Fostex or Audio Nirvana?

[mikje]

I'm trying to decide on a FR speaker project for a tube amp and one for a chip amp. It seems the most popular are Fostex and Audio Nirvana, at least in my price range. A pair of drivers, along with decent enclosure plans, can be had from either of those vendors for around $100. Outside of the FR concept, I'm also interested in Pi Speakers. Those of you with experience with any of these, will you provide me some input to help in this decision?

Thanks.
Mike

[Godzilla]

They all sound different but they are all great choices! Personally, i would choose either Fostex or Pi. AN seems to be a Fostex copyat. But i understand they do sound very good. Probably the Fostex will give you the most detailed mids and the Pi better bass and treble extension. Whichever you choose you will not be making a bad choice. Enjoy!

[wakibaki]

Speakers are a highly individual choice.

The Fostex speakers are generally better regarded than the AN, but this may be price prejudice, as I doubt many people have the opportunity for side-by-side comparison. Certainly you can buy slightly higher up the (AN) range for the same price and there are some larger types unavailable elsewhere. There are also some new cast-basket types.

I have a pair of AN 'Super 8's in 2.8cft enclosures. I drive these with a SI gen2 T-amp from a variety of sources including the TV.
Loads of volume and no desperate need for a sub. I think they're great, and it makes me want to laugh everytime I remember how little the whole lot cost both in money and in effort. An excellent stereo image. Ugly great MDF monkey coffins, tho. Not a lot of WAF.

You may find some suggestions offered regarding the design of the enclosures, and these may in fact result in improved performance, but again this is hard to evaluate. In most domestic listening environments the room is probably a more important factor.

w

[badman]

Originally posted by Godzilla
They all sound different but they are all great choices! Personally, i would choose either Fostex or Pi. AN seems to be a Fostex copyat. But i understand they do sound very good. Probably the Fostex will give you the most detailed mids and the Pi better bass and treble extension. Whichever you choose you will not be making a bad choice. Enjoy!

AN a fostex copycat?

I sure don't read it that way, they're doing 10"s and 12"s, they use phaseplugs, and have generally little in common with fostex drivers apart from being paper cones and meant to be 'full range'.


@ mikje:

Any of the three, like the zilla man says, are probably good choices. I've only worked with the fostex, and then, only a couple models, but I've heard many of them. The fostex ff65k in a BIB with a FT17H supertweeter (also fostex) could be one hell of a speaker.

[D OB G]

I've used both the Fostex FE206E and AN 8" with phase plug in the same open-baffle above 200Hz.
The AN was substantially better.
Both though exhibit, IMHO, unacceptable distortion, and I was unable to use either.
The Fostex will not handle complex music AT ALL.

David

[mikje]

Badman,
You mentioned a Fostex FF65K. I can't find that on the Madisound site. I can find an FF165K and an FF85K. Do you mean one of these? Do you run the tweeter in parallel (and is this then a 4 ohm speaker?) with the FR and what do you do for a crossover? Thanks for the input.
I'm leaning toward the FE127E in a Fonken floor-stander, but not yet fully decided. If I like the outcome, I'll be doing more. I'll be using a Hewlet-Packard tube stereo amp or a chipamp I've yet to order and build (probably from chipamp.com).
Thanks all for the input. I'm still open to more.

[mikje]

My bad... not Hewlitt Packard. It's a Packard Bell tube amp
???!!!

[badman]

Originally posted by mikje
Badman,
You mentioned a Fostex FF65K. I can't find that on the Madisound site. I can find an FF165K and an FF85K. Do you mean one of these? Do you run the tweeter in parallel (and is this then a 4 ohm speaker?) with the FR and what do you do for a crossover? Thanks for the input.
I'm leaning toward the FE127E in a Fonken floor-stander, but not yet fully decided. If I like the outcome, I'll be doing more. I'll be using a Hewlet-Packard tube stereo amp or a chipamp I've yet to order and build (probably from chipamp.com).
Thanks all for the input. I'm still open to more.

Oops! I meant the 165k.

The tweeter is run in parallel with a blocking capacitor, so it remains a nominal 8 ohm load, though with the rather low inductance, you're going to have a 6-7 ohm section of the high frequencies. High enough that it's low enough output to matter very little to the amp in terms of loading.

One might even use a simple 1st order series XO at 8k or thereabouts, with a little resistive pad (2-3 ohm range) on the tweeter. 2 ohms, 2uF, and .15mH would be a very good start.

[udailey]

I own Fostex Fe127e and AN12" at the moment. Honestly, they sound great together. One of each then volume up quite a bit on Fostex to get same SPL as AN. Okay, you would have to hear it.
If I were to buy only one pair again it would be HANDS DOWN the AN12". The Fostex get confused FAST. This is a jazz speaker and please hope the jazz has no electric bass or it will gag on the bass. The Fostex shouts at vocal frequencies, to forward for my taste. The Fostex has a dramatic break in however and the shout tones down a little, still shouty though. The plus side to the Fostex is that after break in it is more relaxing to listen to with the right music. Music it can handle. The Fostex REALLY needs a sub and I have heard over again it is hard to pair a sub with an FR speaker. Never tried so I cant comment on that personally though.
The AN is just fantastic. Right now I have a cheapy system. I am running an LM3886 with a 400VA 144,000uf supply from an unmodified Playstation 1 SCPH-1001. Its like heaven. I sincerely enjoy listening to this setup with the ANs and the bass is serious unlike many other FR speakers. No sub needed. I dont know what to say except that I am absolutely blown away everytime I listen. Its FANTASTIC and I highly recommend a PS1. Crazy as it seems this is a huge part of the wonderful sound in this system. Before on a Technics CDP the ANs sounded fantastic and full of control and very analytical. But almost to the point that you felt your shoulders kinda hunch up from it being very digital. The PS1 frees up the music, the soundstage JUMPED out at me first time I turned it on. Thing sound so real. Anywho, none of this would matter without the right speakers and the ANs are very very good.
Uriah

[mikje]

Uriah,
Thanks for the info. What cabinet are you using for the AN?
Mike