What to do with Foster widerange drivers?

[Spasticteapot]

I have four of these on order from Madisound.

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/ind...23023&pid=1902

At 3$ each, they're very reasonably priced. Would these work in a Bigger-is-Better design (BiB), or should they be used open-baffle? What tweeters would they work well with? And how would I go about bi-amping them or making a cheap crossover?

[JWFokker]

I picked up four of the 00463's a while back and haven't done anything with them yet. The top end is much more usable. I might use them open baffle.

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/ind...23023&pid=1903

[Spasticteapot]

Originally posted by JWFokker
I picked up four of the 00463's a while back and haven't done anything with them yet. The top end is much more usable. I might use them open baffle.

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/ind...23023&pid=1903

Odd. The 00463's are supposed to have poorer high-frequency performance. The widerange variant is good to about 10k.

[Richard Ellis]

At a mere $3 per I would get an even dozen line em up ...on an open panel six feet high, eighteen inches wide....completely covered in fabric with the tell-tale bulge at the rear.
The hardest? part would be series/parallel to get the impedence right......It might pick up some inductance to harm high end performance, but the Sd of multiple drivers would sound great!
_________________________________Rick........

[JWFokker]

Originally posted by Spasticteapot



Odd. The 00463's are supposed to have poorer high-frequency performance. The widerange variant is good to about 10k.

Well, the 00463's are good to about 5k, so I guess I shouldn't call it 'top end', but they can crossover much higher than the 00504's. The rising response of the 00504's makes them mostly unusable above 1-2k. I'm not sure what you'd use the 00504's for as they have a very narrow usable range.

[diypole]

Well, the 00463's are good to about 5k, so I guess I shouldn't call it 'top end', but they can crossover much higher than the 00504's. The rising response of the 00504's makes them mostly unusable above 1-2k. I'm not sure what you'd use the 00504's for as they have a very narrow usable range.

Just glanced quickly at the fr plot on the 504's and I can't agree. A small series inductor will flatten that, but at only a few degrees off axis horizontally it will flatten out on its own, and may provide a better power response overall.
If you like full range, may I suggest a very cheap and easy listening experience/experiment? Mount then on an open baffle with a D of about 2 ft to give you support to around 100hz and this will double thier output capability over a monopole at 200hz. Maybe 14 inches wide with 5 inch sides, or flat, or really any variant you want. You would be able to get about 91db at 141hz at 1 meter with 0.5mm x-max from 2 drivers per side.
Get an inductor on a plastic bobbin with a magnetic core and place it in series to create an adjustable 6db/oct low pass crossover. This is a little trick I use: as you slide the magnet in and out of the bobbin, you are changing the inductor value. I have fine tuned my crossovers after modeling them in soundeasy this way, by sliding the magnet slightly and remeasuring, then checking the value of the inductor, and purchasing that value (not magnetic core!)for the final crossover.
Anyway, I don't know what you have for equipment, but you can do this quickly and with none at all. You can simply listen and keep adjusting the inductor until you find the right tonal balance.
Looking at the frequency response and Q of these drivers, I bet if you listen nearfield and don't toe the speakers in so you are listening about 30-45 degrees off axis, they will probably sound surprisingly nice as is. Not very dynamic, but with acoustic music and alcohol, an enjoyable evening. Just my 2cents.
Have fun, Jason