In Dec/Jan I built a pair of Fostex 208 cabinets for the FE206 drive unit. Lovingly crafted in Birch Ply and lovingly painted and nurtured. Used most days in order to get them fully run in and matured. Then what happens ?
The FE126's that I put into a 108 Sigma with which I was disappointed start to nag at me. Mmm is there a cabinet better matched for them ?
I read the review of the Merrill Zigmahornets (6moons) and saw on a thread that Scottmooose thought the 126 should work in a Ziggie. Cost of ordinary ply £25 or thereabouts, ah well it's got to be worth a punt.
Friday afternoon off to local timber merchants, get the ply cut to size for the sides, fronts and backs, and start to construct. Sunday 6pm all finished.
Only place for them is in the corners of my room behind the 206's. Raised them up a bit so that I could see the drivers. Switch on.
Oh dear............. "and while the King was looking down the Jester stole his party crown" (American Pie - Don McLean).
Young upstarts, piddling little cone area, how do you sound so good !!! Who turned the sub on, answer - no-one, it was definitely off.
These are fantastic. I can forgive the 126's a little roughness as they are not fully run in yet. I see that Dave at Planet 10 has done a natty puzzlecoat (or similar) pattern on his 126's to tame them a bit, (does anyone know the formula for the pattern ?)
If you want a great speaker for very little money, give these a try, they may de-throne your current fave's !
The FE126's that I put into a 108 Sigma with which I was disappointed start to nag at me. Mmm is there a cabinet better matched for them ?
I read the review of the Merrill Zigmahornets (6moons) and saw on a thread that Scottmooose thought the 126 should work in a Ziggie. Cost of ordinary ply £25 or thereabouts, ah well it's got to be worth a punt.
Friday afternoon off to local timber merchants, get the ply cut to size for the sides, fronts and backs, and start to construct. Sunday 6pm all finished.
Only place for them is in the corners of my room behind the 206's. Raised them up a bit so that I could see the drivers. Switch on.
Oh dear............. "and while the King was looking down the Jester stole his party crown" (American Pie - Don McLean).
Young upstarts, piddling little cone area, how do you sound so good !!! Who turned the sub on, answer - no-one, it was definitely off.
These are fantastic. I can forgive the 126's a little roughness as they are not fully run in yet. I see that Dave at Planet 10 has done a natty puzzlecoat (or similar) pattern on his 126's to tame them a bit, (does anyone know the formula for the pattern ?)
If you want a great speaker for very little money, give these a try, they may de-throne your current fave's !
In fairness, if your 206 / 208ESigma combination are still in the room you pictured them in elsewhere, I'm not surprised the smaller drivers perform better -that room's too small for large enclosures.
The Zig is a nice box. Should do well in smaller rooms. A pair of Frugal-horns or Ron's A126 should be a good horn-match for your listening space.
The Zig is a nice box. Should do well in smaller rooms. A pair of Frugal-horns or Ron's A126 should be a good horn-match for your listening space.
Puffin said:
It is not a secret.
http://fullrangedriver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=535
dave
PS: if you have any questions i'll try to anser them....
Hmmm... i think Scott's FE126 are currently resting in their boxes...
Maybe a compare is in the winds...
dave
Maybe a compare is in the winds...
dave
congrats puffin
I'm glad they compare well against the 208 cabs, IMO the 208s consume too much of the planet's resources for what they give back in return......
comparison sounds good, go to it Scott..
Regards
Ed
I'm glad they compare well against the 208 cabs, IMO the 208s consume too much of the planet's resources for what they give back in return......
comparison sounds good, go to it Scott..
Regards
Ed
Should be interesting to see how they perform. I think the boxes need a little more volume -I'll check before building. Should be useful for an unobtrusive pair of ambiance extraction speakers.
Thanks for all your comments. It loks like it could be a case of cleariing the room to give the Ziggie's some space (boo hoo, weep, sob) sorry, just mourning the possible passing of the 206's !
I got some damar varnish at lunchitme to do the pattern on the 126 cones. Of couirse I could not get hold of any puzzlecoat or it's U.K equivalent. Is there a substitute ? Watered down PVA ?
I got some damar varnish at lunchitme to do the pattern on the 126 cones. Of couirse I could not get hold of any puzzlecoat or it's U.K equivalent. Is there a substitute ? Watered down PVA ?
Puffin said:
Mod Podge is a PVA formulation (PuzzleCoat is the brand name of the stuff i started out with -- don't think it has survived thru these last 30 years). I use it because it dries and retains a fair amount of flexibility.
picking the co.uk domains (there might be some .coms in the UK too.
near the bottom....
http://www.doart.co.uk/acatalog/Glue1.html
Mod Podge (PLAID-U1120) is probably the one to use
on sale this week, so all tou UKers get on line or visit your local doart store and scoop some up... a 4 oz bottle should be good for 100 little speakers... if you have some big woofers to do you might want to pop for yjr 8 oz bottle or even the 16 oz. Keep in mind it is useful on FE16x, FE20x too (and it will no doubt find its way onto FF1x5 as well (past experience tells me it won't hurt but you don't teally know until you try it)
Digging into google a bit further
http://www.calicocrafts.co.uk/acatalog/Mod_Podge.html
These guys have the orange lable stuff i use (1/2 way down) ....6211205 / 6211201 / 6211202
checking into the Plaid catalog... the difference netween yellow lable & orange lable, is matte vrs gloss finish -- i prefer the gloss.
Even Amazon sells it...
http://www.amazon.com/Mod-Podge-16-oz-gloss/dp/B0001DUCWC
dave
PS: keep bugging me and i'll get an updated tutorial up & release the pattern template (if i can find it)
Attachments
Dave. A million thanks for doing that, it has certainly saved me a lot of time. I am starting to clear my room out as Scott suggested so that I can really hear what the Ziggies can do. I will keep you all posted.
Rob.
Rob.
Dave. I now have the Damar varnish and Mod Podge and I am ready to go. Just a couple of questions :-
1. Is there a measurement for the length of each line ?
2. How many coats of Damar should I apply ?
3. Is 2 coats of Mod Podge sufficient ?
I see on your site there is a box of modded drivers with a different pattern on them. Are these 126's and is this pattern worth trying/does it work as well as, it looks better (aesthetically speaking)
Rob.
1. Is there a measurement for the length of each line ?
2. How many coats of Damar should I apply ?
3. Is 2 coats of Mod Podge sufficient ?
I see on your site there is a box of modded drivers with a different pattern on them. Are these 126's and is this pattern worth trying/does it work as well as, it looks better (aesthetically speaking)
Rob.
Puffin said:
60 degrees (and then judiciosly extended just a bit as you join the ends of the levels
The damar creates the pattern and you only need one application
Yes... note that it doesn't take much added water (or colorant) to thing the puzzlecoat until it is ruuny enuff... you also need to work fairly fast since when applying it as lightly as you do, and thinned it tends to set up fairly quickly and you want to get it brushed out evenly before that happens (althou -- with practise -- that can be used for effect with colours)
There is only one pattern. The 1st set pictured on the FR Forum were the 1st stab and weren't fully developed.
Attachd is a pic of the pattern before puzzlecoat (i've tweaked the gamma on the pic to make it stand-out)... 2 sets of 3 arcs and then you join the ends... the last an opportunity to tidy things up a bit. Note that this one has a pattern upside down from what we usually do -- do pay attention to get the pattern oriented in a pleasing manner wrt the driver mounting holes and the lead out wires.
dave
Attachments
Dave. Once again thanks very much. I will report back with my findings, although it seems the mod is a no-brainer way to improve the sound.
Puffin said:
As long as you don't overdo it (or slip and spill the bottle of damar onto the cone...
Also, until you have a good handle on how the damar flows it is a good idea to have a piece of cardboard to blot your danar brush on between bottle & cone.
dave
Godzilla said:
Someone could try that... it would act like annular rings
I didn't want to divide the cone into 3 subcones (ie i wanted to avoid annular rings.
The whole cone is done in puzzlecoat, i'm not a big fan of whole cone with damar, it exacerbates the resonances instead to help quiet them.
dave
Scottmoose said:
The placement of the arcs radially is very much directly from the work done by mark mcKenzie.
Joing the 2 arcs together was a serendipitous accident (if you are not careful the damar will run)
I have no idea whether a better pattern or scheme could be developed, but we do know this one works... if i had the R & D budget to burn thru a couple cases of drivers, to do some serious masures (including laser interferemometry (sp) i'm sure that more could be done.
That is one of the reasons the mod is out in the public domain, so others can participate in the R & D... So far it seems, you can put too little damar on (ie make the pattern too thin) and you can put too much puzzlecoat on.
dave
Dave. Applied the Damar yesterday. Left it for a few hours to dry. Gave them a run. Yes, it really tames the harshness and sooths out the highs.
Applied the Mod Podge and dye this morning, just added the second coat. Will report back.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i239/saxonsex/Modded126.jpg
Applied the Mod Podge and dye this morning, just added the second coat. Will report back.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i239/saxonsex/Modded126.jpg
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