Moose Madness! I love it. Scott, you can blame it on the Black Flies. They are the cause of the madness of The Moose...
Pano'man...
I always saw the Mega Hemps as sort of 'Jacobean" panelling, so you are on the same track as I with regard to their size. At their given depth, against the wall, in the "right" room, I think they would melt into their surroundings. Using good wood or veneer on the front baffle would really set the tone in that room... Also, having become well accustomed to the hemp sound, I think those would be The Killer load for the hemps, a gorgeously rounded tone to these things! They can handle --and do welcome lots of current, yet can run wonderfully well with a couple o watts' SET, and I suspect that due to the nature of the cone material, they keep improving with wear. I cannot imagine the improvements to be wrought with the addition of Dave's phase plugs, and maybe some judicious tweaking of the whizzzer, maybe even removing it and adding a nice supertweeter horn. The sound of the hemp cone is so good that the whizzer's presence is totally outclassed, IMO...when I removed the whiz, the cone still hangs in until ~7.5KHz... If you have the ability to contour to taste/room, I suspect the 2001 Hemp monster would really be pretty hard to beat. I would have built them for real a long time ago, were it not for condo life.
Kensai..
You could think about building the FF225K BIB to as size you and yours can stick, then contour the sound to taste. I haven't heard those drivers, but I know a couple of people with expert opinions on the matter, who believe Fostex were pretty damn successful in their attempt to come up with an inexpensive clone of the JBL LE-8. You can't beat that!! Possibly the 225K is the unsung hero of the 8 inch wideband parade.
Pano'man...
I always saw the Mega Hemps as sort of 'Jacobean" panelling, so you are on the same track as I with regard to their size. At their given depth, against the wall, in the "right" room, I think they would melt into their surroundings. Using good wood or veneer on the front baffle would really set the tone in that room... Also, having become well accustomed to the hemp sound, I think those would be The Killer load for the hemps, a gorgeously rounded tone to these things! They can handle --and do welcome lots of current, yet can run wonderfully well with a couple o watts' SET, and I suspect that due to the nature of the cone material, they keep improving with wear. I cannot imagine the improvements to be wrought with the addition of Dave's phase plugs, and maybe some judicious tweaking of the whizzzer, maybe even removing it and adding a nice supertweeter horn. The sound of the hemp cone is so good that the whizzer's presence is totally outclassed, IMO...when I removed the whiz, the cone still hangs in until ~7.5KHz... If you have the ability to contour to taste/room, I suspect the 2001 Hemp monster would really be pretty hard to beat. I would have built them for real a long time ago, were it not for condo life.
Kensai..
You could think about building the FF225K BIB to as size you and yours can stick, then contour the sound to taste. I haven't heard those drivers, but I know a couple of people with expert opinions on the matter, who believe Fostex were pretty damn successful in their attempt to come up with an inexpensive clone of the JBL LE-8. You can't beat that!! Possibly the 225K is the unsung hero of the 8 inch wideband parade.
Is the new full range 6" hemp out yet?
>>> (2) spend that 250 on drivers with a Q suitable for multiple alignments, so you can rebuild in the future
That is good advice! I've built several cabinets for my fostex 168s... three ported (small, med and large), a bk161 back horn, a straight pipe and they are now waiting (and waiting...) for their bib to be finished.
Fortunately i have a pair of 127e's to enjoy as well as Pioneer/Piezo... maybe that's why the bib is taking me so long... i still have good sound at home or at the office.
Peace,
Godzilla
>>> (2) spend that 250 on drivers with a Q suitable for multiple alignments, so you can rebuild in the future
That is good advice! I've built several cabinets for my fostex 168s... three ported (small, med and large), a bk161 back horn, a straight pipe and they are now waiting (and waiting...) for their bib to be finished.
Fortunately i have a pair of 127e's to enjoy as well as Pioneer/Piezo... maybe that's why the bib is taking me so long... i still have good sound at home or at the office.
Peace,
Godzilla
Nothing like getting mostly satisfied with your sound to sap your motivation to use up your few free moments working on improving it 
Like I said, I'm occupied for the month, and then I've got a couple projects (the B3S BiBs and line arrays made from Monsoon panels and 6"x9" auto woofers) in line, then all that's left is solving the budget issue (if I had a real budget, I probably would have already just bought a pair of MMG-Ws and converted my exisitng cab space into subs )
dmason, so you're telling us that the Hemps take well to a complete whizzer-ectomy? Sounds like that might be a good replacement for my current 8'ers (kind of a stealth upgrade). Bet they'd look hot with light colored wood or aluminum phase plugs, and sound even better. You got a link to a source in the US? I need to price them.
Kensai
Like I said, I'm occupied for the month, and then I've got a couple projects (the B3S BiBs and line arrays made from Monsoon panels and 6"x9" auto woofers) in line, then all that's left is solving the budget issue (if I had a real budget, I probably would have already just bought a pair of MMG-Ws and converted my exisitng cab space into subs
)dmason, so you're telling us that the Hemps take well to a complete whizzer-ectomy? Sounds like that might be a good replacement for my current 8'ers (kind of a stealth upgrade). Bet they'd look hot with light colored wood or aluminum phase plugs, and sound even better. You got a link to a source in the US? I need to price them.
Kensai
Kensai-
I am saying that in my opinion, the hemp cone itself is soooo smooth, it deserves to have its whizzers cut out. Like bad adenoids on a good tenor. Having said that, the FR8 whizzes with the best of the lot. Really nice sparkle... Just my opinion that the cone is beyond having a whizzer attached to it. The whiz is not made of hemp, and I don' know if that even matters, just that the whiz is totally outclassed by the cone. It is a power driver, and in that big a$$ load of Dr Moose's, it would excel.
I have used it with Vinnie's Signature 30 watt T-amp-from-hell, and it really sounds great. Also fantastic with 2 watts 6DN7, 45, 13EM7 it all sounds great.
Last I saw they came down abit in price. www.e-speakers.com
I am saying that in my opinion, the hemp cone itself is soooo smooth, it deserves to have its whizzers cut out. Like bad adenoids on a good tenor. Having said that, the FR8 whizzes with the best of the lot. Really nice sparkle... Just my opinion that the cone is beyond having a whizzer attached to it. The whiz is not made of hemp, and I don' know if that even matters, just that the whiz is totally outclassed by the cone. It is a power driver, and in that big a$$ load of Dr Moose's, it would excel.
I have used it with Vinnie's Signature 30 watt T-amp-from-hell, and it really sounds great. Also fantastic with 2 watts 6DN7, 45, 13EM7 it all sounds great.
Last I saw they came down abit in price. www.e-speakers.com
Talk about a Wall of Sound!
It certainly would create a great movie experience as well as define a lovely den space… nice veneer and all on those lovely large cabinets… right in front of your nose yet nearly invisible. Almost like in wall speakers…
You’d need a center and rears as well tho… so there’s more to this system yet to come…
It certainly would create a great movie experience as well as define a lovely den space… nice veneer and all on those lovely large cabinets… right in front of your nose yet nearly invisible. Almost like in wall speakers…
You’d need a center and rears as well tho… so there’s more to this system yet to come…
..."almost like in-wall speakers." This is exactly my point, Jeff. The difference is that these "in-wall" speakers would Thunder.
Who doesn't like good wood panelling, and on a long wall, you could put a large shelf like those nice IKEA ones, which would match well with stained Cherry veneer Mega Hemps. These drivers are no shrinking violet either, and they would do serious justice to something that size. With a slight toe-in, they would offset the "squareness" of the room, and in my experience, this makes an aesthetic difference for the better.
Someone please build these
They also make a Rickenbacker bass sound better than I have ever heard it, and Chris Squire uses 8 of the 10 inch Tone Tubbys in his Ampeg cab, backing up my observation. Steve Howe is also a hemp convert, with 2-12's in his Fender Twins for that BIG Yes sound. Can they be wrong?
Who doesn't like good wood panelling, and on a long wall, you could put a large shelf like those nice IKEA ones, which would match well with stained Cherry veneer Mega Hemps. These drivers are no shrinking violet either, and they would do serious justice to something that size. With a slight toe-in, they would offset the "squareness" of the room, and in my experience, this makes an aesthetic difference for the better.
Someone please build these
They also make a Rickenbacker bass sound better than I have ever heard it, and Chris Squire uses 8 of the 10 inch Tone Tubbys in his Ampeg cab, backing up my observation. Steve Howe is also a hemp convert, with 2-12's in his Fender Twins for that BIG Yes sound. Can they be wrong?
dmason said:
Someone please build these
I think I might. But not sure if the Hemp 8 is what I want, might go with a larger driver.
Chief Brody:
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
GM:
"You're gonna need a bigger speaker."
Been cogitating on it. These are big, for sure. About 9 or 10 cubic feet. But they could become the next best thing to in wall speakers.
Godzilla said:
Greets!
You know me, anything worth doing is worth doing to excess!
Yep, with portability being the key benefit, plus they can act as angled baffle 'wings', so a CC may not be required even with the lastest movies that are mixed with the L/R mains as primarily surrounds.
GM
Pano'
One thing i really like about the FR8 is the fact that their sound belies their size. They sound BIG. They want a BIG enclosure, the bigger the better...they sound like something larger.
If I were to use a larger driver I would think about something like the Altec 604. Why screw around, huh Greg? A BIB for a 604 Wall Of Sound. I wonder what one of those look like?
Or, http://www.assistanceaudio.com has some nice deals on Ciare and BMS.
One thing i really like about the FR8 is the fact that their sound belies their size. They sound BIG. They want a BIG enclosure, the bigger the better...they sound like something larger.
If I were to use a larger driver I would think about something like the Altec 604. Why screw around, huh Greg? A BIB for a 604 Wall Of Sound.
I wonder what one of those look like? Or, http://www.assistanceaudio.com has some nice deals on Ciare and BMS.
Greets!
Indeed! I've tried several times to get a 604 owner to make either BIBs or mass loaded ones, but they all suffered from a 'green' infection that wouldn't allow them to deviate too far from Altec's design philosophy since they figured that Altec would have done it if it had been worth doing.
GM
Indeed! I've tried several times to get a 604 owner to make either BIBs or mass loaded ones, but they all suffered from a 'green' infection that wouldn't allow them to deviate too far from Altec's design philosophy since they figured that Altec would have done it if it had been worth doing.
GM
The Final Frontier.
Every time I venture onto Ebay, I find myself looking at AlNiCo coaxials of the Altec strain. Let me ask, what should I be looking at?
My new spinner is a Sony Playstation, $5. There is abit left over in the audio kitty, for some o' dem... they could go in the garage/cave, I suppose, but they wouldn't make it through "The Gauntlet."
Every time I venture onto Ebay, I find myself looking at AlNiCo coaxials of the Altec strain. Let me ask, what should I be looking at?
My new spinner is a Sony Playstation, $5. There is abit left over in the audio kitty, for some o' dem... they could go in the garage/cave, I suppose, but they wouldn't make it through "The Gauntlet."
talk to the tub e wrangler, (or rather listen).
old mr. freaker once told me of the altec 604, citing that it had the "speed" that the banana plant stuff never could.
while I have heard alot of speed come from the banana plant fibre, I always find myself frustrated with the tone of new drivers. new meaning under two years old. yes, like a good musical instrument, the tone develops slowly and surely. there is alot of destressing that needs to happen. I have been thinking of ways to do this. terry tried cryoing, and yes, there were tonal improvements. half the drivers were destroyed, and the ones that survived had to be glued back together. I think that the added weight of the glue is what made the sound nicer. slows things down. its the surest way to get good tone. deemphasise the magnet too cone ratio. while the fostex stuff is indeed very high speed, the shrinking of the cochlea that results from the tone closes off our ability to hear that speed perhaps. that they siimply show us too much information. get an inherently nice sounding driver and we will want to listen to every musical note. attention is the buried factor of perceived detail to me. very important.
I think this is the realm of the hemp tone perhaps? it seems to have an easier operating magnetic circuit - not being so nervous with amplifiers, cables, more forgiving. is it as detailed as the 206es-r for instance? as dynamic (excluding enclosure). I am looking for a solid description here. my friend is considering an el34-hemptone(BR) combo.
when I finally get out of school I want to play with destressing processes with the banana stuff. suspended over hot water in a bucket hooked up to a computer program designed to stress the excursion at low frequencies... eh who knows. I need free reign to do research.
freaker also cited a recommended amp being powered by a motorcycle battery and using mosfet circuitry. produced 35% thd and sounded like none. I will try this some day.
I listened to his tube system at a show. those big altec boxes. it was nice. definitely has its own style of presentation. almost too 3-d for me. exaggerated dynamics seemingly. let it be known however, that I did find it to be very pleasing to listen to for a long long time... it does not fatigue. the whole room made sound as is only the realm of big drivers. the thing that stuck me the most about his system was its ability to describe a very long decay... giving an immense lushness to the whole thing. I have never heard a 604 outside of this realm, and I feel that his amps had alot to do with the presentation, which was really nice, but definitely within its own paradigm. I do tip my hat to the man. there aint enough people who try to artistically describe sound with their components. too much adherence to standards and such out there.
which leads me to mention the altec in a BIB.
the 604 is a nice driver. gets to that horn realm of direct radiators because it really is one. back horn load the bass, darnit if it would not bring tears...
ME thinks that the best version would be easy to determine. latest alnico manufactured by altec from what I gather from a bit of looking around. I forget the model number though.
they are made new as well, but it looks like ceramic magnets. I would like to hear the penultimate alnico altec versus the "new" version back to back. some say they are comparable, that the new one might even be a little better, having dealt with the frequency anomoly at 2-4k. my instincts tell me to look more at the astrologically ideal implimentation of each driver. if there are different TS things going on, one might be more desirable for the horn than the other.
alnico....mmmmm.... I want to play with the 208es-r. 2 main features I cant wait to see is the honking alnico - for speed, the radial making - which gets rid of most of the tonal disadvantages to full range. I am still chasing horn dynamics from direct radiators. darnit if the special edition fostex stuff does not get pretty close, and pretty scary to a central idea of balance in sonic reproduction. near monitor tone from a fullrange 1. alot of the front horny dudes out there scoff at the full range stuff. all i gots to say is imaging. darnit if I do not like front horns though. ugggg. I love them.
oh yeah,, I finally got back my baby horns to play with... muahaha
Clark
old mr. freaker once told me of the altec 604, citing that it had the "speed" that the banana plant stuff never could.
while I have heard alot of speed come from the banana plant fibre, I always find myself frustrated with the tone of new drivers. new meaning under two years old. yes, like a good musical instrument, the tone develops slowly and surely. there is alot of destressing that needs to happen. I have been thinking of ways to do this. terry tried cryoing, and yes, there were tonal improvements. half the drivers were destroyed, and the ones that survived had to be glued back together. I think that the added weight of the glue is what made the sound nicer. slows things down. its the surest way to get good tone. deemphasise the magnet too cone ratio. while the fostex stuff is indeed very high speed, the shrinking of the cochlea that results from the tone closes off our ability to hear that speed perhaps. that they siimply show us too much information. get an inherently nice sounding driver and we will want to listen to every musical note. attention is the buried factor of perceived detail to me. very important.
I think this is the realm of the hemp tone perhaps? it seems to have an easier operating magnetic circuit - not being so nervous with amplifiers, cables, more forgiving. is it as detailed as the 206es-r for instance? as dynamic (excluding enclosure). I am looking for a solid description here. my friend is considering an el34-hemptone(BR) combo.
when I finally get out of school I want to play with destressing processes with the banana stuff. suspended over hot water in a bucket hooked up to a computer program designed to stress the excursion at low frequencies... eh who knows. I need free reign to do research.
freaker also cited a recommended amp being powered by a motorcycle battery and using mosfet circuitry. produced 35% thd and sounded like none. I will try this some day.
I listened to his tube system at a show. those big altec boxes. it was nice. definitely has its own style of presentation. almost too 3-d for me. exaggerated dynamics seemingly. let it be known however, that I did find it to be very pleasing to listen to for a long long time... it does not fatigue. the whole room made sound as is only the realm of big drivers. the thing that stuck me the most about his system was its ability to describe a very long decay... giving an immense lushness to the whole thing. I have never heard a 604 outside of this realm, and I feel that his amps had alot to do with the presentation, which was really nice, but definitely within its own paradigm. I do tip my hat to the man. there aint enough people who try to artistically describe sound with their components. too much adherence to standards and such out there.
which leads me to mention the altec in a BIB.
the 604 is a nice driver. gets to that horn realm of direct radiators because it really is one. back horn load the bass, darnit if it would not bring tears...
ME thinks that the best version would be easy to determine. latest alnico manufactured by altec from what I gather from a bit of looking around. I forget the model number though.
they are made new as well, but it looks like ceramic magnets. I would like to hear the penultimate alnico altec versus the "new" version back to back. some say they are comparable, that the new one might even be a little better, having dealt with the frequency anomoly at 2-4k. my instincts tell me to look more at the astrologically ideal implimentation of each driver. if there are different TS things going on, one might be more desirable for the horn than the other.
alnico....mmmmm.... I want to play with the 208es-r. 2 main features I cant wait to see is the honking alnico - for speed, the radial making - which gets rid of most of the tonal disadvantages to full range. I am still chasing horn dynamics from direct radiators. darnit if the special edition fostex stuff does not get pretty close, and pretty scary to a central idea of balance in sonic reproduction. near monitor tone from a fullrange 1. alot of the front horny dudes out there scoff at the full range stuff. all i gots to say is imaging. darnit if I do not like front horns though. ugggg. I love them.
oh yeah,, I finally got back my baby horns to play with... muahaha
Clark
Attachments
please.....
could someone sim a cab for the fostex two inchers...
I have a pair of
fe87e,
ff85k,
fe87,
I am looking to get bass out of them, whatever they can.
I think that the ff85k would be the most suitable perhaps (qts)?
however, the fe87e has a godly tone to it....
whatever anyone has time for. perhaps a cabinet that would work acceptably with all three drivers at compromise?
thanks so much!!!! i need to get my own darn software.
Clark
could someone sim a cab for the fostex two inchers...
I have a pair of
fe87e,
ff85k,
fe87,
I am looking to get bass out of them, whatever they can.
I think that the ff85k would be the most suitable perhaps (qts)?
however, the fe87e has a godly tone to it....
whatever anyone has time for. perhaps a cabinet that would work acceptably with all three drivers at compromise?
thanks so much!!!! i need to get my own darn software.
Clark
dmason said:
Altec 604 in a BIB? Yeah - I could go for that. I might be able to borrow a pair of 604 or 605s for awhile - they have been offered. Trouble is, I'd hate to give them back!
Was more hoping to find a nice 12 or 15 to go in a BIB and mate up with my Altec 811 horns. Not as "point source" as the Altec Coax, but might be very good, none the less. 811 horns would need minimum of 12" depth, though. Unless I get "tricky."
Just how big would this Altec BIB have to be?