4inch fostex

[hacknet]

I have been studying the fostex 4inchers for awhile, i have come down to a choice between the 4 drivers.

the fostex FE103E,FE107E,FE126E,FE127E.

after looking at various implimentations, i am still undecided.
i have seen the recommended enclosures and have decided against backloaded horns because of the complexity involved in building and tuning them. i have been looking at voight pipes too.

there are various articles online discribing the implimentation of the FE103 but none have compared them to the rest of the range.

i see it from a point that the FE103E is the worst off in the group with the bumpiest response graph. it shows 10db dips at 2 critical frequencies.

the FE107E is much better in the response but its magnet is supersmall. nearly half the size of the FE103E. therefore, i doubt the ability to produce good dynamics and detail.

the FE126E seems to be the best contender but it has a extremely low Qts of 0.25 and has rather bumpy high frequency response.

the FE127E also seems to be a good choice but again, its magnet is supersmall, nearly half of the FE103E.

i was actually thinking of the FE126E in a TQWT but it seems i won`t get good bass since the Qts is low.

i am very much a bass lover listening to things like dire straits and pink floyd. what is a good driver and a suitable enclosure to go with it?

Thank you for reading this long thread!

[BillFitzmaurice]

If you're thinking of going single driver then you have to pretty much accept the fact that you'll probably have to build a sophisticated box for it to live in. If you want strong bass you need both an Fs below 35 Hz and at least a .35 Qts, and those characteristics aren't often seen in high efficiency wide range drivers. Choose what's most important to you and then decide on the driver that will give it to you, rather than deciding on a driver first and then expecting it to do something that it was not designed for. None of the drivers you mention are capable of good bass without a very good horn loaded enclosure. They would be OK used along with a sub.

[planet10]

I can't help you choose one of these. My experience has been with the FE103A (40 yr old alnico version of the 103), the Radio Shack 40-1197, the FE108 Sigma, and a pr of FE108Esigmas (which are just getting broken in enuff to listen too).

A pr of FE103s in a Tim Forman-style ML-TQWT is where i'd go.

dave

[hacknet]

would this mean that the a ml tqwt would be the way to go along the lines of these 4" drivers.

i do intend to cross with a sub at around 80hz. i`m just looking at good ~90hz bass. what would be a good solution?

[Geenius]

Originally posted by hacknet
would this mean that the a ml tqwt would be the way to go along the lines of these 4" drivers.

i do intend to cross with a sub at around 80hz. i`m just looking at good ~90hz bass. what would be a good solution?

There is an alternative if 90Hz is enough: Solo-103

[hacknet]

how is the group delay for the double ported boxes? i actually prefer to build floor standers.

[MarkMcK]

If you are going to cross to a sub woofer, my advice is to use a sealed box for the four-inch. I would also advise using a second order high pass filter on the four-inch and (assuming your sub woofer driver is more or less flat to 400 Hz) a fourth order low pass filter on the sub. And as long as you are going for a sub, I would suggest considering a servo or MFB subwoofer configuration.

With a crossover in the 100 Hz or so region, this generally allows you to drive the four-inch to its power max. Although using different drivers of different manufacture, I have played such systems loudly enough to be bad for your hearing.

Best of luck,

Mark

[hacknet]

okay. thanks for the advice.

[Josephjcole]

Originally posted by MarkMcK
If you are going to cross to a sub woofer, my advice is to use a sealed box for the four-inch. I would also advise using a second order high pass filter on the four-inch and (assuming your sub woofer driver is more or less flat to 400 Hz) a fourth order low pass filter on the sub. And as long as you are going for a sub, I would suggest considering a servo or MFB subwoofer configuration.

With a crossover in the 100 Hz or so region, this generally allows you to drive the four-inch to its power max. Although using different drivers of different manufacture, I have played such systems loudly enough to be bad for your hearing.

Best of luck,

Mark

I'm confused are you suggesting crossing the four incher at 100hz? I don't think any of these drivers will really go flat to 100hz in a sealed enclosure. Wouldn't something more like 200hz be appropriate? I am still learning about all of this, but I was also under the impression that crossing over that close to the resonate frequency would cause problems (I believe these drivers have a resonate frequency somewhere around 70-80hz). I'm certainly not trying to argue with you, rather I'm merely trying to educate myself, so please set me straight on anything I've misunderstood. Also if you wanted to elaborate on the crossover you would recomend. I'm all ears.
Joe

[hacknet]

i was thinking of crossing before the delay hump which is about 80hz.