Further improving the sound of my fostex BLH

[wboyd]

About a year ago I built my first pair of full rangers, Fostex FE103e BLH (from Fostex plans), and have been really happy with them. I have made a few mods to them, Planet 10's phase plugs, and some spiked bases, and have seen a little improvement in the sound.

I was wondering what everyone else has been doing to theirs. Has anyone added filters or even tweeters or subs, and if so, what were your results?

Thanks,

Wayne Boyd

 

[Godzilla]

I built the BK101 for the RS1197 and feel the biggest improvement that can be made is adding a sub.

http://myhifisite.50megs.com/Godzilla/BK101withRadioShack1197.htm

 

[Dumbass]

I agree with Zilla, a decent powered sub would almost certainly give more realism to the sound.

If you are interested in trying some driver tweaks, check out this guy's work on two drivers, the mother of all driver tweaks!
http://fullrangedriver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=373

Another thing to consider might be adding a false baffle:
http://fullrangedriver.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=1
The idea being (AFAIK) that you can get better mid response by lowering the baffle step cutoff freq, without electronically altering the signal.

 

[Scottmoose]

I know Terry Cain rates the Fostex diffusers highly. That said, they aren't exactly cheap! Probably best left to those with the FE208ESigma and FE206ES-R enclosures or something similarly expensive, but they do apparantly make a measurable difference to the sound. I suspect the largest difference you'd get is by adding a sub, and possibly later a super-tweeter.

Best
Scott

 

[Badwater]

I built a sub to go with my Fostex FE166ES-R BLH. Very much adds to presense of the system.

Check out:http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=627919#post627919


Bill

 

[Scottmoose]

Next trick -try doubling the Factory enclosure design... If you can cope with a 6 1/2' enclousre that is...

 

[wboyd]

Bill,

Nice looking sub! Mind sharing the design with me?


To all:

Thanks for all the suggestions so far....I am going to start with a sub and go from there.

I have a another system speaker system in the works...a 3 way horn loaded system...but thats another thread totally.

Thanks,

Wayne

 

[Badwater]

I posted a design for the sub early in the referenced sub thread; page 1. I did however, make a smaller box …70 liter vs. 100 liter and reduced the port size from 4" to 3". I confirmed the design using Unibox and MJK's ported box worksheets. The box is 0.7 mm Baltic Birch that I had left over from my BLH project. I braced the sub from side to side on either side of the driver. The walls are lined with fiberglass insulation. I purchased the driver, subamp and port from Madisound. Total cost of the project was about $300.

I am very satisfied with the results from both an appearance and performance perspective and wish to thank Terry Cain for the inspiration to do this project.

If you want more details, let me know.

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond, my computer bit the dust earlier this week and my access is limited until I get it fixed.

 

[no xo]

My expirience is similar to the others here. I built a pair of the Fostex recommended horns for the FE206E, by themselves sound great. Adding a Sunfire True subwoofer MKII and the Fostex T90a with .47 caps give extension to the frequency extremes and balance the system beautifully. Much of the propaganda I`ve read about super tweeters hold water. They not only extend the hi`s but improve midrange and midbass and balance everything else.