Fostex FE206/207 or others

[beauistheman]

helped by the right horn how? I am in the process of building a sub atm, intending for it to be quite fast. What enclosure would be on the same difficulty level as the HC but for a 206. I mean, adding phase plugs will end up costing the same price and simply getting tweeters would it not?

[Saturnus]

As planet10 mentioned above the 207 generally goes into simpler cabinets than the 206. I suggest looking around on the internet. Note that many, if not most, lowther horns will work with either as well.

I hands down do not like supertweeters, so I'd go to any length to avoid them personally. And making a phaseplug yourself isn't terribly difficult. Take a piece of broom stick of the right girth, fasten it into a socket spanner of right size and put that into an electric drill, preferably one with variable speed, clamp the drill to your work bench. Experiment a little with getting the setup to run smoothly. Now take a sander and start sanding away on the running rig. After a few tries you'll have your own, almost free of cost, phase plugs.

[rjbond3rd]

Originally posted by beauistheman
helped by the right horn how?

A BLH will boost bass and (ideally) match it to the level of the mids and highs. The Dallas plans should give you an idea: http://www.frugal-horn.com/ronhorns.html

But you can also handle the rising response by adding series resistance (which effectively raises the Q and is like a "tone control"). Start with a couple ohms and go up or down until it sounds right (assuming your amp can handle it). If you like this approach, you can extend it in a number of ways and ultimately, if you like, end up with a full-blown circuit to tame peaks, smooth out impedance, handle BSC etc.

Some people do the equivalent of series resistance by simply using a tube amp with high output impedance (i.e., series resistance built into the amp) or by using skinny cables (.e.g, a single strand of solid-core CAT5 network cable).

The cutting-edge way that Mssr. Bob Brines uses (which I heard and loved) is to use a computer-based setup which permits radical EQ at the source. You can tweak it forever at no cost. Ultimately, you can make the 206 "sound like" the 207.

But if this is your first single-driver build, I'd say just go as vanilla as you can, so you can start listening. You can always tweak later.

[JC951t]

Hi Saturnas,
May I ask, what is the difference between the wooden
phase plug & the wave guide that Decware sells.
Taking a look at the FE26 or 27, theres a whole in
the middle of the dust cap & it must be there for a reason.
Now if we replace it with a wooden phase plug, does it not
muck up the sound of the speaker ? Wherelse the Deware
wave guide keeps the hole in their design which in theory
should work better. Sorry I've got no experience with fullrange
drivers. Am trying to learn more about it.
I'm very keen in building the G Chang cabinets & your advice
is that the FE206 would be a much better choice ?

Thanks you

[beauistheman]

Originally posted by rjbond3rd


A BLH will boost bass and (ideally) match it to the level of the mids and highs. The Dallas plans should give you an idea: http://www.frugal-horn.com/ronhorns.html

Yeah those are way too advanced for me. I was looking at something along the lines of the Half Chang, alot of people in the HC thread appear to have good results with it when lining about 4ohm in series. Also using a BSC as well. What would you suggest for an enclosure around similar complexity to the HC for a 206? Maybe the MLTL with bsc?

I feel like leaning towards a 207 in the HC since it was built for it, but i would like to use a single driver and no super tweeter....This is a hard decision to make.....

[Saturnus]

I haven't tried the decware ones but to me it looks like just another phase plug with a different shape. I reality though there's no reason to distinguish between the two. A phase plug is in fact the same as a wave guide. The hole in the dust cap on the fostex driver is to vent out compression behind it.

Although there's almost no measurable difference phase plugged drivers wins almost every single time in blind tests.

[rjbond3rd]

Originally posted by beauistheman What would you suggest for an enclosure around similar complexity to the HC for a 206? Maybe the MLTL with bsc? I feel like leaning towards a 207 in the HC since it was built for it, but i would like to use a single driver and no super tweeter....This is a hard decision to make.....

The conventional wisdom is to do the HC or MLTL with the 207 and optional tweeter. For a first build, this is very good advice because you're already juggling quite a few variables: stuffing, positioning, BSC values, room tweaks, maybe phase plugs, padding down the tweeter, crossover point, etc. Lotsa fun to be had here and it might take a month or two.

But let's assume that you are highly unconventional, and you flat-out love the experimental part. You are willing to potentially re-do your entire system including the use of a computer as your front-end so you can EQ in the digital domain, In that case, yes, you can indeed torture a 206 into behaving like a 207 with no need for a supertweeter and you are now a little bit ahead because you have greater flexibility. But this rig is now potentially very complex, too.

But this would not be the way to go for a first build. As a newb, I would say build something simple first, listen to it for at least a few months and then go from there, chasing the ever-elusive last 10%.

[beauistheman]

i think you might have convinced me haha. I think i will go the 207 and build the HC, then start playing around, sounds like fun. If i ended up with a tweeter, what are some common recomendations?

[planet10]

Originally posted by beauistheman
I mean, adding phase plugs will end up costing the same price and simply getting tweeters would it not?

Even if you have tweeters you still benefit from phase plugs.

dave

[planet10]

Originally posted by JC951t
Taking a look at the FE206 or 207, theres a whole in
the middle of the dust cap & it must be there for a reason.
Now if we replace it with a wooden phase plug, does it not
muck up the sound of the speaker ? Wherelse the Deware
wave guide keeps the hole in their design which in theory
should work better.

The hole is in the dustcap. It goes away when you cut out the dustcap...

dave