?
Can this shouting be tamed, if so how?
Fostex is not so prevalent I believe.
2. Some DIY's here go even further to tame this variations of the highs( I think) by put in a cross-over and add an expensive ribbon tweeter, eg Aurum cantus etc. Is this necessary? Any comments eg have you tried or heard a unit with a tweeter installed?
There are a few more questions but that is enough for now....
ttan98
1. yes, this effect depends on the driver construction,
you see on Fostex and Nirvana it is not a must.
I try a lot, the best way is for me now, don´t use Lowther.
2. i don´t like parts between speaker and amp,
i try to get everything acousticly.
If you take a tweeter than you don´t need an expensive FR,
my experience shows a crossover has a bad influence of
the whole sound.
This is very complicated and complex and my vocabulary
to explain all the interdependens of it, is to small, sorry
1. yes, this effect depends on the driver construction,
you see on Fostex and Nirvana it is not a must.
I try a lot, the best way is for me now, don´t use Lowther.
2. i don´t like parts between speaker and amp,
i try to get everything acousticly.
If you take a tweeter than you don´t need an expensive FR,
my experience shows a crossover has a bad influence of
the whole sound.
This is very complicated and complex and my vocabulary
to explain all the interdependens of it, is to small, sorry
Wheazer circumcision
I have adopted similar view as our German friend hm in respect to crossovers and notch filters. I would rather re-design enclosure and modify driver to overcome it's shortfalls. Having said that, brings me to mod I did few moths ago which I forgot to mention in my previous post.
I've removed 5mm off the top of the wheazer cone. Speakers are now more civilized and savage hights are gone. The bass seems to be more accurate too (FE206 still goes lower in freq. range). It may sound weird, but mu speakers now really like to play funk. The sound of slap bass is so much better. I recommend Marcus Miller, Louis "Thunderthumb" Johnson and Mark King (Level42). I cream myself every time I hear MrPink from Mark King. This defies common misconception that full range is only for old farts listening opera from vinyl records.
My next experiment is to coat membrane with diluted wood glue to overcome that "papery" sound associated with all large non-Lowther full range drivers. I'll keep you posted.
I have adopted similar view as our German friend hm in respect to crossovers and notch filters. I would rather re-design enclosure and modify driver to overcome it's shortfalls. Having said that, brings me to mod I did few moths ago which I forgot to mention in my previous post.
I've removed 5mm off the top of the wheazer cone. Speakers are now more civilized and savage hights are gone. The bass seems to be more accurate too (FE206 still goes lower in freq. range). It may sound weird, but mu speakers now really like to play funk. The sound of slap bass is so much better. I recommend Marcus Miller, Louis "Thunderthumb" Johnson and Mark King (Level42). I cream myself every time I hear MrPink from Mark King. This defies common misconception that full range is only for old farts listening opera from vinyl records.
My next experiment is to coat membrane with diluted wood glue to overcome that "papery" sound associated with all large non-Lowther full range drivers. I'll keep you posted.
$2 Nail clipper
To ttan98
I've used nail clipper for this surgery for few reasons:
1. No need to muck arround glue solvents in order to remove the cone
2. I'm lazy to remove drivers from the enclosure.
3. Precision. The pin in the middle of the clipper is not only a fulcrum for the leaver, but it also limits you how deep you can "bite" with it, thus making a perfectly parallel cut.
4. As a consequence of using a nail clipper you'll end up with a nice bloomy edge of a cone. It looks like a flower with lots of petals. Paint it in some loud colours to attract bees.
To ttan98
I've used nail clipper for this surgery for few reasons:
1. No need to muck arround glue solvents in order to remove the cone
2. I'm lazy to remove drivers from the enclosure.
3. Precision. The pin in the middle of the clipper is not only a fulcrum for the leaver, but it also limits you how deep you can "bite" with it, thus making a perfectly parallel cut.
4. As a consequence of using a nail clipper you'll end up with a nice bloomy edge of a cone. It looks like a flower with lots of petals. Paint it in some loud colours to attract bees.
Another good job in modded Fe206 is made by Steve Deckert from decware.com.He said the 3khz peak was gone and is more linear also and is more good than Dx2 from Lowther,
Is good story to read but ......i don't really know that ...........have also an enclosure with modded 206 and two passive rad. and the freqv. go down to 35hz........what do you think about that?
Is good story to read but ......i don't really know that ...........have also an enclosure with modded 206 and two passive rad. and the freqv. go down to 35hz........what do you think about that?
I have the Super 8's and here's my 2 cents. Number one on my list of mods is getting rid of the irritating peak around 3KHz. From review of the Super 8 response graph and many days of testing I settled with a notch using 6.2uF, 8 ohm and 0.4mH in parallel. The second mod was to try to deal with the rising response. I ended up using a 1.5uH and 8 ohm as a "contour network". You must use quality capacitors like Vishay MKT1822's or better. Used an online calculator to come up with initial values for the notch and network. Later still seemed the highest frequencies were missing something so I added a super tweeter using simple cap, inductor crossover. Now sounds much better ahhhh (with a subwoofer of course). Makes my old Polk tower speakers sound like they have a blanket over them.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.