Single driver speakers

[Shevans]

Yeah, honk, honk they took a good six months to run in and I had planned to fit a "phase plug" but chickened out removing the dust cap's.

If anthing they worked better with the AP10

[SteveTheShadow]

Doc modded

Indeed
Mind you Doc, your mods are a teensy bit more advanced than mine

@Shevans
Actually, phase plugs would have been brilliant.
I had some smaller speakers with Fostex FE108E Sigma drivers. I fitted Planet10 phase plugs and they worked a treat.
The speakers gained the best top end I have heard from a full ranger.
Bass was ultimately lacking in the end and I had trouble integrating them with a sub, so I sold them on
and built bigger speakers.
I can imagine your old full rangers working well with NVA amps, due to their reported neutrality coupled with musicality. Imagine if you had mated those Fostexes with Naims instead. Doesn't bear thinking about

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

I read something a while on one of the DIY forums about those sort of Fostex drivers, and someone basically talking about Doc Modding them, to a chorus of you will ruin the driver in reply - idiots, and they haven't even tried it.

[kazam]

Shevans, nice

Mine seem to be getting sweeter and deeper at quite a rate. Hooked a proper source up for the first time, which was good fun. They seem to like presenting lush orchestral music best, but they've surprised me with the heavy stuff too..

[SteveTheShadow]

Here's an old pic of my own full rangers. They are now semi Doc modded as I said earlier and five years later I'm still enjoying them.


Don't know who that bloke is though

[SteveTheShadow]

I read something a while on one of the DIY forums about those sort of Fostex drivers, and someone basically talking about Doc Modding them, to a chorus of you will ruin the driver in reply - idiots, and they haven't even tried it.

Well it's their loss. Over the years I've come to realise that that kind of dogmatic purism is simply an excuse for people with no imagination or design ability to talk bollocks.
These drivers are designed with a rising response trend for a reason. They are meant to work in rear horn loaded boxes, but additionally, they need a carefully designed front horn to level out their mid/hf region. Used properly, with front and rear horns, these drivers can produce music of unbelievable prescence, clarity and dynamics, from a couple of watts; they can truly put the band in your living room. The penalty is of course the sheer size of the cabinets needed to fully realise the performance potential.

Most DIYers will happily design the rear loading or copy from someone else, but then fail to account for the front horn. We then get the classic rising response and "shout" which gets mistaken for "presence". "clarity" or whatever. It aint; it's wince inducing coloration. Hi-Fi it is most certainly not. I made that mistake with my own Metronome TL enclosures, but eventually cottoned on to what the problem was and did something about it. Later I found that the Doc had been doing this kind of thing for years.

Without a front horn, these drivers need modding to take out the peakiness and a tweeter needs to be incorporated to help restore the top end. Do this and you get most of the high efficiency, without associated coloration; the best of both worlds. The purists however will steadfastly refuse to listen to this sort of heresy. The irony is that most of these "purist" enclosures are actually only half a design without the front horn. Purists dont allow that to stop them talking crap though.

[kazam]

I read something a while on one of the DIY forums about those sort of Fostex drivers, and someone basically talking about Doc Modding them, to a chorus of you will ruin the driver in reply - idiots, and they haven't even tried it.

Well it's their loss. Over the years I've come to realise that that kind of dogmatic purism is simply an excuse for people with no imagination or design ability to talk bollocks.
These drivers are designed with a rising response trend for a reason. They are meant to work in rear horn loaded boxes, but additionally, they need a carefully designed front horn to level out their mid/hf region. Used properly, with front and rear horns, these drivers can produce music of unbelievable prescence, clarity and dynamics, from a couple of watts; they can truly put the band in your living room. The penalty is of course the sheer size of the cabinets needed to fully realise the performance potential.

Most DIYers will happily design the rear loading or copy from someone else, but then fail to account for the front horn. We then get the classic rising response and "shout" which gets mistaken for "presence". "clarity" or whatever. It aint; it's wince inducing coloration. Hi-Fi it is most certainly not. I made that mistake with my own Metronome TL enclosures, but eventually cottoned on to what the problem was and did something about it. Later I found that the Doc had been doing this kind of thing for years.

Without a front horn, these drivers need modding to take out the peakiness and a tweeter needs to be incorporated to help restore the top end. Do this and you get most of the high efficiency, without associated coloration; the best of both worlds. The purists however will steadfastly refuse to listen to this sort of heresy. The irony is that most of these "purist" enclosures are actually only half a design without the front horn. Purists dont allow that to stop them talking crap though.

Good posts, thanks. Steve, your input, as always, is appreciated in its clarity. Multi points noted.

HiFi dogma is indeed a bitch. One day the tribes will come together and hold the knees up to end all knees up.

Then again, maybe not

[jammy395]

WOW......They wouldn't look out of place in "The Magic Forest"

Respect Steve.....

[kazam]

.. Out goes the the AP10 in comes TCS+A80..

Control afforded by the dual attenuators is now very sweet. The A80s do seem to raise the bar, but the true shining star has to be the basic NVA circuit. This is so refreshing. NVA entry products are not 'restricted'. By restricted, I mean tuned down, in order that the treadmill keeps turning..

Still loving the speakers. So very different in comparison to Cubes. Both present very 'large scale', but very differently..

edit..