First impressions. These have a much bigger sound than my previous speakers (ff105wk in a millisize cabinet). Imaging is good as is the detail. I did the whole melamine sponge treatment to the inside and foamcore on the back of the apeture but some voices still sounded boxy. Stuffing some polyfill behind the apeture helped with that. I also found the highs somewhat harsh with a few of the songs I am familiar with so I am playing with a bsc. First started with a 1mH inductor and 6.6 ohm resistor. Way too much attenuation. Kept adjusting till I landed on 0.7mH inductor with a 2.2 ohm resistor so really just a touch of bsc. That sounded really good with most songs but I found the vocals a bit recessed on some vinyl records. Still on the fence if I will use bsc or not. Also the ff105wk is known to be more forward so it may be just what I am used to. Also my room is accoustically challenged with hardwood floors and no carpet. I think the karlsonators do a better job in this space than the other speakers when the volume goes up.
Overall I think there is some more tuning to do but I am pleased with how they sound so far.
Overall I think there is some more tuning to do but I am pleased with how they sound so far.
Give those Faitals some time to shed the harshness, they will improve a lot after a while.
Nice build spiggs. Is the aperture lazer cut?
Question. How long should I give the 3FE25s to break in before I consider any final speaker tweaks?
Spent some time playing with the positioning of the karlsonators and that really helped. The big improvement came from moving them 4" farther away from the back wall. The problem with recessed sounding vocals on some songs is gone, in fact everything sounds more defined. I played with the bsc again but came back to the 2.2 ohm resistor. It just takes a little off the top and everyhing sounds balanced now with the speakers that little bit further out in the room. It is at the point where I just want to sit back and listen to music, a good sign.
Next I'll work on the integration with the sub. It sounds good now but I have not spent the time to run any frequency sweeps and listen to how the bass crosses over. Also I won't wire in the bsc permanently until I get a chance to explore how loud they will go before things fall apart. That will probably need to wait till the weekend.
Next I'll work on the integration with the sub. It sounds good now but I have not spent the time to run any frequency sweeps and listen to how the bass crosses over. Also I won't wire in the bsc permanently until I get a chance to explore how loud they will go before things fall apart. That will probably need to wait till the weekend.
I found this to be true. Either the Faital 3FE25-16s have become smoother or my ears have. After a week of letting these play they sound smoother and in fact better to me without any BSC now. I dialed the sub in by ear and it is crossed over in the 70-80hZ range. I have them sitting on the same stands I was using for my last speakers. As such this puts the drivers slightly below ear level when seated, ear level being about center of the speaker box. Moving them up or down does not seem to improve anything so I think that is where they will stay when I build new stands.
Great to hear spiggs. Yes, my ears have also become smoother with time.
I like the soundstage to be at ear level or even higher. You can experiment with tilting back the speakers a little to fire the sound a little higher into the room. The Frugal Horns have their baffles tilted back with 5 degrees and I think that does help to make them sound a bit bigger too.
I can confirm that tilting the Karlsonators back will raise the soundstage, even if the drivers are a bit below ear height. I've used the Karlsonators for four years in my main system and didn't like the BSC. Then I dialled in the sound with EQ on the media player and was happy with that. They're now doing duty in my study as near field speakers for the PC and the sound is awesome.
I noticed in some of the photos of the original Karlson speaker installations that they were mounted with the wide part of the apeture to the top. Basically upside down. I gave this a try and have been liking the sound. The most obvious thing this does of course is raise the height of the drivers. With this design is there anything else in play when comparing the orientation of the speaker?
Great deal on superbly crafted 0.53x Karlsonators by Jhofland in Swapmeet thread for $100 ea. these have removable driver boards to allow swapping drivers.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/for-sale-karlsonator-53-enclosures.391161/
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/for-sale-karlsonator-53-enclosures.391161/
Well, let's start again this thread, I'm a bit confused after reading all this stuff and I can't decide in which Karlsonator box to put my pair of Faitalpro-4fe32-4, in the 0,4x or 0,53X? I like these drivers very much, used them in 0,4x Karsonator and in Terry Cain's BIB (which I like the most) but BIBs are not the option in a moment. What would be Your suggestion???
