I've tried Fostex FE126Ens and found them a waste of time. Full of nasties all over the mid to high end. Is there any full-range driver which could give a decent pair of dual-driver speakers (such as my Spendor SP2/2s) a run for their money? All I'm interested in is naturalness of sound, particularly voices, and I'm not too worried about bass extension. Be honest folks, can single drivers really outdo conventional studio monitor speakers?
Boy, did you open up a can of worms in a forum like this with this loaded question! 
I suspect that most folks in this forum will agree that for natural vocals (and you made it easy by saying bass extension is not an issue), a well-designed full range speaker is superior to almost any 2-way studio monitor with its need for a cross-over that lies right where the vocal range is.
I suspect that most folks in this forum will agree that for natural vocals (and you made it easy by saying bass extension is not an issue), a well-designed full range speaker is superior to almost any 2-way studio monitor with its need for a cross-over that lies right where the vocal range is.
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But from my experience I know that not ANY full range driver is superior. And yet the FE126En gets talked about with quite a lot of respect. I found it full of horrible high frequency resonances, with a far from flat response (more like a roller-coaster) and to cap it all, it left my ears ringing badly even after listening at moderate levels. What I want to know is whether these problems are actually inherent in the single driver concept. After all, top studios use multi-driver monitors for a reason.
The FE126EN is not known for its flat response. There are other brands with smoother curves. The cabinet mostly affects the bass, if smooth mids and treble are what you are after, a smooth response curve from the driver is a must. People also modify cones with coatings, dots, and doping to smooth things out. But having a driver that is inherently smooth to start makes things easy. There are many with a smoother response.
Since not all 2-way speakers are identical, what do you think?
Depends. There is no such thing as 'best' with wideband drivers, just as there isn't for anything else. The 126 is not a favourite of my own, some like it since it's effectively a budget Lowther in terms of behaviour & response.
'Naturalness of sound' or 'outdo conventional studio monitor speakers' unfortunately doesn't mean a great deal until you explain how you classify it. I'm going to guess from the fact that own Spendors that you will probably like a mild BBC style dip, in conjunction with a reasonably flat FR / amplitude response under practical conditions. You're not likely to favour Fostex with this set of preferences (the FX120 probably gets closest). I'd anticipate that something from Supravox or Mark Audio would suit you better. Wit $1,000/pr to spend, you could probably scrape the special edition MAOP Alpair 10 from Mark Audio, which ticks all those boxes. The caveat is that it's only made in very limited quantities (AFAIK, mine is the only pair in the West; most end up in Japan). The stock Alpairs are all worth looking at too, but you need quality amplification to get the best from all of them. Regular class A/B amps generally don't cut it. Class A, some class D & gainclones are OK. Think First Watt gear and you're on the right lines.
Depends. There is no such thing as 'best' with wideband drivers, just as there isn't for anything else. The 126 is not a favourite of my own, some like it since it's effectively a budget Lowther in terms of behaviour & response.
'Naturalness of sound' or 'outdo conventional studio monitor speakers' unfortunately doesn't mean a great deal until you explain how you classify it. I'm going to guess from the fact that own Spendors that you will probably like a mild BBC style dip, in conjunction with a reasonably flat FR / amplitude response under practical conditions. You're not likely to favour Fostex with this set of preferences (the FX120 probably gets closest). I'd anticipate that something from Supravox or Mark Audio would suit you better. Wit $1,000/pr to spend, you could probably scrape the special edition MAOP Alpair 10 from Mark Audio, which ticks all those boxes. The caveat is that it's only made in very limited quantities (AFAIK, mine is the only pair in the West; most end up in Japan). The stock Alpairs are all worth looking at too, but you need quality amplification to get the best from all of them. Regular class A/B amps generally don't cut it. Class A, some class D & gainclones are OK. Think First Watt gear and you're on the right lines.
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My all time favourite is the well known E.J. Jordan JX92s. I've tried many others, and for me this driver has it all. You always have to take compromises on fullrange speakers, and the JX92s in my humble opinion is the slightest. It is fairly small, so do not expect it to reproduce the lowest octave, but in a 8l vented enclosure it gives astonishing deep bass.
I had many fullrangers: Fostex (didn't like any), Veravox, Tangband and so on. None of them gave me the fatigue-free, balanced tonality and spatiality as the JX92s does.
Actually my Jordans are blended with a tweeter, but having the xover external i can Switch from two-way to fullrange (with active baffle step correction) any time.
More about my Speakers here.
I had many fullrangers: Fostex (didn't like any), Veravox, Tangband and so on. None of them gave me the fatigue-free, balanced tonality and spatiality as the JX92s does.
Actually my Jordans are blended with a tweeter, but having the xover external i can Switch from two-way to fullrange (with active baffle step correction) any time.
More about my Speakers here.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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I share CastleJohn's dislike for the FE126. Many Fostexes share that forward character. However I found the FF125WK a lot richer sounding (and will use a pair for a small office room system), but it is not the overall best either. Well, as others have noted, best is debatable.
My recommendation would be the Markaudio A12P. I bought a pair after a demo in the SuperPensil cabinet, which is even not the ideal cabinet for it (it was designed for the A12). I found the A12P remarkably musical, nice on voices, and also great sounding at low volumes. I have previously heard and admired some top flight full rangers from AER and Voxativ, yet the A12P is so good that you can ask yourself "why pay more". It is on a higher class than all Fostexes that I've heard (and I heard most of them), except for an impressive limited edition that I heard in Japan.
The A12P won't have the deepest bass but in a nice enclosure it will definitely have enough bass.
My recommendation would be the Markaudio A12P. I bought a pair after a demo in the SuperPensil cabinet, which is even not the ideal cabinet for it (it was designed for the A12). I found the A12P remarkably musical, nice on voices, and also great sounding at low volumes. I have previously heard and admired some top flight full rangers from AER and Voxativ, yet the A12P is so good that you can ask yourself "why pay more". It is on a higher class than all Fostexes that I've heard (and I heard most of them), except for an impressive limited edition that I heard in Japan.
The A12P won't have the deepest bass but in a nice enclosure it will definitely have enough bass.
It is possible to get good* sounds out of FE126s. Mine are fully cone treated, phase plugged, have an electrical notch filter centred ~7kHz, and anything <500Hz is taken care of by other drivers.
Given all that pampering, they can play almost anything I throw at them, with one caveat: when you turn the volume control up, they end up louder than the woofers. Turn the dials and rebalance everything, and all is well up to rather loud levels (for a teenager: probably >100dB peaks).
Of course, this usage is hardly "full-range". For that, I'd say some of Mark Audio's new drivers are very good. Or, the Fostex FF225wk (the 8" new one), once backed with a supertweeter, is also very good, and can summon dynamics that smaller drivers never will.
*IMHO
Chris
Given all that pampering, they can play almost anything I throw at them, with one caveat: when you turn the volume control up, they end up louder than the woofers. Turn the dials and rebalance everything, and all is well up to rather loud levels (for a teenager: probably >100dB peaks).
Of course, this usage is hardly "full-range". For that, I'd say some of Mark Audio's new drivers are very good. Or, the Fostex FF225wk (the 8" new one), once backed with a supertweeter, is also very good, and can summon dynamics that smaller drivers never will.
*IMHO
Chris
Much of Mark's engineering on the Alpair 12P was targeted to meet requests for higher sensitivity than his previous drivers. I think the consensus is that he quite succeeded, but not without the penalty of requiring larger enclosure volumes than other of his drivers can thrive in.
It is certainly far smoother than any of the approximately equivalent & affordable Fostex full-rangers ( F200A is in a class by itself), many of which need enclosures of equal or even larger size and complexity (i.e. BLH etc) to deliver their full potential.
When you say "low level Class A amplification" exactly what type ( SS or Tube) and power levels do you mean? For a lot of folks anything less than 30W would be considered inadequate even with a speaker in the 95dB or higher sensitivity range, while other folks would be quite comfortable with a 3-8W DHT.
Depending on the application and venue, a decent full range driver of medium to higher sensitivity is certainly adequate for a lot of domestic listeners in the single digit power range - whether or not those same systems would outdo "studio monitors" (in what regard precisely?) could be an interesting conversation.
Boy, did you open up a can of worms in a forum like this with this loaded question!
I suspect that most folks in this forum will agree that for natural vocals (and you made it easy by saying bass extension is not an issue), a well-designed full range speaker is superior to almost any 2-way studio monitor with its need for a cross-over that lies right where the vocal range is.
second that.... check out Seas F8 which i run in open baffle, and a small inductor parallel with a resistor (sorry the values escape me right now), and they fit the bill, with the exception of the price maybe ;-(
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