A New Speaker Builder?

[Smashatoms]

Greetings,

I came upon this forum the day after discovering the Madisound Web site and have been lurking and posting a bit since around the first of Jan '05. I've been involved with audio and music almost 30 years! I listen to both vinyl and digital and my musical tastes lean toward roots (blues, folk, bluegrass, 'non-commercial' country), jazz, world music, and a little classical.

My system is based around George Wright's WPL-20 pre-amp and his AU-15 push-pull 2A3 monos which are driving a pair of Rodgers LS-3/5As and LSB-1 passive sub at the moment. I'm pretty happy with this setup but have been yearning for a high efficiency speaker. The Rogers are great at what they do but give up quite a bit in terms of dynamics - esp. with only 15WPC. So I've decided to build a BLH using the Fostex FE166ES-R. The 6moons reviews of the Cain + Cain speakers really got me going and, while I don't have the green for a pair of Bens, I do have some woodworking experience, so I'm going to give it a shot!

After that, who knows. I might try a tonearm. I killed my cartridge while moving recently and that opened up a whole can of worms on upgrading the front end (VPI Jr., AQ PT-6, shopping for a new cart). Guess I'll need some really cheap carts to use as guinea pigs. Can you get those in a six-pack?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting to know the board and doing lots of learning.

Best Regards,

Keith
a.k.a Smashatoms

[Cal Weldon]

Keith,

Welcome from a few hundred miles and one border north. I deal with speakers only and will look for your posts on that part of the forum.

Efficiency eh, have you considered PA stuff?

Cal

[Smashatoms]

Hi Cal,

We've been meaning to head up your way for a visit. Now that the kids are a little older, we'll have to make time.

My experiences with PA gear have been limited to over amplified concerts where ear plugs were needed. Maybe if more carpet choices were available...

Cheers,

Keith

[EC8010]

Welcome to the forum, Smashatoms. If you don't mind risking smashing irreplaceable LS3/5as, a 40W valve amplifier works wonders on them. 2A3 is good for about 8W of pure Class A (I know this because I've been working on one recently). If you don't mind paralleling valves, then 8 2A3 per side would easily give 30W of quality audio, and the output transformer would be such a low impedance (1k25) that it would be easy to make a good one. The HT wouldn't be prohibitively expensive, either.

Alternatively, you could buy a Fostex full-range and put it in a big horn. Of course, it won't sound quite like an LS3/5a...

[SY]

Whose 2A3s are you using?

[EC8010]

Sovtek monoplate. They seem OK.

[Smashatoms]

The AU-15 monos in my system are rated at 15WPC Class A using a pair of 2A3s. Its a push pull amp tho. My Fostex FE166ES-Rs will be here Thursday. Once I get some cabs built, the urge for a low power SET is sure to begin.

[EC8010]

I figured your amplifier was PP (as is mine). I can screw 15W out of it, but that's in AB. What boxes were you thinking of using for your FE166?

[Smashatoms]

I'm going to use the BLH recommended by Fostex. This will get me in the door without having to climb the speaker designer's learning curve. And I'm sure I'll learn plenty just tweaking the cabinet.

I'm in the process of adapting the Japanese cut sheets from 3x6 to 5x5 stock. Anyone familiar with Graphite on the Mac? I don't have any experience with this drafting package and it is proving to be a little less intuitive than I hoped.