fakeout,
That was a real question.
Besides the joke do you have a real answer in mind?
I'm just guessing sound that you are truly satisfied with.
I'm still waiting for financial reasons to make 2 orders so I can actually start using the drivers I bought (cheaper Veravox and Visaton I bought on sale) to start experimenting.
I was looking at a sterephile recommended list and it's true that some start around $400 or whatever but the "A class" are freakin' tens of thousands of dollars. I'm convinced you can get value out of a diy build. I'm not convinced diy builds will flat out beat any and every commercial A list speakers out there.
I figure it like this, if I tried various ones and in all kinds of enclosures, I'll eventually find a sound I like. Then I'll be able to go into hi-fi stores and make comparisons. But, like I said in a previous post, it's kind of useless to even discuss it because obviously I haven't done it yet.
True satisfaction - does humankind know that? Specially when it comes to audio?
Great satisfaction from the hobby though, and the sound of some of the builds I've done is pretty good too. Yes, lot's of speakers around. Check out 6moons.com, you will find reviews of some goods ones in the more affordable range too. Some of them must be good. Haven't heard the uber high range though - would love to hear some and understand what it's all about.
You're correct on both counts - you can get value out of a DIY build, sometimes great value. However, DIY isn't magic, and folks who build commercial speakers aren't morons -of course there are very good commercial speakers out there. Usually they will cost more (much more). The other thing is, enjoyment of audio is very subjective. With DIY you can probably cater to this subjectivity to a greater extent vs buying off the shelf. The same components (drivers, amp modules, binding posts) used by DIYers are used in the audio industry too. With a good design and good components you can have your DIY system most of the times (if not all the time) at a lower cost vs big name speaker manufacturers. But don't mistake this as DIY is always better - and btw, did anybody on the forum make that claim?
I figure it like this, if I tried various ones and in all kinds of enclosures, I'll eventually find a sound I like. Then I'll be able to go into hi-fi stores and make comparisons. But, like I said in a previous post, it's kind of useless to even discuss it because obviously I haven't done it yet.
Sounds like a plan!
Last edited:
No it doesn't, weight wise for instance, neither basket stability wise. Two VERY important factors for what we use them for in the company. The Fostex would be dead the first day of (ab)use....
Just to illustrate that there are horses for courses and different users have different needs.
To us the FF85wk would be completely useless.
Reading through this thread I see many posts by people that really expect hifi from a 3" driver, I can help you out of the dream because this is never going to happen. Not under 50 dollars a piece that is. If you want some real good 3 inchers and don't mind the price get the Scanspeak 10F, these are the best ones I've ever come across and probably leave the Fostex drivers in a pale state....
Last edited:
my pair is languishing on my bench, haven't been able to get excited about them yet.
dave
That is certainly true, but it isn't going to stop me feeling that the FF85wk is a notch or 2 up on FR88ex. If i need something that small with bass, i'll go with the Alpair6.2
And, with helper woofers (something all 3" really need, not that they can't be enjoyable without) they can be very serious hifi.
dave
Alpairs have excellent bass, but the tests in Hobby Hifi magazine from Germany showed they suffered from quite a few mid-high range resonances and non linearities. I would use these as a bass-mid, not as fullranger.
Love the soft highs of the FR88EX, can listen to these for many hours without fatigue. The highs are there, they are clean and in my opinion well in balance with the total response. Did notch the midrange a bit though, as the plateau from 2K to 5K sticks out a decibel or two....
The FR89EX first impressions to me were they had even lower high frequency output, but that's totally subjective and haven't done any corrections so far.
Love the soft highs of the FR88EX, can listen to these for many hours without fatigue. The highs are there, they are clean and in my opinion well in balance with the total response. Did notch the midrange a bit though, as the plateau from 2K to 5K sticks out a decibel or two....
The FR89EX first impressions to me were they had even lower high frequency output, but that's totally subjective and haven't done any corrections so far.
That's the kind of thing I wanted to read. Can you say if they made comparisons between the Fountek FR88 and FR88EX? Is the FR88 even close in performance or very far? (I'm asking because the FR88 is a shielded model.)
I keep forgetting to bring the magazine, it's in the paper drawer over at work... But as I said from what I remember the response curve was almost a copy of the FR88EX, though that can also be said about the 89 and yet it seemed to sound quite a bit different. Still a lot to test with the 89, so it may be a bit too early to draw conclusions...
The Scanspeak is much louder, and that's what many people (including myself, at a first impression) tend to regard as sounding 'better'. Hence my hesitation about the FF85wk, though I respect the work Planet10 has done I can't say we always share the same taste.
The Scanspeak is much louder, and that's what many people (including myself, at a first impression) tend to regard as sounding 'better'. Hence my hesitation about the FF85wk, though I respect the work Planet10 has done I can't say we always share the same taste.
I tried FR88EX in a very narrow baffle and they did play well with the recommended notch filter for MARTELO enclosure. But I think that the tonal balance of small drivers is very dependent on baffle dimensions. What was the dimension of the baffle were you tried FR88EX?
I use the G115 die-cast aluminium boxes (two attached together and drilled through), which have frontal dimensions of 105x145mm Do have a little baffle step compensation filter in there of 1,5mH and iirc 3,9R... Don't ask me why, but these values were what I had laying around... Still work in progress...
Further the notch consists of 6,8R mox, 8,2uF mylar and 0,5mH low resistance ferrite core inductors.
Further the notch consists of 6,8R mox, 8,2uF mylar and 0,5mH low resistance ferrite core inductors.
Last edited:
Hi, our supplier has them, cost less than €10 each, so that's not too bad. They are rock solid as they should be in our company. Finally these will become active with steep low freq filtering to be able to take a beating. And they will have some corrections to make them somewhat linear. They will be used as voice monitors or as on the road monitors, or to create sound effects in the field where they will be fed with Anton Bauer batteries. We have used a previous design I made with Monacor SPH-30X on many shows (like "Wie is de Mol", Dutch people on here will know this is a pretty big show on tv here...)
This is the previous model:
41Hz Audio - Megamini the active little beast
As you can see I used some Spice, Fuzzmeasure and AJdesigner....
This is the previous model:
41Hz Audio - Megamini the active little beast
As you can see I used some Spice, Fuzzmeasure and AJdesigner....
Dave has a plan-set for the little FR88EX - I blasted together 4 of the 5 pairs therein, and while I prefer both the Fostex FF85WK and Alpair6P to the Fountek by a considerable margin (particularly considering the prices).
The smaller desk-top / near field monitors were OK, but the one enclosure design that I'd have to say would be my choice from this group - the folded Voigt - gives most impressive bang for the buck .
The smaller desk-top / near field monitors were OK, but the one enclosure design that I'd have to say would be my choice from this group - the folded Voigt - gives most impressive bang for the buck .
That's where the similarity stops, Hammond boxes are MUCH more expensive and the G115 has about twice as thick walls with ribs...
Or a Tabaq kind of enclosure, if I had the choice for the best enclosure it would be considerably larger than what I have built, but mine weren't intended as easy listening speakers for domestic use...
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.