I just bought a pair of the Fostex Fe83En, And questions :) .

[marchel]

Hi,

I bought a pair and i should be receiving it next week or a few days from now. While waiting for it , I made a ported box for it, 6 liters or .22cu ft3 tuned to 95hz.

Is there a special method of breaking in Fostex drivers, That rewards the user with best possible sound from the drivers. Like starting with small scale music and then progressing into heavier kinds of music. or Just start the break in process with heavy metal or dance music , to give the suspension a good stretch?

Anyone can enlighten me?

BTW, I have pictures of the ported box that I made just the other day , I also have a 3 inch FF driver that have the same mounting dimension as the fe83en, I'm listening to it in my bedroom, And it sounds good, I can't wait for the fostex to arrive though, Will report back , When I have a good listen to the fostex.

[chris661]

I'd expect that it's Ok to go straight for the heavy bass stuff.

Nice connections on the back. Are you planning on finishing those cabs, or staying with the DIY look?

[marchel]

Thanks,

I will finish the box, I'm just giving it time for the mdf's edges to expand, So that I will flush trim again, before the actual finish is applied.

[Scottmoose]

Originally Posted by chris661

I'd expect that it's Ok to go straight for the heavy bass stuff.

Wrong. On the 3in Fostex units it's advisible to be gentle initially & work up to more demanding signals. Doesn't have to take a very long time, but hitting them with considerable LF energy right out of the box is not necessarily going to do them many favours. The same applies to most drivers of this size / type.

[BudP]

Chris is right and so is Scott, but I do have some cautions.

The EnABL processed drivers don't really change their sonic qualities over time. They are frozen at best possible sound by the process. You will find that room modes pretty much disappear and the sweet spot will be ginormous, as in get up and walk around without impairing the information, spatial presentation or musical balance to any sort of significant degree.

Do be aware that the drivers will not display much of any sort of compression either, until you blow the cones right out of the gap. Plus, the normal increase in distortion will not be available, as you increase the volume level. In fact, they just sound better and better the louder you play them, again, until they self destruct. The only real gauge you will have is that, if you can't hear your wife shouting at you to turn the **** things down,,,, please, they are well into self destruction realms and you will receive a lump on your head from the frying pan.

In all seriousness, the above can happen quite easily and it is probably best to just add more drivers, rather than try to limit your volume control excursions, if heavy metal at concert levels is a requirement.

Bud

[Scottmoose]

That's a point -is this an EnABL'd unit (eN) or Fostex's just-introduced FE83En (reversed nomenclature, just to make it confusing) replacement for the defunct FE83E?

[planet10]

The instructions for the Alpair 7 & 12 are a good guidline.

The Fostex are probably not quite so picky. I get a couple hundred hours on the bench with relatively low volume FM radio before i do anything with them.

Just to be picky, it is important to get the capatilization in the driver name right, it is an FE83En. I have been using FExxeN for my drivers for close to 3 years before Fostex brought out their new range. It is confusing. eN means an EnABLed FExxe driver. (i have only ever done one set of FE83e)

I think you will find that the FF85 has an edge on the new driver ... it is really a sigma series in disguise.

dave

[planet10]

Originally Posted by Scottmoose

That's a point -is this an EnABL'd unit (eN) or Fostex's just-introduced FE83En (reversed nomenclature, just to make it confusing) replacement for the defunct FE83E?

I am assumming it is the new FE83En. Only one pair of FE83eN exists (that i have done) and it was for Blumensein and in his horns AFAIK.

dave

[marchel]

The driver I just ordered is the newly introduced fe83en, I Thought I'm not going to confuse anyone, Because the fe83e isn't much talked about in Planet 10's website or in this website, But still.

I was also once confused when I bought a pair CSS fr125sr, When there was Enabled written on the sticker in the driver , It turned out that the word "enabled" implies to the motor structure of that driver being enabled with it, Then after that the latter production run of the fr125sr was change, where the word enabled was omitted to avoid confusion.

Anyway, I agree with planet 10 that the ff85k have an edge over the fe83en, at least on paper, But the ff85k was out of stock at the time I ordered the fe83en. The only advantage of the fe83en over the ff85k is that it has lower moving mass, It might sound faster, But then ,I don't know if it would account much in actual listening. Nonetheless , I will also buy a a pair of ff85k for comparison at later time, Or maybe a new N version of that driver .

[planet10]

Originally Posted by marchel

But the ff85k was out of stock at the time I ordered the fe83en.

Sorry. That was likely mostly my fault. I bought 20 of the last 30 Madisound had. I should be good for FF85KeN for a while.

dave