FH3 - I've moved house and now they sound, not so awesome :(

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We are always trying to achieve better, no?

It depends what you mean by 'better'.

The wire suggestion I raised some years ago on this thread must be read in the context of the thread, and was purely for the object of using its electrical characteristics (a small amount of distributed series R) to help address a specific problem that had been encountered. If you have that same issue, it may be worth you trying. Carefully. If you do not, I see no purpose in it at all.
 
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It depends what you mean by 'better'.

The wire suggestion I raised some years ago on this thread must be read in the context of the thread, and was purely for the object of using its electrical characteristics (a small amount of distributed series R) to help address a specific problem that had been encountered. If you have that same issue, it may be worth you trying. Carefully. If you do not, I see no purpose in it at all.
What is the magnitude of the loop (distributed) resistance of the magnet wire you advocate ?.


Dan.
 
Hi,
"Magnet wire" is in fact a "bandaid" in this case, because it introduces additional resistance, which, in this case, might be beneficial. I also noticed that fullrange drivers sound better with amplifiers that have higher output impedance, usually tube ones, but could also be solid-state (I am using Pass F2) and I have set the output impedance to around 15 ohms.
You can "simulate" this by adding a 15 ohm resistor in series between an SS amp and a speaker. Burn a few watts, but that's the price. Try it.
P.s. see an example of "magnet wire" albeit a thicker one :)
 

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Depends where they are in the room. With the 126, corner loading is all but mandatory to get reasonable LF gain, & even then it's never going to have large amounts of output on the bottom end except in extremely lively rooms. If they're not in corners & you can change the layout a bit to get them there, then that will help a bit. Otherwise we need to consider other things.

The Arcam amplifier is not really ideal for the FE126En since it has a low output impedance (or high damping factor if you prefer). The 126, like all the En / ESigma Fostex range, was specifically designed for use with high output impedance amplification (SET / DHT, or equivalent single-ended SS designs like those of Nelson Pass). The Tubelabs amp kit should help there. In the meantime, until that's up & running, you don't say what speaker wire you have, but you could swap it out for something like 30ga magnet wire. Just be careful since it's very delicate. Use one strand each to the positive & negative legs. The additional (distributed) series resistance should help matters, and the fact that it's solid core doesn't hurt either. If you want to keep things neat, space them about 1/2in apart between a couple of pieces of tape, or alternatively get some pieces of dowel rod, balsa or whatever, drill a couple of holes in each piece & slide half a dozen or so along each pair to keep them together & give a little extra mechanical support. You can do the same with 'larger' gauges like a pair of 24ga conductors extracted from a run of Cat5, but the lower resistance will provide less compensation. With thin conductors like these, keep an eye that they don't heat up too much (obviously), and take care not to scratch through the enamel insulation (except at the ends of course ;) ).

Beyond that, we're into changing drive units for something with more LF output, e.g. the Mark Audio CHR / CHP / Alpair 7 units, or one of the 4in Tang Band models e.g. the W4-1320.
That sounds like recommending/advocating magnet wire to me, that's why I asked about the loop resistance of your experiments.

Of course the wide conductor spacing causes (relatively) high impedance and also constitutes an antenna, not usual audio practice.


Dan.
 
For crying out loud, it was a basic suggestion for the OP to try in his specific circumstances until such a time as permanent changes could be made, exploiting the [distributed] series R in the circuit and the potential for slightly higher inductance. It is not supposed to be proscriptive, not meant to provide specific recommendations for specific amounts of resistance or inductance given the innate variability of individual requirements: it was just a suggestion for a quick and inexpensive temporary experiment. I don't quite understand why you are trying to read more into it.
 
Of course, the aim is not to turn this discussion into a "cable war".
But it really shows how important the room is. Something that sounds excellent in one room might sound disapointing in another.
I would suggest trying a subwoofer, just to hear if it can help. Due to problematic room modes, it can happen that an Open Baffle could yield more bass at the listening position than a boxed speaker....
 
Quite. As might have been noticed, I am hardly riddling posts with subjectivist prose about the supposed universal wonders of bits of connecting wire and advocating that all must immediately rush out and do xyz. It was merely a suggestion for something the OP could try as a stop-gap fix for a given issue, as it is quick and costs very little. If it helped, great. If it didn't, well, not a lot lost other than an hour and a couple of quid. Since circumstances inherently vary with driver, room, room construction, enclosure design & position within the room, amplifier and personal taste, there is no one-size-fits-all to applying some series R and a bit of inductance. That is where the 'Y' in 'DIY' comes in; you do whatever suits a given situation.

Bit late in the day for recommendations to the OP now however -this was back in 2013. Undead thread: it's returned from the grave. :vampire:
 
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Unless you have the specific issue the OP did, which unless you are running FE126En drive units in FH3 with a low output impedance amplifier and insufficient room coupling, there is zero point in trying 30ga wire for speaker level connections. I did not suggest it for random experimentation, but purely to help address the aforementioned conditions as a temporary measure. It will not be beneficial to performance (more likely detrimental) unless you have a similar issue.
 
And your skills at stripping and soldering enameled #30 magnet wire. Not all of us have solder pot on hand - which can make quicker work of melting off that coating than trying to scrape with exactly knife or steel-wool.
#24 solid from CAT5/6 cable is about as thin as I care to go.
 
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