Best small fullrange for AM radio

[Foxx510]

If you had to build a killer AM radio, which small fullrange driver would you pick?

Thanks!

[Scottmoose]

Given the frankly rubbish quality of most AM broadcasts (at least, they are in the UK), I wouldn't worry too much about the driver being an especially limiting factor. One of the better Fostex units should do the job nicely enough. Depends how big you want to go.

[Foxx510]

3-4inch max. I thinking of building a small table radio, and I want it to sound as sweet as the old Sony it is replacing. Which of the Fostexes would you suggest?(im not really familiar with them). Thanks.

[Scottmoose]

Dave rates the FF85K as the pick of the 3in units. I haven't heard it myself, but I trust his judgement. The FE83E is a nice unit too, for what it is -lovely tone & probably a bit mellower than the 85. Ditto the 87, although its a little harder to get working right. YMMV of course. Of the 4in drivers, the 103 is supposedly favourite, unless you want to splash out for the 108ESigmas of course.

FWIW, I'd probably go with one of the 3in drivers. You're not going to get, or expect, any LF from a small table-top radio anyway, so you might as well keep costs down. If you want to go really small, as it sounds Tang Band have some 2in drivers which might suit you better, although I can't speak for what they sound like, as I haven't heard a pair.

[sreten]

Originally posted by Foxx510

If you had to build a killer AM radio .......
Thanks!

Hi,

I'd mislabel an FM radio ..... AM is awful ..... at least in the UK.

FWIW for low power the Fostex's would be good.
More power (can run on mains) see
http://www.zaphaudio.com/smalltest/
Hi-Vi, Aura and Tangband 3" drivers.

Including active EQ in the power amplifier is a good idea ...

/sreten.

[Foxx510]

Thanks for the help guys. There will be FM as well, but I listen to AM most of the time. The Fostex FE83 looks the goods, I'm also checking out the Visaton drivers here but again know nothing about them. The only fullrange I've used is the FR125s.

[schn0354]

Do not focus on the speakers. Radio reception is usually the problem. Radio's at least 30 years old tend to work best as they were engineered in an era when more people used to listen to AM. Otherwise, you may be able to get some compact ham radio gear with reception in the AM band.

[dantheman]

A lot of those Visiton's look nice. Many Fostex will suit your purpose as well. There maybe some el cheapo drivers from Asia that would be better on the wallet though and still sound good enough for talk radio or AM brodcasts in general. I think AM's upper limit is like 4k here in the States. Reception would be top priority for me. How much power do you have to work with? The 2 inch drivers in general take a lot more to get any volume from, but they also don't seem to handle it so well. 3"ers have good treble dispersion but lowish efficiency(in general). A lone four incher might be best as it will have good enough treble for AM and FM, but it will probably have enough weight to not sound annoying on it's own. Sure as eggs I'd look for a highish Qts (0.6-1.1) 4"er with 85db+ at 1 watt/1meter with a smooth midband and call it a day.

[Foxx510]

I'm liking the look of this one so far. Thinking of using a small Kemo module for the amp, either 1.5 or 12 watts, and the tuner will be scavenged from a good Sony radio, most of which have decent AM and FM tuners.

[loninappleton]

I remember trying to find out what speak was in the new KLH Tivoli
but never did find out. Far as I know, the Tivoli is the cadillac of table radios.