FE108EZ sounding scratchy

[wixy]

I recently built the MJK open baffles using a Fostex FE108EZ, and am driving them with a Kingrex T20 t-amp (which puts out a max of about 10 watts). I am also padding the FE108EZ's down a bit with an l-pad.

They are sounding very nice, however, when I try to play them at louder volumes (the volumes i'm used to playing my FE206E's in blh's at) the FE108EZ's start to sound very scratchy. Sometimes I also think they sound a little bit scratchy at medium listening volumes.

Is this normal? Am I just expecting too much from a 4" driver?

It'd be nice to be able to fill the room with sound from these speakers, as with the volume turned up the bass is more impressive, but the little fostex just can't keep up.

[norman bates]

They may be dying.................

If you lightly press the cone in, you may feel a slight rub.

I almost bought a pair of altecs once, but noticed a slight raspy something at medium volume. After turning music off, I lightly pressed the cone in and felt a slight scraping.


Norman

[MJK]

The Fostex FE-108EZ drivers should not sound scratchy, there is no bass going to them so they should be fine even at loud volumes.

Have you checked to make sure all of the connections are tight? If the spade connector that slips onto the driver terminal is a little loose vibration at higher volume levels could cause it to shift and produce a static type of sound.

Or it could be that one of the drivers is bad. If it is only one channel I might suspect a bad driver, swap channels and see if it persists from the same driver. If swapping the speakers still yielded scratchy on the original side, I would look at connections upstream and other equipment in the signal path.

If both drivers sound scratchy I would check the other equipment, it seems hard to believe that you would have two defective drivers.

Last idea, try the speakers on somebody else's system to see of the problem still exists.

[wixy]

Thanks for the advice. The drivers are new and were burnt in alone before installation, all the connections are soldered and the scratchy/harsh sound is from both drivers, mostly at high volumes and during peaks.

It's not possible that i'm just playing them too loud?

[MJK]

Originally posted by wixy
It's not possible that i'm just playing them too loud?

Maybe, but that would have to be very very loud. I would try them with a different amp or even better somebody else's system. Having both drivers go bad seems strange.

[Godzilla]

>>> If both drivers sound scratchy I would check the other equipment...

Agreed.

Once had a fostex 127e sound 'scratchy' too and discovered it was one of the channels of an old cd player and not the driver.

Good luck!

Godzilla

[hm]

Hello,

may be a bit loud,
the driver get to be giddy,
the lin. Xmax is only 0,28 mm!!,
fullrange OB you will get
below 0,5 W dynamic compression,
make a FAST cut ~300-400 Hz.

[wixy]

Thanks for the responses guys and sorry for the late reply.

I've since tryed the speakers out with a couple of solid state amps and there was no problem!

I also think i may have had one or both speakers wired out of phase somewhere along the line, cause with an old NAD 310 amp these speakers are sounding superb now, I'm really happy with them.

[MJK]

I am happy things worked out, trouble shooting a problem like you described can be difficult and frustrating.