Fountek FR88-EX

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inrank

inrank

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Joined 2005
#1
anyone used these?

http://www.bmm-electronics.com/Product.asp?Product_ID=6954

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


look good for the money (£22ish each)

based on my positive experience with my little Bandor 50mm units, these might be the ticket for a mini monitor, with two each side, maybe with one rolled off as a 0.5 way at the baffle step freq. or crossed high to a small ribbon?

is there promise in these ideas?

these would be for a small room about 11ft by 9ft 🙂

just seen this -
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115475&highlight=
but no mention of how it sounds 🙂
 
#3
Bigun said:
Anybody got any real-world listening tests on this driver and even better if compared to some other similar drivers that are more popular to put it's performance into perspective ?
Click to expand...

They were measured by John K. and posted on his site, zaphaudio.com. He was very impressed with their performance calling it the best 3" driver he's encountered. Surprisingly, the SPL is fairly good for such a small driver.

The drivers Zaph tested are owned by augerpro (HTGuide and Tech-Talk) and he's promising a follow-up to his Bose Buster design using these...but nothing yet.

It looks to have excellent promise and would be tempting to be teamed with the Fountek FW165.

I think they could be very satisfying in such a small space. But I will once again plug the CHR70. It's a driver that inexpensive and is able to do sub-50Hz AND 20K. I love mine.
 
#6
Hi, guys,

I use the FR-88EX in a 1 liter cealed box with a high pass filter as pc-speaker. Support comes from a small subwoofer with a Tangband W5-876SA in BR.

In direct comparison with Vifa TC9-FD-18-08 and Visaton FRS8 i prefer the Fountek/Dynavox. It's well buildt and sounds clear and detailed. For the price i can recommend everybody to give it a try. 😉

Greetings,
klemminger
 
#9
chrisb said:
if you mean effective, real word, in-room - that would depend on the enclosure, and the desired SP levels - but in a word: "possibly"
Click to expand...


Fountek is listing a frequency response that's way lower than the driver appears to be hitting. So based on their specs, 70hz is what you can hope to squeeze out of it in the right box, in the right room.

In this case, if comparing it to other drivers, the FR89ex has a free air res of 97hz - is that right?
 
#12
I saw your thread and your build looks great.

Researched the FR89 and it looks as tho it was born out of a collaboration with a US speaker firm (H-Audio.. strangely I emailed them a few weeks ago)- but somewhere the relationship went sour, looks as tho an agreement was breached (by Fountek?). Basically the FR89 is based on/ a budget version of their (H-Audio's)design.
 
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#15
Esau, I've not found a tweeter to be necessary with the FR88EX, or do you mean you can use it as a tweeter ?

Evan, I don't see your 4" drivers around much, FR99 is one of them? the market is fairly competitive in the 4" size, but if you have an offering at half the price of the Mark Audio Alpair 7 and yet with the qualities I've heard in the FR88EX it might be an interesting option.
 
#16
I've been listening to these in a sealed 8.5L cab (all I had kicking around). I'm.... Satisfied. I'll be using them in a FAST design. Then I'll have a better idea of performance. I was afraid to turn them up. No need for a tweeter. If these were not going to be augmented with woofers, I'd NOT be satisfied. It's a 3" driver so, it really must have bass support.
 
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#17
Esaú Cardoso said:
Hi,

I have both FR88EX and FR89EX. Both drivers have very decent bass response (2-3L) and have a very precise response. In terms of balanced response, FR89EX is a much better driver. The sound is much more open. FR88EX will work very well with a tweeter.
Click to expand...

I've had the FR88ex and to me they definitely did not need a tweeter. Can you elaborate on what you like more about the FR89?
 
#18
Hi,

Bigun:
FR88EX is a good fullrange but I feel it is a little shy on med-high frequency so I added a tweeter. With a tweeter you will get the very precise mids of FR88 plus the “air” that I feel that are missing. I’m using de Dayton ND20FA-6 crossed over at about 3kHz in a second order filter.

Type:
The main difference from the two drivers is on the mid-high frequency that makes the overall sound of FR89 more natural. Not that FR88 has less highs, but I think that the balance of mid-high on FR89 is better.
 
#19
Here's a really rough measurement on an 8 x 12" baffle:

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Ignore the suckout at 1600hz. Looks like there's plenty of treble output. Especially the "air" region. Having said that, it wasn't the prettiest treble I've ever heard.

NOTE: This isn't the best measurement available for this driver, but it does show some similarity.
 
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