I've been working on a new MLTL cabinet for the FE166En since the FE167E went away and the 166 needs a smaller cabinet. I took the following at 0.5m in a large garage. Usually, I normalize all of the different angles to 1000Hz, but that did not fit what I was seeing, so I simple spliced at 500Hz. The bottom end below 250Hz is combined nearfield driver and port. I scaled the whole thing to match calculated SPL, so take absolute SPL with a grain of salt. All plots were smoothed 1/6 octave. (For those of you who insist that detail is lost in the smoothing, I added the raw plots.)
Above 500Hz, my on-axis plot agrees favorably with the Fostex factory plot. The 5* and 10* plots are darn near flat from 3kHz to above 15kHz. My first impressions of the 166En were that this is a very smooth sounding driver. I can see why. No peaks 5-7kHz and some 3dB of BBC dip.
So, for your enjoyment:
Above 500Hz, my on-axis plot agrees favorably with the Fostex factory plot. The 5* and 10* plots are darn near flat from 3kHz to above 15kHz. My first impressions of the 166En were that this is a very smooth sounding driver. I can see why. No peaks 5-7kHz and some 3dB of BBC dip.
So, for your enjoyment:
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Nice. Cheers for that Bob.
Quite frankly, the FE166En's have been in boxes ever since the FF165WK's hit the street. Not that the FE166En is not a good driver, just that the FF165WK sounds good to my ears and is more suitable for the cabinet I prefer.
Bob
Hi Bob, maybe it is, I guess, due to the FF166En has a higher distortion figure, so that loses favour of yours. Frankly the measurement pictures impressed me very much. For a long time, I have been looked for such a driver, but only find it here. And you tell me that yours are still in boxes, do you mean unpacked? Looked at the FF165WK datasheet. Compared with FE166En, the FF165WK looks less efficient, but extends further in the supersonic range. I have got an impression that high efficiency rarely go with low distortion side by side. That might be the case here for FE166En. By the way, what other full range drivers that you would recommend for listening to Rachmaninoff and/or Chopin's piano works? Thank you.
Geddes' research has shown that distortion is WAY down the list of things to consider when looking at a driver, So much so that he asks people who read his book to skip over that chapter.
Distortion in a driver is important, but the numbers we get with current distortion measurement schemes are close to irrelevant. Much like power ratings.
Bob's FE166 are back in their boxes because they really want to be in a horn, and Bob does not build horns.
dave
Hehe, younger folks need to go read distortion specs of tube amps from the 'golden age' plus human hearing distortion perception that the power level Vs distortion charts they based them on. Today's signal chain by comparison is as sterile as a space lab.
Since we prefer most things 'full'/'rich'/'sweet', an argument can be made to base driver choice more on 2nd harmonic distortion then frequency response.
GM
Since we prefer most things 'full'/'rich'/'sweet', an argument can be made to base driver choice more on 2nd harmonic distortion then frequency response.
GM
Hi Dave,
Amazing that you know Bob so well. I just wanted to know the distortion of this driver vs. other drivers about the same size. After reading your post above, I am wondering if I put the FE166En into a bass reflex box, would it sound worse than being in a simple air-tight enlosure of the same size. And what would the frequency response look like. The theory tells that no mater what parameter a driver have, it should have higher bass response when being in an enclosure. And if put in a bass reflex, there should be a peak at some freq. lower than the fs.
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Hi GM,
I am not a tube fan. But, it has been hear over and over again that tube amps have better sound. I think if that is due to tube amps inheretantly have more 2nd harmonics then it is against Hi-Fi. But, I understand that not all people pursuit Hi-Fi. Most just feel like to pleasing their own ears... Therefore, when evaluate some audio performance, I prefer more objective measurement than subjective judgement.
That is just not true.
It is well known that 2nd order is less audible than 3rd, and that higher orders than that can get quite objectionable in even small quantities.
A hifi amplifier has a monotonic decrease in the quantity of each harmonic, and should have vanishingly little of higher order.
It is single ended amps (tube or SS) or artfully designed PP amps that accomplish this.
As a generalization, triodes are the most linear amplification devices available (Nelson's new audio SITs have similar curves,but aren't really all that available yet).
dave
I know what kind of boxes Bob builds and i know how an FE166 does in a not-a-horn.
Here is your sim, standard set of sealed boxes and a sensible BR.
dave
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