FE167 recommendations for my room

[afterglow]

I'm looking for speaker recommendations using the Fostex FE167E driver to be used in my odd-shaped listening room. It's triangular in shape (the only room my wife let me have) with two sides at around 20 ft. and the short side at 13 ft. One long side has a door and shelves. The other long side has a couch. I'm left with putting the stereo equipment on the short side (shaded on the sketch).



I listen mostly to jazz and female vocals. As such, I really wanted to try out the smaller drivers (4" & 6"). I chose to use the FE167E since I have a 45 tube amp and need all the sensitivity I can get (~2 watts RMS!!).

My experience in speaker building is limited to subwoofers but the plans I've seen so far are pretty doable. I'm fascinated by the Chang line and was thinking of doing the KimChi Chang. What do you think?? Any other recommendations?? I'd like to keep the cabinets skinny since the current ones I have in there kinda crowd the space.

[chrisb]

I think your room shape & dimensions might give you some real problems with the imaging from any of the double mouth designs.

It's been my personal experience that small / awkward rooms are where the smaller drivers truly shine. I've experimented several times with the FE167 in my own listening room (an 8.5 x 23ft rectangle) and they easily overload the room.

A buddy of mine has a pair of Welborne DRD45's, and 3 different pairs of Fostex based speakers ( Hornshoppe Horns, C&C Abby, and the FE206ESR in BLH) - in a much larger room than either of ours. Having listened to all combinations of above, there's certainly no argument that the power available from a 45 SET needs all the sensitivity you can muster, and the FE167 is a great choice for the money.

However, if you haven't already acquired the drivers, another option worth considering is the FE126E in a small BLH, such as the Frugelhorn or Ron Clarke's A126. While Fostex's published specs are famously "optimistic", the rated difference in sensitivity between the FE167E and FE126E is 1dB.

Place them straddling the back corner of the room, approx 6 feet apart.

[afterglow]

The FE167E is on its way so that's what I need recommendations for. The FE126E build will have to wait for another day.

So...what be it??

[afterglow]

And if the double mouths will be a problem then perhaps the Half Chili??

[ruerose]

Ugh, I'd put the cheapest, biggest, loudest system in there until she gave you a better room. I'm sure she can make better use of that space for her hobbies than you for yours.

That said, horns are a really tight fit in there. Perhaps flying them from the ceiling to save floor space might be a thought.

They will have to be small...imaging is pretty much toast unless you get really nearfeild and put some thought into diffusion/absorbtion.

To many compromises for me to want to use horns...my preference would be for a mini-monitor 2.1 system (inwall IB possibly). At least in a room that small, the music will be quite "enveloping". An even off axis response will be important.

[rjbond3rd]

Kumusta, kaibigan ko. I'm strictly a newb but if it were me, I would shove the couch to the left, and put the FE167E's into stand-mounted boxes of some kind for break-in, and experiment with the placement. Hey, you're breaking them in, right?

My space is also non-ideal and I am listening to FE207E's in junky boxes on old Bose 901 stands, in a near-field setup, and it's like sitting in front of a gigantic set of headphones. Mmmm. It's fast and easy to reposition. Mabuting swerte, amigo!

[planet10]

For your room and the FE167 i'd build the smallest box you can get away with.... Half-Chili would save the need for stands.

dave

[Scottmoose]

Something like that, or a straight MLTL should do the job.

[chrisb]

Originally posted by Scottmoose
Something like that, or a straight MLTL should do the job.

In which case, Bob Brine's designs come to mind - if you find that BSC is required, you might want to consider achieving that line level before the amps.

Regards to horns, there are several DIY and one very successful commercial design for BLH for FE126 that have very small footprints ( i.e. 6"x 11" or so) - but they do need some degree of breathing room behind them.

I can attest from the pair of BH-MKI with FE108EZ in my wife's upstairs system that such enclosures can work quite well when placed diagonally straddling a single corner.

If it wasn't for the sensitivity requirement, and the fact that the drivers have already been ordered, I'd have a different suggestion - FE127E in either a floorstanding Fonken tuned or the Brynn (think of her as Half-Chili's "not so baby" sister) . In small rooms, these are great fun. With the FS Fonken's small fooprint, (circa 6"x8") and flexibility to vent the slot port to either the front or rear, placement issues and adjustments for imaging "dial-in" are significantly mitigated.

[chrisb]

which way does the door open?

how close to the obtuse corner to the left of the couch can you move the equipment?