FF85-wk (new one) or FE83 for Quick Summer Project?

[karmik]

In the month of august i'm gonna build a very quick Bass Reflex enclosure, and i'm now shopping for a driver. I'm gonna follow Fostex reference design for the small BR enclosure published in FE83's datasheet OR the one in the FF85-WK datasheet.

From my trusted ebay shop, i see that the FE83 and the FF85-WK differ in price by only 10 euros. Considering the enclosure will not be anything fancy (no fonken [sadly] nor any other weird setup, just a simple bass reflex) and will sit on a working desktop, which one is the most suited given the price difference is minimal?

Stats for both enclosures are:

FE83En

• Inner Dimensions: 160x160x270
• Volume = 6 liters
• Fb= 90hz

FF85-WK

• Inner Dimensions: 108x149x223
• Volume = 3.5 liters
• Fb = 92hz

I'm obviously not looking for live stage bass here, but i'd like a decently performing speaker for a tight place with roughly 50 cm between the source and the listening ears. Is there a clear winner in a bass-reflex setup between these two in your opinion?

I chose fostex because i'm very happy with a pair of FE126En i built 3 years ago, in the same kind of BR enclosure (obviously bigger) from the datasheet. Now i'm looking for a smaller setup to fit my work place.

I'm not really good at reading speaker stats, but it seems to me the FF85 has overall better parameters. I wonder if they can make up for the much smaller enclosure?

The smaller enclosure would definitely improve the WAF factor of this project, but if the quality i'll get will be blatantly worse i'm willing to go with the FE83 and the bigger enclosure.

I searched a bit on the forum but i didn't find a straight comparison between these two, only between their bigger brothers (FF225-WK and FE206En).

Any feedback would be appreciated.

They will be driven by an Arjen Helder TA2020 Class D MKII Module, which should be more than enough.

Thanks for your time

[planet10]

I did a lot of modeling with the FE83En and could get nothing that looked decent with bass gong to less than 150 Hz.

I'd use the FF85.

dave

[karmik]

Thanks a lot I've been reading your posts for a while and i know a knowledgeable opinion when i see one! Ordering them now

[ssportclay]

Originally Posted by planet10

I did a lot of modeling with the FE83En and could get nothing that looked decent with bass gong to less than 150 Hz.

I'd use the FF85.

dave

Interestingly, the Fostex recommended cabinet for the FE83En is a double bass reflex design.This driver might produce some bass in a front firing back loaded horn that looked something like a scaled down Sperrin. This could make for a very cute horn but what's the point? Why not just build the Sperrin?

[karmik]

For space reasons i excluded the double-br setup for the FE83.

I'm currently building the box for the FF85 that arrived a couple weeks back. Also in the process of making them "active": Putting in them a TA2020 chinese board, a ChuMoy for headphones and a PCM1704 dac board for a full featured pair of high quality active speakers

Are the Sperrin one of those "must make" designs that i sometimes see around here?

[Scottmoose]

Oh well, 0318 BST (local time) here & the dreaded insomnia has arrived.

I've yet to figure any real use for the FE83En, other than as a mid-tweet. Trying to extract any real LF from a 3in is a bit of an oxymoron at the best of times, but this one is very much a case of 'forget it.' There are no decent practical reflex alignments, and the theoretical useful horn loaded BW is from 129.52Hz - 210.2Hz.

[karmik]

I guess the cone is so small that no amount of fostex magic can save it.

I recently re-listened to the pair of FE126 i built 3 years ago and i can say that their bass in a simple BR enclosure satisfy me sitting at the same table. From a bit further away, not so much.

[Scottmoose]

The cone is the same size as the FF85WK. The main issue is the high Fs and Qe, which prevents any reasonably balanced vented alignment.

[ssportclay]

Originally Posted by karmik

For space reasons i excluded the double-br setup for the FE83.

I'm currently building the box for the FF85 that arrived a couple weeks back. Also in the process of making them "active": Putting in them a TA2020 chinese board, a ChuMoy for headphones and a PCM1704 dac board for a full featured pair of high quality active speakers

Are the Sperrin one of those "must make" designs that i sometimes see around here?

I suppose the Sperrin could be one of those "must make" designs but its still very new. This slightly smaller front firing cousin to the Frugal-Horn MK3 has never been built.

[Scottmoose]

Who told you that?

Just to clarify, Sperrin has little in common with FH3, since it's load design and internal configuration are very different, and it has in fact been built.