3FE25-8 pipes

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Hot off the press this morning.

Faital Pro 3FE25 8ohm

Volume 3.4L (0.12ft3) +or- (optimum for driver according to what I found on www)
100mm pipe with just short of 40cm overall height

Melamine sponges behind the driver.
No other stuffing.
1" vent on back (the end of pipe is cosmetic - it is not really a port - I will try it without as well which will open the vent to 1 1/3")

Hit the plumbing section because I can't get foam core board in Vientiane (would have preferred to make 0.4x Karlsonators) - these will do for now! Will have to try a BSC at some point as they are a bit sibilant at the very top and the convenient thing is that the bottom cap is threaded so I can easily get in there to tweak. (Nephew coming to visit in April so will use him to courier parts)

I welcome any comments/suggestions how to tweak these to get the best sound.

Have a great day. Stay healthy.
 

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Nice colour. And very high tech - PoMo.
If only my local building supply store had as nice looking pipes.
In case you don't know, you're in very good company with using pipes as enclosures. Linkwitz just to name one used them quite a bit.
You could probably expend them to about a meter without pushing the drivers Fs too much, and get some real tight but light bass.

All the Faital drivers are just amazing value. I don't think there is another driver manufacturer on the market now that offers as much bang for buck as they line.
At least on in Europe.
 
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Or play at very low volumes (<70dB).

One improvement is to add a rectangular or trapezoidal baffle to the round bezel created by the pipe fitting. A sharp edged round (vs a sphere) driver baffle is the worst shape for diffraction. Imaging and soundstage and smoother frequency response can be had with a trapezoidal baffle.
 
Also, I now see it's the ferrite version of the driver. The magnet must make quite a presence in the narrow throat. Could be a source of some of the sibilance.
You might want to wrap it in some felt or add some additional stuffing in there, around the driver basket. Of course being mindful not to create a congestion plug or it touching the cone with the material.

Regarding XRKs idea, you could take it even further and make a shallow waveguide.
Just a shallow funnel shape, folded from a fan shaped (not too thin) piece of cardboard should do the job.
Cutting somewhat deep slits going the edge, in a flower petal pattern will make the transition less sharp, and works somewhat the same as the round over on a horn mouth of tractrix or exponential horns.
A number of manufacturers and hobbyists have used that technique, so it isn't me just letting my mind run. ;-)
A wide disc of thick felt around the driver could have some of the same advantages. But would have the opposite effect of a horn or waveguide.
 
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Thanks Squeak and XRK.

I have looked at that flower baffle previously and wantEd to give it a try. I’ll have a go on these. Also your suggestions for stuffing etc around the magnet. As I wrote in original the screw in bottom plat gives me easy access to be able to play with stuffing.

May end up adding another pipe to make a 2way.
 
Don’t go twoway. Just add another driver in series for a four ohm load. Most amps will be able to cope fine.
Put the driver on top or in another short elbow on the main pipe skewed/splayed to the side a few degrees according to taste.
Wider sweet spot, more power handling deeper bass etc.
That would also make the bafflestep baffle talked about more or less redundant.

If you have two amplifiers, perhaps even going the eBay route with cheap as chips, amazing value class D amps, you could power each set of drivers separately an steer the sound even better.

Another route (not exclusive to the last suggestion though) would be to put an extension on the pipe, and make it a floorstander/ceiling hanger.
This would mean more and deeper bass.

The flower baffle could also be a star or even better a few cm of felt ring in addition on the edge of the baffle. “Looks” about the same to the sound.
Or just a large enough piece of plexi with a hole in it for the driver.
The petals are really just secondary optimization. Most speakers manage fine with just a standard rectangular baffle.

Don’t mind the talk about lower power handling. 70 dB is quite loud and probably what an average 12-year-old will want in his room.
 
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