Will my room suit the FTA-2000?

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My basic room is 12 foot wide and 10 foot long with an 8 foot ceiling. At the 12 foot end is the bay window, lots of glass and it's like an 8 foot by 5 foot box with deep cuts in the outer corners. The bay window ceiling is 18" higher than the room ceiling.

The only practical place to put the speakers is just inside the bay window area, listening chair at the far wall.

I was tempted by a bib, there's a lot of corner for a small room but I sort of fell in love with Bob Brines FTA-2000, it just looks so right.

My current system is a Charlize and Monica 2 dac, might upgrade to a Monica 3 soon but no plans to change anything else bar the speakers which are old RAM ltd. KEF drivers but I don't know anything else about them. They're using a pair of large and very dead Wharfdales as stands, almost the same footprint as the FTA-2000 so I know that they'll fit.

I do enjoy blasting it once in a while, Stones type rock but like female vocalists too, Janis Ian, Eddie Reader and Patricia Barber. I can live without high volume full orchestra if I have to although it can be fun once every Preston Guild.

If the FTA-2000 will be a mistake in my room please tell me which of Bobs speakers will suit me better.

Thanks.
 
I recently built brines fb-20 large monitor using the same driver. They sound incredible playing acoustic instrumentation and vocals. The treble is well articulated, but very beamy on axis as with any larger full range. Bass is very natural sounding, but could use a sub to add some guts @ 60hz down. I'm guessing the LTA-2000 will sound much the same with the exception of a little more on the low end. Your plan sounds great, just avoid backing them into the corners. They will not sound good blasting stones.....as with any other full range, they struggle to differentiate overly complicated rock and end up sounding muddy.
 
Assuming that those dimensions include seating space (for at least 2?), the room might be a bit small for any 8" system.

If you want to use a Fostex, you might want to consider something using FE167E; either Bob's FB16, FT1600II, or other designs such as:


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I have these in 2 different rooms right now, one and L-shaped bedroom approx 200sq ft , the other a more conventional rectangular room, 15ftx24ft. The first is driven by either 2A3 or 300B SET, depending on my mood (3.5 & 7W respectively), and the second by Kingrex 20 watt class T. Both can play more than loud enough - and with phase plugs, I find the upper mids to as high as I can hear anymore quite smooth. Of course, some listeners might want to roll in a tweeter circa 8-12K, depending on preference.
 
Thanks for the replies, have done yet another rethink.

After much more reading, I've noticed that many of 'let's try everthing' builders keep going back to the Fostex 126/127. Maybe I should be lazy and jump to where I'm probably going to end up anyway?

The reason for wanting an 8" FR was more bass of course but tbh I get plenty of listening pleasure following bass runs and my RAMs don't do much below 60hz.

Never again am I going to berate a female for being indicisive when shopping. :)
 
Time out!

The FTA-2000 uses the alnico F200A and is a high taper rate TL. The LT-2000 uses either the Lowther DX3 or the Fostex FE207E and is a MLTL. The FTA-2000 produces gobs of bass and might well be too much for your smallish room. You might well be happier with the FT-1600 (FE167E), also a MLTL.

Bob
 
GM said:
Thanks! OK then, will using an adjustable one or removing it altogether and/or damping the TL's terminus solve typical small room gain issues?

GM

Well, it certainly might. It's just that the F200A produces such a big, lush sound, I think it would be better to go with a speaker that is known to work well in small rooms rather than risk the unknown.

Bob
 
johnthedoctor said:
Bob, apart from WAF and price, are there any audio reasons that someone would choose your FB-20 over your FT2000? Room size or driver placement issues maybe?

The bass is somewhat better controlled with the MLTL vs the BR, but because of the gradual roll-off with the BR, the bass is not boomy at all. A lot depends on how sensitive you are to group delay. Other than that, the two speakers are pretty much the same.

Please contact me by PM.

Bob
 
Bob Brines said:

Well, it certainly might. It's just that the F200A produces such a big, lush sound, I think it would be better to go with a speaker that is known to work well in small rooms rather than risk the unknown.

Other than that, the two speakers are pretty much the same.

Considering the price differential, these are pretty damning indictments against the F200A since it's a 'FR' driver's increased lower mids-up BW extension/SQ you should be paying extra for............

GM
 
I meant FT-1600 and FB-16 but your answer covers both sets, thanks.

How do you send PMs on this site? Can't find a button for it.

I don't know what I am or am not sensitive to, I'm still learning to listen. As long as they're not fatiguing and can do a bit of rock blasting once in a while I'll be happy.

I'd imagine that the RAMs aren't that sensitive but the Charlize can take the FM tuner to past whatever I want as maximum volume. The Monica dac is quieter but that can be fixed.

The new armchairs are larger than I envisioned and I like them enough to be getting the matching 3 seater sofa. A huge upright piano and an extra large suite in a small room. lol

The piano is now in the bay to make extra room. I lost a bit of bass from the RAMs (maybe a bit boomier too) but boy do the lower octaves on the piano have some welly now!

As you can see from the pic, only one option for speaker placement and I've no idea what difference the extra bit of ceiling in the bay makes.

Do you like my Wharfdale resonators? :) Beware 'temporary' solutions.
 

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johnthedoctor

If you fancy a listen to some Bibs I have a pair here on the Wirral.

Granted they have CSS drivers and are made from substandard materials but you will get the general idea of what they could do given the correct wood.

Even if you don't like them it's another design heard and your decisions narrowed down a bit.

John
 
They're made from 18mm kitchen board rather than BB ply, this seems to compromise the top frequencies. Seemingly this is a very lossy material.

Now I know what these sound like, I know it is worth spending on the good ply when budgets allow!

I've got some chipamps going on as well so you can add LM1875s and 3875s to your "heard one" list.

Shoot me an email off and I will give you locations and the like. I'm in Wallasey for my sins, only a couple of miles from the tunnel. You will need to take as you find mindst, were in the middle of dealing with some building work.

John
 
GM said:


Considering the price differential, these are pretty damning indictments against the F200A since it's a 'FR' driver's increased lower mids-up BW extension/SQ you should be paying extra for............

GM


johnthedoctor said:
I meant FT-1600 and FB-16 but your answer covers both sets, thanks.

I assumed that we were discussing the BR/MLTL that uses the FE207E.

The FE207E BR goes plenty deep and does not need a sub for normal music. The FE167E BR only goes deep enough to cover guitar/cello, and you would most likely want a sub. I really consider the FB-16 a satellite or main for HT. Both the MLTL's can be used without subs.

Bob
 
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