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Who is running "Full Range"?

For those wanting to get their feet wet with full range single drivers and are not inclined to DIY I have a suggestion.

There's a guy on ebay from Moldova who sells very nice cabinets designed for Fostex drivers and even with shipping his prices are affordable. One could buy his cabinets which are prewired and install a pair of Fostex drivers from Madisound and spend less than $300.

With full range single drivers there's no crossover so other than connecting two wires to the speaker tabs there's little left to do.
 
Poultrygeist said:
For those wanting to get their feet wet with full range single drivers and are not inclined to DIY I have a suggestion.

There's a guy on ebay from Moldova who sells very nice cabinets designed for Fostex drivers and even with shipping his prices are affordable. One could buy his cabinets which are prewired and install a pair of Fostex drivers from Madisound and spend less than $300.

With full range single drivers there's no crossover so other than connecting two wires to the speaker tabs there's little left to do.
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Baffle-step compensation will be a good thing in most cases though. Most folks new to fullrange drivers may found them thin-sounding without any.

az
 
heh - everybody knows that FC FRs go in horns :-)






and, of course, they'll sound best with an electromagnetic phono cartridge!

 
I would not shy from calling Redboy's enclosures MLTL though, given their form-factor and enough height. He's probably getting more punch than a straight-reflex of comparable size.

az
 
audiozaz said:
Baffle-step compensation will be a good thing in most cases though. Most folks new to fullrange drivers may found them thin-sounding without any.

az
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The ebay cabs look to be similar to the plans on the Fostex website.

FWIW my wide baffle Tektons and Frugal Horn Mk3 require no BSC. Nor does my friend's HS Horns and they all use Fostex drivers.

If some feel small FR SD speakers sound thin ( missing lower octave? ) there's always the option of bass augmentation.
 
Poultrygeist said:
The ebay cabs look to be similar to the plans on the Fostex website.

FWIW my wide baffle Tektons and Frugal Horn Mk3 require no BSC. Nor does my friend's HS Horns and they all use Fostex drivers.

If some feel small FR SD speakers sound thin ( missing lower octave? ) there's always the option of bass augmentation.
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Indeed. Furthermore, many of the drivers made these days have built-in BSC. Mark Fenlon designs most of his drivers with integrated BSC, for example.

Regarding pre-built cabinets, there are quite a few sources (globally) that you can order "flat packs" from. If you can use wood glue, clamps and a screwdriver, you are good to go. The guys at Planet-10 can send flat packs anywhere in NA, and they can put you in touch with people overseas if you live across the pond. There's also Bob Brines (Brines Acoustics) in the USA who will ship a flat pack to you for a flat rate (price includes shipping). His designs are highly regarded in the DIY community (as are most of the Planet-10/Woden (AKA Frugal-Phile) designs).

(No affiliation to any of the above)

Note: Since most lumber stores will do the cutting for you, doing it yourself is actually not very difficult. Just bring a cut plan to the store and go home with your panels. Then it is just a matter of cutting driver holes and maybe port holes and then gluing it all up, adding lining/stuffing and installing the drivers. Dead simple, really. The only difficult part is maybe routing the rebates for flush mounting the drivers, but this is not "critical". Preferable, but not "critical".

Once you do a couple of these projects and hear the results, you will never purchase another set of mass-produced speakers again.
 
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I agree cogitech but there are many here who wouldn't attempt DIY if their life depended on it.

Less of a cash outlay with no DIY skills necessary might make some folks take that leap of faith.
 
I am looking into building a pair using a Decware full range driver and possibly one of their kits/plans. I have a small LR so I think 6.5 may do the trick...even thinking the new tube design may be fun.

Any opinions here?

http://www.decware.com/newsite/DFR6.htm

Perhaps using these and fitting the 6.5 Decware speaker?
 
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ScaleAutoArt said:
I am looking into building a pair using a Decware full range driver and possibly one of their kits/plans. I have a small LR so I think 6.5 may do the trick...even thinking the new tube design may be fun.

Any opinions here?
Click to expand...

6.5" "should" do the trick, but it is more about efficiency, frequency response, required/desired SPL, and the cabinet itself. One 6.5" might do it, another might not, and yet another might be overkill.

I have 5.25" in my large room and they are more than sufficient from 50Hz up to 20kHz, and I use a sub to augment the sub-50Hz right now. (I have something else up my sleeve, however).Other builders with the exact same speakers require no sub in their rooms.

In a smaller space, a sub is often unnecessary. For example my bedroom system runs 3" full rangers in transmission line cabinets. They dig down to pleasantly full 40-ish Hz range and require no sub at all. This is, of course, at moderate SPL (around 80 dB is as loud as we ever need in there, and typically it is much lower).

Regarding those specific drivers: I haven't heard them, but I would not pay that much for them. Tubes as phase plugs? Really? Sorry, but as we would have said in the 80's, "that's gay."

"Full Range Drivers for Purists" = "For People Who Can't Resist Snake Oil" (there have been a lot of questionable goings-on over at DecWare over the years - do your research)
 
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"The glass as well as the shape are almost magic in what they do to image focus and top end extension. In fact military tubes with thicker glass sound different then consumer grade with thinner glass, both are very good. "

I just threw up in my mouth a bit. :yes:

The improper use of "then" is the icing on the cake.
 
cogitech said:
"The glass as well as the shape are almost magic in what they do to image focus and top end extension. In fact military tubes with thicker glass sound different then consumer grade with thinner glass, both are very good. "

I just threw up in my mouth a bit. :yes:

The improper use of "then" is the icing on the cake.
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Yes..I agree. I spoke with the owner and he recommends [as a DIY starter] his 8" DFR 8

http://www.decware.com/newsite/DFR8.htm

And plans for the cabinet would be the HDT:

http://www.decware.com/newsite/HDT.html
 
Poultrygeist said:
FWIW my wide baffle Tektons and Frugal Horn Mk3 require no BSC. Nor does my friend's HS Horns and they all use Fostex drivers.
Click to expand...

Horns should not need BSC by design, it's what they are supposed to do acoustically. Very wide baffles will help towards getting baffle-step close to where room gain kicks-in. Small enclosures OTOH, unless located in quarter-space or better, will likely need it, save for drivers that have it built-in, such as certain Mark Audio units as mentionned.

az
 
Or, add a supra-baffle for BSC:

IMG_phrs0011.jpg




MHardy, what are those magnet covering accessories on the horn drivers??
 
Even with those baffles, there is a good shot you'll need BSC. Unless you make them a couple of feet in diameter. :)
 
dnewma04 said:
Even with those baffles, there is a good shot you'll need BSC. Unless you make them a couple of feet in diameter. :)
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Yes. The ratio of side&backwall-distance to baffle-width will have lots of play in the tonal balance in the end. Even ~2" wide baffles a bit over a meter away from the back and side walls might require a touch of BSC. I set 2dB at 200Hz on my miniDSP for my 22.5" wide enlcosures and it does the trick, though I had lived without any for a while and it was OK.

az
 
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