:-( my (fe126en) FrugalHorn mk3 boxes sound wore than small boxes

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Finished building Frugal Horn mk3 toda for fostex fe126en drivers.

Prior to this FH mk3 I just had fe126en's in simple boxes with dimensions of Adam p11a studio monitors.

The simple (p11a clone boxes) speakers sounded slightly better than FH mk3, even the bass!

The FH mk3 has so much midrange and much less highs and lows...

Is that how FH mk3 with fe126eb supposed to sound ? And so many people like it ?
 
have the drivers had time to break-in ? My experience with Fostex drives was that there was a noticeable improvement after 1 hour and they loosened up over time.

That was some years ago and I was using them in a 6 litre Onken enclosure - even after break-in the FE127 drivers had little bass to speak of and the treble was irritating so I sold them. I'm not saying your drivers are bad too but it may be a 'family' sound that Fostex has and it may be that like mysefl, you will prefer a different brand.
 
That was some years ago and I was using them in a 6 litre Onken enclosure - even after break-in the FE127 drivers had little bass to speak of and the treble was irritating so I sold them. I'm not saying your drivers are bad too but it may be a 'family' sound that Fostex has and it may be that like mysefl, you will prefer a different brand.

6 litres is too small. I went out to 14.5L with my Onkens. They had lots of bass with the FE127's.

jeff
 
I've had a bit of experience with fiberglass, and I would never stuff a pipe with fiberglass. I line my MLTL's with 15-24mm of acoustic fiberglass, and that pretty much takes care of the pipe modes. a bit of polyfill if the midrange is a bit strong. But never stuff with fiberglass. Fiberglass works something like an octave below polyfill and if you use the same amount of fiberglass as you would with polyfill, there will be no bass. Now if you are working with a subwoofer box that you are trying to make go isothermal, then that's another story.

I was going to add an anecdote about leaks but got distracted. I built a cabinet with a rabbeted woofer. Did it freehand with a router, so the surface of the rabbet wasn't perfectly smooth and as I was in a rush, I didn't use a gasket under the driver. That small amount of leakage under the driver frame completely destroyed the tuning and alignment of the cabinet.

Bob
 
The whole FH-ing family was modeled and "fine tuned by ear" with 1/2" felt in strategic locations immediately surrounding the driver, and calibrated amounts of fibre fill above, and with certain models, below the drivers. The combination of incomplete enclosure sealing and incorrect damping would pretty much guarantee them to not work properly.
 
Sorry guys.. I'm such an idiot. Yesterday was testing them with a headphone out from my motu Sound card going to amp input. Bc didn't have the right cable connectors.

Today tried thru normal line outs. Highs are good. But the lows are still alittle disappointing.
I listened right at the rear port and the 'bass' sounds like around 200-300hz not at below 80hz like bass ports usually sound if you tick your ear right next to them
 
With my not so good carpentry skills and rushing, one speaker came out different dimensions from the other, even thou when I listen in monk the audio is dead center even bass.

Pink insulation i stuck only in the rear / narrower channel. Made even too much of it. Don't have photo tho

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I have some familiarity with this particular design.

Proper air tight sealing of all joints is critical to proper bass performance of this design, certainly not the least of which is the closed lower tip. To ensure this, the Planet10 kits are machined with the back and interior panel dadoed in on one side, with a slight overlap and 5dg scarfe joint on the back panel, and a small angled wedge glue block to add extra glue surface and ensure seal.

On your larger photo it appears the front panel is planted on, and held on with only a few screws. These would not be enough to do the job - if you're not gluing this for an initial testing / assessment of damping period, I'd increase that to at least one screw every 6' and use closed cell foam weather stripping tape.

And this is not a conventionally ported design, so don't be surprised with more output above 80 Hz from the rear mouth, and to be honest, with the FE126, not much more than an octave below that in any enclosure
 
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