CSS FR125S ... production units playing now...

[planet10]

Had a little mini get togther today at Chris'. Scott & Don were down from up island, Jason, Chris, & i, and Bob Reimer made it from Abbotsford.

Once we figured out that these things drive the SE tube amps nuts we were fine... (i think every driver was in every box at least once). In the end we used Jason's miniAs and Chris' tweaked Jolida PP EL34 with Don's Grounded Grid pre....

A bipole based on Tim's WR125 TMM ML-TL and a Solo 103 inspired miniOnken.

Even with low hours*, these things are quite stunning. Everyone who has ever commented on the WR125 always says they are amazed by the bass... well i'll just have to say it again. These babies do the bottom. They did show some of the same tendency towards too much that we heard at the last RAW-fest, but in Chris' room (and mine now) they were much better. Out of the box measurements give a clue as to why... without break-in they exhibit a higher Qt than when broken in (at least for the WR samples -- FRs haven't been in the field long enuff yet)

*(drivers were being installed as people started arriving)

And they do everything else really well too... we'll reserve judgement on whether they can meet the sublime mids of an FE103EZ (hang in there Kofi), but even out of the gates they were no slouch.

During the sessions we listened to the WR125s by themselves in the miniOs, and comments were that people thought they could live with the depressed top, but the bipoles with FRs on one side & WRs on the other (scarcity of FRs & an experiment in keeping costs down) gave the opportunity to just rotate the cabs to compare... this made it quite clear what the FR did on the top that the WR was missing. This -- and the price differential -- give some real choices. If you want to add a tweeter (either as an ST or making a "real" 2-way) then save $50/pr and get the WRs... if you want to take the purist approach the FR does it by itself.

BTW... if it isn't clear, i am quite enthusiastic about these.... i am particularily impressed with the miniOs -- i can see a bipole floorstander version of these coming together.

dave

[planet10]

OK some pics...

miniOnkens ... these have some real interesting cosmetic potential (can't wait to see what Scott comes up with in solid wood)

The construction of these makes them inherently solid....

[planet10]

closer...

[planet10]

thanx go to Jason for doing photographic duties...

[planet10]

bipoles

[planet10]

close up of the back...

Again thanx to Tim for the ground-work on these... i did spend at least 4 hours running sims to end up deciding there was no point in pursuing anything else.

[planet10]

Jason's miniAs (in full UL approved format ) and the 3 SE amps that the FRs drove into conniputions (RH34, stock Decware ZEN, and the parafeed monoblok EF86/EL84 RH inspired SEs -- that all 3 amps exhibited the same problems made the problems we initially had hard to diagnose)

[planet10]

the jolida... PP EL34s strapped in triode, stuff removed, reduced feedback (i think some was put back after it was removed entirely)

[planet10]

and the Grounded Grid -- 1st time i got to see one of these. Sounded really good, and a stylin chassis.

[jleaman]

Originally posted by planet10
Jason's miniAs (in full UL approved format ) and the 3 SE amps that the FRs drove into conniputions (RH34, stock Decware ZEN, and the parafeed monoblok EF86/EL84 RH inspired SEs -- that all 3 amps exhibited the same problems made the problems we initially had hard to diagnose)

Except for the Mini a's. The speakers didn't no porblems with them.