my new bib related webpage

[just a guy]

Originally Posted by Scottmoose

Yep, nice site indeed.

Thanks, and please let me know if you spot any more errors.

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by just a guy

Chris, we went through all this in the frugel-horn thread. About 20 pages worth. I tried everything you mentioned and so so much more. I don't want to go through all that again, so suffice it to say it's not panel resonances and it's not improper placement causing the massive twin midbass peaks - which are my main complaint. It's simply an undersized horn and no amount of tweaks, deflectors or careful room placement is going to completely fix it.

I have a lot of respect for everyone involved (including you of course) and their other published works so I hope we can just agree to disagree on the FH and let it go.

done

If I may ask a few of questions re the BIB project - much written on your site on the measures, etc, but not much about the subjective evaluation.

Pardon me if this has been discussed elsewhere, but what are your impressions? The one photo on the site that shows your system setup doesn't give much of a clue as to position in relation to the 3 corner boundaries. How much variation in bass extension and ripple did you hear with different placements relative to the back wall? - i.e. was there an optimal distance?


Have you had much experience with the CSS FR/WR125, which is hinted that you might try in a BIB ? If not, perhaps you're unaware that even though they may possess "more regular" or smoother specs than the FE126E, one disturbing characteristic is their performance when X-Max is exceeded. Based on several of my own builds with them, I'd describe it as ungraceful, particularly in larger, less than critically damped vented enclosures.

[just a guy]

I like the BIBs a lot. The picture you are referring to shows them in the living room, where they spent about a day. IIRC none of the speakers I've tried there sounded any good. Now, they sit in the front corners of a room that's 14.25 x 11.25 x 7.5 feet. It's a terrible little room as well but it's what I have. The boxes are so large and imposing that I've never had them away from the corners. They sit about 1 or 2 baseboard widths away from the walls, tight in the corners.

I reviewed the BIBs quickly in the BIB thread awhile ago, and at that point they had a whole lot more stuffing in them. Measurements taken then compared to the measurement posted on the webpage (with very little stuffing) show the stuffing provides a much smoother response, with the peaks rounded off significantly. I use parametric eq to flatten everything out a bit and counter some of the effects of the room modes.

In these boxes, I have tried the Pioneer A11, Fostex FE108E Sigma, FE126E, and CSS FR125. The A11 didn't last long since it needed a tweeter and I didn't want to mess with that. Also, we measured the A11 fs at 113 or so (IIRC) so a bit too high to be a good match for these boxes. The 108 was soon abandoned in search of more bass and more treble, and it's fs is a bit high too. The 126 had a 90 hz fs and surprisingly high .41 qts but was clearly the best match so far. And then I very briefly tried the CSS on loan. I liked it but didn't have too much time with them. Can't declare a winner either, since it was days in between listening to the CSS and Fostex.

Beyond that I don't have much subjective to say except that the performance is impressive considering the driver size but size is somewhat prohibitive. For most material no sub is needed, but they only get down to 50 hz or so.