What to do next...

[chriscox]

Hello,

I built a pair of the Fostex recommended enclosures for the FE167E (the port-in-the-stand one) about 8 months back and I've now got the itch to build something new.

My listening is mainly during the evening at low levels due to children and neighbors and this limits me (not in a bad way) to the likes of Neil Young, John Denver, Nick Drake - lots of acoustic stuff mainly. All heavy rock is confined to my van during the day unfortunately.

This is done in a approximately 11’ wide by 15’ long room with an 8’ high ceiling. The speakers are at the end of the long-end with the listening position being about 9’ away. There is not a lot of space available between the speakers and the corners.

The speakers are driven by my attempt at Gary Kaufman’s 6EM7 SET so not a lot of power here – although more than enough for my needs at the moment.

I've obtained plans for Bob Brines's FT-1600 which seems fairly straight forward and I've also looked at the Half-Chili's. I've also been reading about the smaller drivers (FE126 and 127) and their merits in terms of treble and midrange and wondered if they'd offer any advantage over the 167's.

Things I don’t like about my current speakers are that the Bass is a bit boomy, the vocals aren’t always as coherent as I’d like and the highs seem a bit screechy (hope I’m not being too picky here!). I get the feeling that they’d do better in a bigger room with more space – which is why I’m also wondering about the smaller units.

I’ve already looked at the above designs and I’m also interested in the ‘Venom’ design on the FH site. There also appears to be a variation of this called ‘Popeye’ which is mentioned elsewhere on this site but isn’t listed on the FH site (not that I can see anyway) – from an aesthetic point of view, this looks quite nice.

Any comments on the above or suggestions for any other designs you think would be appropriate would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[hm]

Hello chriscox,

my Posaune double horn would be a solution,
you need two driver Fe166E and yours.

or you will get smaller driver look the Kornett

[chris661]

Cool. Another Chris.

Ok, first off, lets try sorting out that bass. A lot of people here will disagree with me here, but go get a pair of socks, put a sock (loosely) in each bass port, and experiment with quantity/type of sock/how tightly you pack the sock into the port. I found hiking socks best, pushed in loosely, a pair per port.

As for midrange and treble, try changing listening heights, positions etc (you'll probably already have done this), as off-axis response is a lot different to on-axis.

I know little about fostex drivers (they're expensive and I'm 15 with a high-power amp ), so I can't advise there.

Chris from Lancashire (you know, that Lancashire)