Enclosure help for a newbie - Fostex FE166E

[Scottmoose]

I think you might have mis-read my two posts Martin, because the conclusions you say I made are the opposite of what I wrote.

The two points I was trying to get across were simply:

1) All amplifiers do not sound the same. I posted those plots to illustrate just one reason for this -that an amplifier can affect the basic FR of a speaker. Not the most profound set of graphs on the planet, being, as you say, 1/2 space etc etc etc., but it's only supposed to be a very quick example, not a white paper to the AES.

2) The Onkyo would not be an especially good match to the 166 without any correction applied to it (as I said in the previous post, although the words there were 'unless you stick a load of correction on it')

Moving on, would the Onkyo sound good with the appropriate correction applied? Maybe. They're better than some. My money though is that it would sound acceptable, but little more. I'm deeply cynical about the quality of most HT recievers, mainly because they're invariably built down to a price due to the mass of features, the power-supplies are usually not great, the circuits crammed onto PCBs with mediocre layouts and so on & so forth.

Just so you know, I have no 'purist code.' I don't run valves, at the moment, although I like well designed SET & PP amps (both rare breeds) with HE speakers, providing you aren't expecting to reproduce the LF transients of Floyd in Pompii at ~live levels. Nor have I suggested, or am I suggesting, that low DF amplifiers are 'better' than high DF, or any other such nonsense. Actually, I miss the days when variable DF amplifiers & field coil drivers were more widely available, as you then get the ultimate in fine-tuning potential. FWIW, at present, the amplifier attached to my MLTLs is my faithful old Rotel integrated, with one of the highest DFs around. I entirely agree that lots of clean power does give flexibility -hell, I regularly point that out myself, particularly WRT dynamic headroom. That said even with some serious passive Eq circuitry employed, most FR units will start to compress well before the amplifer runs out of steam. But the catch word there is 'clean.' YMMV as always of course.

 

[planet10]

Actually, I miss the days when variable DF amplifiers & field coil drivers were more widely available, as you then get the ultimate in fine-tuning potential.

We are working on a line of variable damping factor amplifiers kits (TransAmp (tm) -- as in variable transconductance amplifier), and have 2 prototypes functioning (1 discreet, 1 using an LM3875), It is very revealing to dial in the output impedance for the speakers (and room) that you are playing in.

Amplifiers do sound different and can make a dramatic difference in the sound of a system -- one cannot make broad sweeping generalizations about what is better thou, as the speaker and amp are a system. As Martin points out a filter may be a useful piece of the system.

What Scott says, and what i alluded too, was that the budget HT receivers are covering so many bases that they have little chance of being much more than mediocre. The idea behind posting the picture of the KingRex was that for about the same price as the many channel Onkyo with 90 watts/channel, a tuner, and a whack of digital processing, you have a 10 watt/channel amp with 2 inputs (one a modest DAC). Both probably offer similar value, but represent 2 ends of the spectrum... quanity over quality vrs quality over quantity.

dave

 

[adamzx3]

Wow thanks for all the replies guys, lots of info to soak up

I am planning on building or buying a tube amp in the near future but am still researching into it. (btw what would the cost be to build a decent/good tube amp for this application?)

The King Rex looks very cool, but will I still get 96/24 when using the rca inputs? I dont have much use for the USB, I assume going out of the onkyo's front L/R sockets and into the King Rex, then to the speakers? My Onkyo has a straight through mode as well.

My parents have a Denon AVR-1708 receiver, but I will look into the King Rex for them if the results are sub par.

I'll also look into wiring in a resistor or something to help out the situation.

Thanks to all, I have a feeling i'll be going deep into the rabbit hole before long

 

[planet10]

I am planning on building or buying a tube amp in the near future but am still researching into it. (btw what would the cost be to build a decent/good tube amp for this application)

Depends how good (and lucky) you are sourcing parts. The monobloks i use cost <$150 out of pocket, but leavarged the iron from 2 Grundig consoles that owed me nothing). Sourcing all new parts something easy like the TubeLab Simple SE or Eli Dutton's El Cheapo you should be able to put something together for $150-500, but since iron is the most critical and most costly so the sky is the limit.

The King Rex looks very cool, but will I still get 96/24 when using the rca inputs? I dont have much use for the USB

The RCA in are analog ... the KingRex is just an example of a whole new raft of pretty good small Class D/T amplifiers -- Bob's Sonic Impact is another example. The KingRex is also available without the USB DAC. They (and the tubeamp) could all be used with the Onkyo as a preamp (i'd try them with your DAC or CD player bunged right in thou as well)

dave