What speaker/amp system is right for integration to a wingback chair????

[jinglebird]

I am a Product designer currently designing a wingback chair,which needs left and right speakers built into the wing sides of the seat,I am having trouble finding the irght speaker set up ,the chair needs to be able to create 'Near ear field' sound with optimum sound performance however how would I go about selecting the right speaker/amp set up as what I have found so far are all pre made in cabinets and are not very compact. would be real grateful if some budding audio specialist could help me out with this one cheers!!!

[Pano]

Welcome to the forum.

I've seen the '60s style egg chairs that use small automotive coax speakers. Panasonic, IIRC.

My Mazda had small full range speaker built into the headrest of the seat, (open top car) but they were not very powerfull.

That might be a starting place. Car speakers.

[Don Bunce]

I would suggest starting with the 3"-4 1/2" full range drivers from Fostex. FE83E,FE103E,107E,or FE126E,127E.

You will need 4.5-10L internal volume to do the bass reflex designs recommended by Fostex.

Plans are here:

http://www.madisound.com/manufacturers/fostex/index.php

The plans for the bass reflex cabinets are at the bottom of each page.

You could also add a Buttkicker in the seat to give an impression of more bass.

[soongsc]

Originally posted by jinglebird
I am a Product designer currently designing a wingback chair,which needs left and right speakers built into the wing sides of the seat,I am having trouble finding the irght speaker set up ,the chair needs to be able to create 'Near ear field' sound with optimum sound performance however how would I go about selecting the right speaker/amp set up as what I have found so far are all pre made in cabinets and are not very compact. would be real grateful if some budding audio specialist could help me out with this one cheers!!!

Ohhh, I've been dreaming about an ultimate audio + gaming chair like that for years.

[jinglebird]

Fostex looks good am now split between these fostex ones Kef Uni-q technology as I bumped into an audio technician who recomended them yesterday however the fostex I hear are up there with some of the best quality do you know if they offer similar technologies as KEf ones do

I like the way I can get away with only having one speaker and a bass shaker to get the bass with the kef as the uni-q use a mid sound speaker with built in high tweeter in the same speaker,whereas with fostex I would currently have to have two speakers either side one for highs and one for mids is that right???

Cheers Don Bunce,Panomaniac for such quick replies this is really helping me out!! x

[16hz lover]

The Fostex should be all you need as they are true full range drivers. The bass is where they would be lacking true depth of sound. I know you stated you were using bass shakers, but it would be nice if you were to have a cube style base, like the old egg chairs had, so that you could have a subwoofer mounted in it firing up into the chair to fill in the sound and provide the vibration as well. The large amount of bass you would have would do more to give you a sense of deep-full range sound than a bass shaker would with smaller drivers.

[PeteMcK]

seems to me there are two viable alternatives:
1 - single Low Q FR driver each side with the bass eq'd, this may require extra electronics depending on whether the amp has suitable Baxanadall tone control, and the space in the chair for a BR box (EBS) each side

2 - Hi Q drivers run OB - this get rid of the need for BR enclosures in the wings, but a sub would most likely be required
Maybe one of the Fostex drivers could do this with a bit of EQ,
particularly if we're not too ambitious with LF extension?

You need to consider the whole system, not just the speakers...
and the design of the chair itself will impose limitations on speaker size, wing size... do you you have rough dimensions?