I have to admit, I can't help but be intrigued by his design. I debated before posting in the full range forum - clearly there are two radiating devices in the enclosure. I'd have a difficult time arguing this is a single driver speaker. But, it has no crossover - the other "driver" is a passive radiator. And, the one and only motor-driven device is the rather popular Fostex FE-126e. He claims to have some kind of transmission line loading involved, and the radiator is apparently responsible for some kind of omni-directional / 360 degree dispersion.
Go search eBay for "Fugly RL-5 Prototype Radial Loudspeaker". I've got no affiliation with the seller whatsoever. I can't even afford to buy a set of his speakers. I'm just very curious as to what's up his sleeve.
Go search eBay for "Fugly RL-5 Prototype Radial Loudspeaker". I've got no affiliation with the seller whatsoever. I can't even afford to buy a set of his speakers. I'm just very curious as to what's up his sleeve.
Fugly/RL-5 Speaker
Hello Ty_Bower,
Just wanted to let you know about the RL-5 prototype speaker and it's components. While we use the Fostex FE-126e for the front firing driver, we also have power going to our own 6 1/2" omni directional driver on top. We have modified the Fostex driver with a different surround. This is a convex surround that mellows the 3k peak found with the banana cone drivers. Both drivers are running full range so a crossover is not needed. The cabinet is a transmission line running into a passive radiator at the bottom. Speakers were the prototype prior to the Decware ERR speaker now in production. We have used the RL-5 R&D for our IT Radials.
We were making a trip to Ed Shilling's Horn Shoppe and were asked to bring one of our speakers with us. While time was not on our side, we built them without finishing them. The concept was intact but the cabinet design, as far as ascetics, were not. When my son asked me what we were going to call these, I said Fugly, as they f-ing ugly. At a fest type event, amps, speakers, and the like aren't played for more than 15 minutes before someone wants to change out something. The original Fugly's played from 2 PM until almost 3AM which told me they were something special.
I'm Bob Ziegler (ZYGI on the Decware forum) and I build all the Decware speakers, as well as speakers for other companies, and custom speakers like the vintage Altec type cabinets. On the Decware site, Steve offers plans for the DIY community, where people ask a lot of questions on the builds from the plans he offers. I answer as many of the questions as I can, mostly through E-mails or on the phone. I love talking to people about building speakers.
Hello Ty_Bower,
Just wanted to let you know about the RL-5 prototype speaker and it's components. While we use the Fostex FE-126e for the front firing driver, we also have power going to our own 6 1/2" omni directional driver on top. We have modified the Fostex driver with a different surround. This is a convex surround that mellows the 3k peak found with the banana cone drivers. Both drivers are running full range so a crossover is not needed. The cabinet is a transmission line running into a passive radiator at the bottom. Speakers were the prototype prior to the Decware ERR speaker now in production. We have used the RL-5 R&D for our IT Radials.
We were making a trip to Ed Shilling's Horn Shoppe and were asked to bring one of our speakers with us. While time was not on our side, we built them without finishing them. The concept was intact but the cabinet design, as far as ascetics, were not. When my son asked me what we were going to call these, I said Fugly, as they f-ing ugly. At a fest type event, amps, speakers, and the like aren't played for more than 15 minutes before someone wants to change out something. The original Fugly's played from 2 PM until almost 3AM which told me they were something special.
I'm Bob Ziegler (ZYGI on the Decware forum) and I build all the Decware speakers, as well as speakers for other companies, and custom speakers like the vintage Altec type cabinets. On the Decware site, Steve offers plans for the DIY community, where people ask a lot of questions on the builds from the plans he offers. I answer as many of the questions as I can, mostly through E-mails or on the phone. I love talking to people about building speakers.
ziggy - thought the Fugly look familiar - good to see you here
I'm guessing visiting the Hornshoppe with another enclosure using the FE126 must have made for an interesting study in body language
I'm guessing visiting the Hornshoppe with another enclosure using the FE126 must have made for an interesting study in body language
Thanks for the welcome Chris
It seems you and Dave do your fare share of helping out others here. Looks like a good site, and a lot of reading. A lot of good info as well. I started DIY'ing some 30 years ago, I sure wish we had something like this site when I was starting out. I don't know what I could add, as I seem to have some pretty radically different ideas when it comes to audio than a lot of people do.
The trip to Ed's was interesting. Ed was a very gracious host. Even though he asked to me to bring one of "our" speakers I couldn't do that. Even though his speaker is always at one of Steve's fest, to me it was inappropriate for me to do so. Instead I thought I'd build something, and yes it had to use the same driver he used. It was more of a joke than anything else. All was fine until around the 3 o'clock hour when I think he had had enough and wanted to listen to his speakers. Stating "This is the Hornfest, after all". I remember that like it was yesterday!
All in all Ed and I get along pretty well and that hasn't changed. He does make the best turkey I've ever tasted.
It seems you and Dave do your fare share of helping out others here. Looks like a good site, and a lot of reading. A lot of good info as well. I started DIY'ing some 30 years ago, I sure wish we had something like this site when I was starting out. I don't know what I could add, as I seem to have some pretty radically different ideas when it comes to audio than a lot of people do.
The trip to Ed's was interesting. Ed was a very gracious host. Even though he asked to me to bring one of "our" speakers I couldn't do that. Even though his speaker is always at one of Steve's fest, to me it was inappropriate for me to do so. Instead I thought I'd build something, and yes it had to use the same driver he used. It was more of a joke than anything else. All was fine until around the 3 o'clock hour when I think he had had enough and wanted to listen to his speakers. Stating "This is the Hornfest, after all". I remember that like it was yesterday!
All in all Ed and I get along pretty well and that hasn't changed. He does make the best turkey I've ever tasted.
Bob, without radically different ideas, this hobby wouldn't have evolved much past the Cambrian era - so keep sharing 'em.
(actually I guess that's true of life in general)
Steve, Thanks, its good to hear from you again. You and Dave were great fun at the fest, enjoyed our conversations.
Chris, you are correct, I think audio has made leaps and bounds in just the past ten years. I'm the guy that walks around saying "What if...."
Chris, you are correct, I think audio has made leaps and bounds in just the past ten years. I'm the guy that walks around saying "What if...."
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