Affordable, good and *available* full range drivers?

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Once upon a time in DIY land, there was available from Radio Shack a US$12 full range driver that would give the legendary Lowther, worth more than 100 times that figure, a run for its money. Meanwhile, here I am down at the navel of the earth (New Zealand) seeking such an affordable, fantastic and available driver for Voigt Pipes (straight or folded) that I am about to build. :smash: :clown: Does anyone have any suggestions as to what and where? (People outside New Zealand, please don't feel left out here. Maybe your supplier can ship worldwide at little cost?)
Cheers ;)
 
well thats a myth IMHO

Not in its wildest dreams would the rat shack give a lowther <
(as bad as it is) A run for its money. I had 2 1197s and4 of the bigger ones and thought they were so ordinary that i gave them as door prizes at my hi fi open house
The fostex FE107E @ $33.50USD , @ madisound is a star,will KILL the RS, and the fostex FE167E is a shining star for value @63.50 ea,and
will kill most more expensive ones, and the Jordan Jx92S (135 ea.)will kill the fostex and most everything else price not withstanding on direct A/B, and the supravox 215 sig bicone is simply unaproachable in sound for the $ @ 335 ea.
You do get what you pay for if u shop wisely. Quality has no regrets!
In trying to find a great sounding cheap speaker sys, i spent in 5 years, 6 times
what my jordans finally cost. You are going to have 100dreds in the rest of the system , so why ruin it with a cheap speaker, money isnt that tight!:) And dont think i dont know what tight money is! Im buying my home and have the bad habit of liking to eat occasionally, and my total income is 1100/M as im retired. My music is as important to me as my home and ive had this sys with Jordans for 5 years and have heard no reason to change . I havent spent a dime on speakers for my main sys in those 5 years . Sorry if this sounds like a rant , but ive learned my lessons the long hard expensive way :)
 
I have RS, Fostex, and Lowther in my collection of full range driver. The Fostex is much better then the RS, the Lowther is a significant step above the Fostex. You get what you pay for with these drivers and the effort you put into the design of the enclosure and any compensation circuit. No short cuts or to good to be true deals. Buy the best you can afford and design a good enclosure and filter if required.
 
Keep an eye on the Buy & Sell forum on Fullrangedriver.com
http://fullrangedriver.com/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=4
There's nothing there at this moment but RS drivers show up there quite often. I picked up 4 new in-the-box Fostex FE-103E from that site at a nice discount. Also check e-bay and Planet10 Hi Fi. I know that Dave ships worldwide. You can e-mail him and ask for more details.
http://www.planet10-hifi.com/
I agree with the recommendations from Thor and MJK concerning RS, Fostex, Jordan and Lowther but I think you'll be happy with whichever you choose. The Jordan JX92S may be the best bang-for-the-buck full ranger out there even though it's now US$135.
 
www.solen.ca is in Canada. They have very afforable shipping, cheaper then when I get something shipped inside US a lot of times. Have to ask them for prices on products and shipping. Also drivers might be more expensive than at madisound.com not sure.

Hey, you guys ever try putting cross-overs in your fullrange drivers, just to see how different they sound? You know one would be a tweeter and one a woofer and x-over would be in the 2 KHz to 4 Khz range. Maybe you'll like them better this way :D
 
Hi Falcott

FWIW, Fostex are available here (in New Zealand). You can get em via Syntec, an Aussie company with a satellite office in Auckland. I just got some FT17H's from them and am blown away with their quality.

To get an idea of price, go to Madisound and check out their prices, then double them (for NZ dollar prices).

OK, so the Fostex are not Rat Shack priced drivers but there's a whole mess of diferent drivers from inexpensive-ish to Ferrari-priced, if you get my drift.

Carry on

Luigi
 
fairytales

THOR said:
well thats a myth IMHO

Well, I did start with "Once upon a time..." :angel: :D

The thing I object to is paying 4-figures for a single driver when I believe I can get something *almost* as good in the low 3's. :clown: Some people on the Single Driver site do actually rave about that R.S. 40-1354a auto speaker. Other than that, I can't comment, since I have never heard them; nor a Lowther, if it comes to that. Anyway, your rant was quite un-abnoxious Thor! I appreciate it when people who have learned the hard and expensive way pass along a little of their wisdom. I hope my path will be less hard and expensive!

Thanks everyone else too for the input.
And Luigi, for the NZ lead, cheers!
:)

All I have to decide now is whether I am going to build the Voigts straight or folded. Six foot towers might appear a bit daunting in a smallish room. Other than that, I'm guessing they might sound slightly better than folded pipes...
 
We all want the best sound and would love to be able to buy the very best drivers and try them all.

However, it is a big risk to try a new speaker design and buy the best drivers straight off. I guessed that Falcott wants to try his Voigt pipes without going into debt for the next ten years and I think in those circumstances, trying a 'budget' driver (like the one I suggersted, or the Pioneer that Nelson put up) is fully justified. If you then like what you hear, it is time to decide if you want to commit to a big-buck driver. ;)
 
All I have to decide now is whether I am going to build the Voigts straight or folded. Six foot towers might appear a bit daunting in a smallish room. Other than that, I'm guessing they might sound slightly better than folded pipes...
In my experience and that of others there is no apparent performance difference between a Voigt and a folded pipe of the same parameters, although I do like the look of the Cain & Cain Abby
 
Thanks Timn8ter.
I should really start a new thread for this question, or actually do a search, (just too busy! :xeye: ) but I have just found a spreadsheet on the web for calculating Pipe dimensions. I haven't had a close look at it, but I am interested in using the Fostex FE166E or FE206E drivers. What sort of figures do I have to enter into this spreadsheet to get the appropriate dimensions? Can anyone tell me, or should I just sit down and fiddle with the calcs for a while until it seems obvious? :confused:
;)
 
FE206E ML TL

falcott said:
Thanks Timn8ter.
I should really start a new thread for this question, or actually do a search, (just too busy! :xeye: ) but I have just found a spreadsheet on the web for calculating Pipe dimensions. I haven't had a close look at it, but I am interested in using the Fostex FE166E or FE206E drivers. What sort of figures do I have to enter into this spreadsheet to get the appropriate dimensions? Can anyone tell me, or should I just sit down and fiddle with the calcs for a while until it seems obvious? :confused:
;)


The FE206E (and 208E) has already been designed.

http://www.quarter-wave.com/Project05/Project05.html

Several people have built and the results seem favorable. The driver is a little bright without a BSC. All the details required on on that website.

Does anyone have any comments with regards to bracing this ML TL?

Cheers,
GM.
 
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