That would not surprise me one bit. I would argue I know more about engineering, science, and the scientific method, though.
Appeals to authority don't cut it for me. Do you have any official communication from Fostex stating that the FE206 requires a high output impedance? If so, would you provide a link?
Also, if the Fostex drivers require special amplifiers, wouldn't Fostex have a whitepaper on the topic? It would be great marketing for them to have such a paper.
There's nothing in the FE206 data sheet that would indicate that it requires a special amplifier. Wouldn't Fostex have added that if it was necessary? After all, isn't it in their best interest to help their customers get the most out of the drivers?
My subjective impression of the high Zout vs Modulus-686 with the Fostex was that the sound stage collapsed almost entirely with the high Zout amp.
Tom
Direct conversation with the designer.
One can get a good idea what Fostex thinks from a demo they did with a big Luxman Class A amps and a set of big FE206 horns. They used tungsten speaker cable to effivily wipe out the low output impedance of the amplifier so that the speakers werre working under the conditions they were designed to be used in.
dave
Unfortunately, from a science point-of-view, a personal conversation doesn't carry much weight compared to, say, a peer-reviewed research paper.
Did the engineer go into detail about why the driver was designed that way? Why not design it to work well with any amp? Wouldn't that have the broadest market appeal?
If the speaker is indeed designed for a higher output impedance amp, perhaps you should encourage your engineer contact to publish something on it. Many companies offer a form of author bonus if you publish an application note or whitepaper. Fostex might also be interested in publishing the data. Harman used to publish a lot of Sean Olive's work, for example.
And let me guess. The data from the Luxman + tungsten cables experiment aren't available either.
Tom
Did the engineer go into detail about why the driver was designed that way? Why not design it to work well with any amp? Wouldn't that have the broadest market appeal?
If the speaker is indeed designed for a higher output impedance amp, perhaps you should encourage your engineer contact to publish something on it. Many companies offer a form of author bonus if you publish an application note or whitepaper. Fostex might also be interested in publishing the data. Harman used to publish a lot of Sean Olive's work, for example.
And let me guess. The data from the Luxman + tungsten cables experiment aren't available either.
Tom