New Fostex Range Scheduled to be Released in Jan '11

[borispm]

Hi guys,

I just browsed Fostex Japan's official web and found their product catalog by accident. Just go to page 4 of the PDF and you will see the new drivers. The 3" and 4" looks pretty promising to me, but I'm not so sure about running the 4 1/2" and larger without filters as anything above 3kHz starts to look uneven, especially the off axis. The 8" may be a nice wide-band woofer though, but definitely not a full range driver. IMO A simple inductor and capacitor crossover at 3kHz will be great for the 8" with SEAS Prestige 27TDFC as the tweeter.

Here's the link to the PDF: http://www.fostex.jp/user_file/fostex-sh/etc/SpeakerComponent2010_11.pdf

Regards,

Boris

[borispm]

By the way, the cone will be made of two layers, one being long fiber wood pulp paper composite and another layer will be made of (charcoal?!). It will be better in bass than FE83En and FF85K, and at the same time allows lower tuning frequency and smaller cabinet volume. Seems nice, except the efficiency is unprecedentedly low for a Fostex driver.

[Godzilla]

I think the new lineup looks really good! We have our low and mid Qts options... whizzer and whizzerless... the curve of the 166en looks good to me. No one said it has to be flat to sound good. Some of the drivers have spikes that will give them a personality but i'm sure they will find their fans. The 165 seems perfect to mate with a helper tweeter. I like what they are presenting us with.

Zilla

[borispm]

Godzilla,

You are right, sometimes coloration allows different "personality", and most full range drivers are not about being mechanically robust anyway, especially the Fostex ones, which still rely on decades old technologies.

Paper Cone? Checked. Overhung ferrite motor? Checked. Stamped steel frame? Checked. Cloth surround? Checked.

[IG81]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

I think the new lineup looks really good! We have our low and mid Qts options... whizzer and whizzerless... the curve of the 166en looks good to me. No one said it has to be flat to sound good. Some of the drivers have spikes that will give them a personality but i'm sure they will find their fans. The 165 seems perfect to mate with a helper tweeter. I like what they are presenting us with.

Zilla

I'm with ya on the above!

Nice lineup!

IG

[chrisb]

it's almost like they were reading our minds (or the forums )

a few thoughts

Kinda hard to tell from the resolution available on the 20 page PDF whether the UDR surround has been retained on the FF85KW (or expanded to other models), but it's heartening to know this driver will still be available, and the new FF105KW could well be a very interesting piece indeed.

Now, if anyone can translate the table posted above, or has access to full T/S parameters for the new units , the intrepid modelers can start (re)engineering enclosure designs.

As for the apparent reduction in sensitivity of 2.5dB between the old and new FF85K(W) and the in said table, it could well be a combination of more accurate measures than before, and some engineering changes in the motor/suspension components - note the 10Hz lower Fs.

Lastly (for now) - what will be most interesting will the be actual delivery dates and stocking levels of these new models. Remember how long it took for the recently revised FE -En series to reach all markets and stocks of previous and discontinued models to deplete?

[Scottmoose]

Judging from the Qo figures, the Qt will be in the ballpark of the defunct FExx7E series units.

FR graphs look to be relatively unsmoothed compared to a lot of published figures, so I doubt they're better or worse than the majority of such drivers out there. I suspect the UDR surround is AWOL though; only the FF85K of the previous range had it.

[T101]

F120A and FX120 seem pretty linear to me.

FF165 can be handled with very simple and slight correction for rising response and can be combined with a high range...

F200 looks pretty good too.

And the most other have pretty comfortable dip in the response around 500 hz... - that combined with the front baffle step can lead to absolutely linear response.

[dupyv]

Indeed the new Fostex FF lineup is good news.

Could this be "The Return of the Fonken" written by planet10 ?

Kind regards,
Yves

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by Scottmoose

I suspect the UDR surround is AWOL though; only the FF85K of the previous range had it.

to clarify, the entire pleated cone Sigma series had it as well - AFAIK, the 85K was the only "conventional" cone model with the UDR