Terry Cain's BIB -why does it work and does anyone have those Fostex Craft Handbooks?

Fostex FE103 BIB's - a few pics.

I finally finished a pair for my sister.

I took them over on the weekend.

Here they outside of their new home-
http://www.ssimicro.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=36836&g2_navId=x966fea48

in the room-
http://www.ssimicro.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=36830&g2_navId=x966fea48

a bit closer look at one-
http://www.ssimicro.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=36834&g2_navId=x966fea48

Overall they sound great with an unbelievable amount of good bass out of the tiny fe103's.

I was surprised at the different accoustics between her house and mine. I have concrete floors and not much in the way of furnishings or rugs, her place has a suspended wooden subfloor with laminate flooring and is the opposite of my 'sparse' decor.

At my place they were very bright at hers they are not.

Absolutely great bang for the buck tho - 2 fe103's, a t-amp, a cheap philips dvd player and less than a sheet of 3/4" plywood and you have good sound for under 250-

add a cheap 'pre-t' (see tnt audio for details) for about another 100 and you can hook in your tv and ipod or sat radio or whatever.

you will have better than average home theatre sound as well.

all in all a great bargain, thanks to everyone for making this design available.

Leonard
 
Hi Folks!

I'm going to attempt my first DIY project, on some BIB! Read the entire thread pretty much, but, just wanted to double check and get a couple of opinions from those who know before ordering everything!

Ok here goes,

2 options to be used with T-amp:

1/ Fostex fe167e - from what i understand, it is a 'drop in' replacement for the fe164. Which is better sonically for classical, the large or the small size on zillaspeak? Also are the measurements internal or external?

2/ Monacor sph60x - how much better if at all is the fostex? Again are the measurements on the zillaspeak site internal?

3/ I am based in Germany and can get the wood cut to size at Bauhaus and was thinking of using solid beech or eucalypt that you can buy in sheets ca 30mm thick 3000mm x 600mm for about 44 euro. Its not one piece of course but long strips glued together. Its normally used for kitchen benches etc. and looks good and I don't think has any voids like some ply.

4/ I can buy felt in differing thicknesses really easy here and wool for the base. And I'll look for cork sheeting in the craft shop down the road....!

5/ Finally....Is it better to exit the cables out the side of the boxes, direct to the amp next to the speaker chassis, rather than running the cables down and out the back to binding posts? WAF factor is no problem so long as they sound good!! yes I am a lucky man....

Looking forward to any responses...yes and no is even ok!

Cheers Stroop
 
Re: Fostex FE103 BIB's - a few pics.

leonardc said:

Here they outside of their new home-
http://www.ssimicro.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=36836&g2_navId=x966fea48

in the room-
http://www.ssimicro.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=36830&g2_navId=x966fea48

a bit closer look at one-
http://www.ssimicro.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=36834&g2_navId=x966fea48

Overall they sound great with an unbelievable amount of good bass out of the tiny fe103's.

Absolutely great bang for the buck tho - 2 fe103's, a t-amp, a cheap philips dvd player and less than a sheet of 3/4" plywood and you have good sound for under 250-

add a cheap 'pre-t' (see tnt audio for details) for about another 100 and you can hook in your tv and ipod or sat radio or whatever.

Leonard


Leonard, absolutely stunning, beautiful. I understand a preamplifier with 2 RCA inputs can be put in the t-amp mod case, any ideas?

thanks,

gychang
 
stroop said:
Hi Folks!

I'm going to attempt my first DIY project, on some BIB! Read the entire thread pretty much, but, just wanted to double check and get a couple of opinions from those who know before ordering everything!

Ok here goes,

2 options to be used with T-amp:

1/ Fostex fe167e - from what i understand, it is a 'drop in' replacement for the fe164. Which is better sonically for classical, the large or the small size on zillaspeak? Also are the measurements internal or external?

2/ Monacor sph60x - how much better if at all is the fostex? Again are the measurements on the zillaspeak site internal?

3/ I am based in Germany and can get the wood cut to size at Bauhaus and was thinking of using solid beech or eucalypt that you can buy in sheets ca 30mm thick 3000mm x 600mm for about 44 euro. Its not one piece of course but long strips glued together. Its normally used for kitchen benches etc. and looks good and I don't think has any voids like some ply.

4/ I can buy felt in differing thicknesses really easy here and wool for the base. And I'll look for cork sheeting in the craft shop down the road....!

5/ Finally....Is it better to exit the cables out the side of the boxes, direct to the amp next to the speaker chassis, rather than running the cables down and out the back to binding posts? WAF factor is no problem so long as they sound good!! yes I am a lucky man....

Looking forward to any responses...yes and no is even ok!

Cheers Stroop

Hi

1) the 1267 is a lovely unit. But you've lost me about the 'large' and 'small' sizes on Zillaspeak -I've only designed the one enclosure for use with the 166, 167, and 166ES-R. You could use it in the one for the FF165K though, if that's what you mean. All dimesnions given on the 'Zilla site are internal BTW.

2) Considerably. The Monacor is a cracking driver, and loaded correctly, a real giant killer when compared to most commercial speakers under UK £800 or so, and astounding value for money, but you still get what you pay for. If you can afford the Fostex, buy it. And a pair of Dave's phase plugs for them while you're at it.

3) Sounds fine to me. Try to use particle board (chipboard or MDF) for the internal baffle, and the rear panel though, as GM suggests.

4) That's the way to do it -don't get fleeced (sorry -terrible joke) for wool or other damping compounds by audio retailers.

5) Theoretically the best conenctor is no connector at all and an unbroken run from amp to driver. That said, I always use connectors for convenience, and I can't honestly say I believe it to be a problem. If it passes a signal, then it's done it's job. Electricity isn't that fussy. You could stick the binding posts on the side if you like, near the driver, to keep the internal cable run short. I still prefer mine down low at the bottom, but as always, YMMV. We all prefer different things.

Good luck with the project -you won't regret it!
Scott
 
Ah! Brilliant!!! Thanks!

In reference to the large and small sizes, there were 2 different dimensions for the fe164 chassis.

Large being
H=65.75
W=10
D=17.75
baffle ending 7.75 from bottom and centred.

Small being
H=65.75
W=8.5
D=14.75
baffle ending 6.25 from bottom and centred.

Oh and I assume that where the baffle ends accounts for the 1" damping material on the base. Otherwise it woould be equidistant from the front and rear and base.

I think I might do one of each and give one to my mate.

cheers and thanks a million can't wait to get started!

Stroop
 
I still don't see those dimensions... http://www.zillaspeak.com/bib-fostex.asp I might have suggested them somewhere on this thread, but the ones on the 'Zilla site superceed those.

Re the internal baffle, it should be eqidistant from the front & rear internal walls and the base. The 1in or so of material on the base requires no adjustment to the cabinet dimensions.

Scott
 
Re: Re: Fostex FE103 BIB's - a few pics.

Scottmoose said:
Nice. Are these downward or upward venting?

Best
Scott

They are upward venting.

I made the base first and since I made the speaker walls 48" high with a 'floor' at the 42.5" as per the plans, I thought that it would be best not to totally enclose the 'extra' bottom section with the base. As things developed I then decided to raise the cabinets above the base a bit (I did this by gluing a piece of wood at the front and the back inside this extra space running up to the 'floor' and down about 3/4" beyond the cabs and attaching the base to that) so the odd shaped base was not really necessary. If I were to do again I would make the base wider at the back than it is now so that it was the width of the cabinets.




gychang said:



Leonard, absolutely stunning, beautiful. I understand a preamplifier with 2 RCA inputs can be put in the t-amp mod case, any ideas?

thanks,

gychang


I don't know - you likely can but I am not much at electonics diy.

FYI - the 'pre-t' that I refer to is here -
http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-preamp_e.html

available here-
http://www.phonopreamps.com/

It is quite small so I am certain a clever person could combine with a t-amp in a small enclosure.

Hope that helps

Leonard
 
Hi Scott,

FE164 dims, small and large on post 170 pag.17 .

Received Monacor's drivers, I'm breaking-in the two couples in a rough cab and, for the record, the SPH 68X/AD seems much better in every respect to the SPH 60X.

As far as I'll finished the proper cab I'll sum-up the comparison.

1 Question: CAT5 recipe for full-range drivers? I've searched on this forum and on others, some people likes CAT5, some others don't....
Just for an initial try I'd like to make some of those speakers cables because I retrived KM's of CAT after the Olimpics (not FEP insulated, but free....)

Scott, I think you're a CAT fancier....any "alchemy"?

Ciao. Fab.
 
Aha! Thanks for that. I knew I'd done something for the 164 at some stage. FWIW, I'd use the 167 dims on the zilla page, but these two should also work well enough.

Thanks for the gen re the 68/AD -will hav eto look into that at some point. Looks like it has a bit more at the top end. I'll look forward to your comparison.

Cat5? I use a single pair of twisted 24AWG conductors extracted from a run of the stuff regularly as internal wire, and as speaker cable, to horns, as it's as good as anything else you're likely to use, especially with the lower Q drivers as it gives some of series resistance without needing to mess around with resistors. Very cheap too. Magnet wire is another option -similar results. Works well with my 165 BIBs and the double horns with 126s.
 
Hi Scottmoose!

Just a quick question again.....when you say the dimensions, do you mean;

L=136in
Zdriver=27.5
Sm=87.75in square

or are there box dimensions somewhere else for fe167e that I've overlooked.
If that is the case then the line length I can understand but then mouth (Sm) needs to be alot smaller than that of the dimensions above.(8.5x14.75 = Sm125.35in square) It could be I'm a bit/alot inexperienced or am confused and trying to make calculations all wrong. If I made the boxes with the below dimensions would that be right?

H=67in
W=7in
D=12.5in
baffle ending 6.25 from the bottom and centred.

Again thanks for the info!!! I'll definately use chip board for the baffle!

Cheers Stroop
 
Right. You can go a little larger if you like, but the one on the 'Zilla pages is my finalised version for the FE16x series. Those all use internal measurements. The ones on the early pages of this thread are less good / accurate, but should still work. If in doubt, use the 'Zilla pages.

When we say 'drop in replacement' we (well, I) actually mean 'it'll work well in the same cabinet'; not necessarily that it will perform identically. In some cases, it will be better; others a little worse. Any of the cabinets should work well to be honest, so whichever takes your fancy really.

Baa. ;)

Scott
 
That'll be the gremlins then. They haunt the electronic waves, dressed as hippos in small green furry hats, and cause untold trouble, particularly to those who frequent audio boards. True you know. Every word. By the way, custard is made from gelignite.

178 BIB.

Line 128in
Zdriver 26.5in
Sl=76.375in^2
 

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