FE 108e Sigmas cheap

[pjanda1]

I just noticed that Ed Shilling (The Horne Shop) is selling some FE 108e drivers, as he switched to FE 126E's in his speakers. $50 installed and removed, $70 NIB. I'm not a shill or anything, I just thought I'd pass on the deal in case someone is interested.

http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/viewtopic.php?t=23320

Paul

 

[Josephjcole]

Do you (or anybody else for that matter) know why Ed is switching to the fostex 126? Is this a cost cutting measure, or does he really feel the 126 can keep up with the 108? I imagine the 126 has a higher power handling, but having never heard it I don't really know anything about the sound. It would be suprising though if the 126 was better sonically than the 108.
Joe

 

[pjanda1]

He claims a vast sonic improvement. He details his reasoning in other posts on his forum. I myselft have not heard either, I just thought someone might be interested in the deal.

Paul

 

[Godzilla]

Not quite the same drivers but my 127e sounds very similar to my 168 Sigma. The Sigma series is less congested but the overall balance is close. So I believe the cheaper driver can compete on absolute terms.

The 126e in Ed's horns probably balances out better than the 108S enough to provide a better overall sounding system. Also the larger diameter of the 126 will move (slighly) more air, the higher eff of the 126 will make it even easier to drive and the more extended top end provides more extended treble.

If Ed says it's better.... it's better.

Peace,
Godzilla

 

[coredump]

The german DIY speaker building magazine "Hobby Hifi" has measurements of the FE108EZ in the latest issue (1/2006). Their verdict is simpy "unusable". The main problem is a dip from 400Hz to 1500Hz of 10dB. I always thought something was wrong with my B'horns, but it seems to be the drivers.

I'll try to encounter this problem with some active correction circuit based on this project (pots only to be used while measuring).

Next time I'll do measurements before doing anything else; Fostex' data sheets cannot be trusted (HH also measured the FT17Hs; the resulting data was also quite different from the blurb).

Best,

Oliver

 

[Josephjcole]

Yeah they certainly aren't flat. I don't consider myself to be part of the golden ear club or anything, but they still sound pretty good to me. I'll be interested in what you think after the EQing. In fostexes defence, I'm not sure I would really completly trust anybodys FR graph of a driver they are trying to sell to me.
Joe

attached a nearfield measurement of my fostex 108 in a 2-liter sealed box.

 

[seanzozo]

http://www.madisound.com/pdf/fostexdrivers/fe108ez.pdf

I think it should be noted as well that fostex HAS a 5 db dip at 1K and a 3-4 db dip at 600 and a 4-5 db lift above 3K on their chart.

Thats a 10db difference between 1k and 4k, very honest in my book.

http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/104horn/index4.html

Their measurement looks startlingly similar to (possibly a little worse than) the stereophile measurement of Eds horns a while back.

It also seems to be very similar to Nelson Pass's measurements.

Sean

 

[MJK]

Interesting article on the Horn Shoppe speakers. Looks more like a TL response then a horn response due to all of the resonant peaks in the mouth SPL and the corresponding nulls in the driver SPL. The impedance curve is also very typical of an unstuffed TL.