European Triode Festival 2010

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frugal-phile™
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Does anyone that was there and heard these have any comments?

dave
 

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frugal-phile™
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I am personally tempted to build one myself now.

Act fast, drivers are getting scarce. I'm also going to do a full-on, beveled sides, 3 slots per version for my design archive.

The Fountek FR88eX fits in the same box with a change of the vent spacer (i suspect it won't perform as well, but the test box awaits to see), and i'll be doing similar size designs for the new Alpair6P & 6M (not the same aspect thou -- the bezel is too wide)

dave
 
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Hi Dave,

I just had to wait and see when somebody asked about the uFonkens.
That's me from the back on the photo and my 2nd build of the uFonkens.
I applied the eNabl process on the FF85k drivers.

I had arranged for a near-field listening setup, where the uFonkens do excel.
The uFonkens were hooked up to the following setup:
- Terratec Noxon audio player.
- connected via SPDIF to a Musical-Fidelity V-DAC with upgraded PSU.
- connected to a single ended E86C-E80L running in pentode mode (2.5W).
- playing lossless FLAC files
The complete setup does not exceed 500Eur in cost and is highly musical.
Just out of curiosity i swapped in a Benchmark DAC (2.5x the cost of my whole setup) brought by an ETF participant and could clearly notice the upgrade in sonics.

First nobody looked at them until they made music...

The feedbacks were all highly positive such as:
- exceptionally 3D
- huge sound stage
- stunning
- they excel in voices and instruments
- this is more than a computer speaker
- where's the subwoofer ?

Even the musicians performing the musical event on friday evening were
astonished by the sound stage and the timbre of voices and instruments.

I think getting such feedbacks from guys equipped with large Altec Horns
and 300b amps is quite an archivement.
It's a pity that Fostex phased out the FF-range, they deserve to get
their bu**s kicked for that.

I also brought the Martin J.King open baffle (FF85k, Eminence 15A) to the
event. Unfortunately the Eminences were not run in and the bass severly
lagged behind the rest. A participant confirmed me that the Eminence needs
a serious "burn-in" phase to loosen up the suspension.

Kind regards,

Yves
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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Thanks Yves -- puts a smile on my face

It's a pity that Fostex phased out the FF-range, they deserve to get
their bu**s kicked for that.

How true. I wish Fostex were reading some of these threads. The FF85 was, IMO, the standout in the FFs, sort of a bastard child of the Sigmas, hidden away at the bottom of the FF range.

I'm eager to hear the new Alpair 6s. I sent Mark Fenlon a set of uFonken and challenged him.

dave
 
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Dave,

I forgot to ask: How does the uFonken^2 with two FF-85k compare to the
standard uFonken with a single driver ?

Are imaging and coherence on par with the uFonken ?

>I'm also going to do a full-on, beveled sides, 3 slots per version for my design archive.
3 slots per version ?
Do you mean 3 instead of 2 vents ? Vents oriented on left and right side ?

If you happen to design another enclosure for the FF-85k, drop me a note,
I'd be interested in building it (even a beta-plan).

I still have some ACR-103S in my closet, in the near future I'm going to
build Tony Gee's Solo103 just to try out how it behaves in an Onken-Style cabinet.

Kind regards,

Yves
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
I forgot to ask: How does the uFonken^2 with two FF-85k compare to the
standard uFonken with a single driver ?

Very close just bigger and more and you need to be farfield to maintain the finesse, For the cost thou, a powered woofer is probably a better bet (or something akin to Tysen,

>I'm also going to do a full-on, beveled sides, 3 slots per version for my design archive.
3 slots per version ?
Do you mean 3 instead of 2 vents ? Vents oriented on left and right side ?
If you happen to design another enclosure for the FF-85k, drop me a note,
I'd be interested in building it (even a beta-plan).

It will have 6 vents, 3 per side. As we will be implementing it in bamboo ply, it will be dimensioned for 3/4" material, so will be larger than the original. Plans will be freely available, and i'll likely not get them done until the last pair of FF85KeN i have are out the door -- down to 2 pair. People were just starting to appreciate them just when Fostex discontinued them.

Tony Gee's Solo103 just to try out how it behaves in an Onken-Style cabinet.

That was one of my inspirations for the 1st of my miniOnken.

dave
 
Hello,

The classical "shoot out" of the European Triode Festival was this year 2010 devoted to horns and waveguides.

16 horns were brought by participants to ETF2010 for the contest.

Aside of the official shoot-out I could measure all the 16 horns in the same excellent conditions (a very large room with a very late first reflection).

You may find the link to the report I wrote at the bottom of ETF2010 "shoot out" page on the Triodefestival.com website:

European Triode Festival - ETF 2010 Shootout

A direct link to the report is:

http://forums.melaudia.net/attachment.php?aid=1760

Pictures taken before and during the shoot out can be seen at:

MELAUDIA :: ETF 2010


Best regards from Paris

Jean-Michel Le Cléac'h
 
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