CharlesT
05-05-2009, 23:25
There's a lot of rearranging going on in this room right now that I'm trying to fit in between work, chores and other projects, so things are a bit of a mess right now. The way the system is set up currently is only temporary.
It's funny and ugly, but I am using two chairs stacked on each other as a temp audio rack with a couple of heavy cardboard boxes as the shelves. Speaking of cardboard... well, we'll get to that in a bit.
So, first I'll tell about the entire system, then post the pics at the bottom. Here's the equipment list...
1) KingRex Pre-Amp - 2 pairs of inputs/1 pair of outputs
2) Pioneer Elite PD-D6-J - 2ch SACD/CD Player
3) Yamaha Natural Sound TX-540 Tuner
4) Rane AC-22B 2way Active Crossover
5) Sonic Impact T-amp - original bone stock version
6) AudioSource AMP100
7) Fostex FE126E Drivers - fully modified Planet10-HiFi version
8) Vifa P21WO20 8" Drivers
This is going to sound crazy, but the Fostex drivers are actually mounted in aperiodic loaded cardboard boxes! These boxes were only meant to be used to break in the drivers and to get an idea of possible enclosure designs, but by the time I got done playing around with them and tweaking them, I realized that they sound good. In fact, they sound very, VERY good!
These little Fostex drivers have been totally modified by a gent in Canada by the name of Dave, which owns and operates Planet10-HiFi. He modifies the frame, the basket, the front half of the magnet facing the back of the cone, and the cone itself. The design you'll notice on the face of the cone is what's known as EnABLe. As a result, they sound darn amazing!
The EnABLed drivers are powered directly by the SI T-amp which is directly connected to the preamp via a Y-adapter. The signal going to the amp does NOT pass through the Rane crossover. The reason being that the stock T-amp starts rolling off its frequency response around 100Hz which works out perfectly for the little Fostex drivers so they cover the range of 100Hz - 21kHz. There are no passive components between the amp and drivers.
Now because of the cardboard boxes flexing a little, the aperiodic loading and roll-off of the amp, all of these combined makes the speakers roll off slowly around 300Hz in-room.
Under these I have a pair of 3way ported towers I built when I was 17! In these tower are the two Vifa 8" drivers that I'm using as stereo bass augmentation units to the Fostex drivers. They are tuned to 39Hz in 2.3cf enclosures. The Vifa's completely bypass the internal passive crossover networks and are wired directly to the binding posts on the rear of the enclosures. They are being powered by the AudioSource amp which in turn is being fed its signal via the Rane crossover, which i have set to 250Hz. With the time alignment and gains set just right, they blend perfectly with the Fostex drivers. With room gain, I'm getting an overall frequency response of 28Hz - 21kHz.
I have to say, I have owned, used and heard a lot of speaker systems in my day, everything from Maggies to electrostatics to horns to open baffles to you name it. This little setup ranks right up there with the best of them. I have a pair of AV123 X-Statik towers in my 7.1 system with the matching X-Voce, and they don't stand a chance to my little 2ch system. This little bedroom rig completely blows the big system out of the water. No question about it. I can't wait to finally be able to finish this project and actually build proper enclosures. When I do, I will get new Vifa drivers and have two per channel. :eyebrows:
Anyway, enough of the blabber. On with some pics!!!
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v8/p236404322-4.jpg
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p167760781-4.jpg
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p406842681-4.jpg
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p240877537-4.jpg
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p340633119-5.jpg
It's funny and ugly, but I am using two chairs stacked on each other as a temp audio rack with a couple of heavy cardboard boxes as the shelves. Speaking of cardboard... well, we'll get to that in a bit.
So, first I'll tell about the entire system, then post the pics at the bottom. Here's the equipment list...
1) KingRex Pre-Amp - 2 pairs of inputs/1 pair of outputs
2) Pioneer Elite PD-D6-J - 2ch SACD/CD Player
3) Yamaha Natural Sound TX-540 Tuner
4) Rane AC-22B 2way Active Crossover
5) Sonic Impact T-amp - original bone stock version
6) AudioSource AMP100
7) Fostex FE126E Drivers - fully modified Planet10-HiFi version
8) Vifa P21WO20 8" Drivers
This is going to sound crazy, but the Fostex drivers are actually mounted in aperiodic loaded cardboard boxes! These boxes were only meant to be used to break in the drivers and to get an idea of possible enclosure designs, but by the time I got done playing around with them and tweaking them, I realized that they sound good. In fact, they sound very, VERY good!
These little Fostex drivers have been totally modified by a gent in Canada by the name of Dave, which owns and operates Planet10-HiFi. He modifies the frame, the basket, the front half of the magnet facing the back of the cone, and the cone itself. The design you'll notice on the face of the cone is what's known as EnABLe. As a result, they sound darn amazing!
The EnABLed drivers are powered directly by the SI T-amp which is directly connected to the preamp via a Y-adapter. The signal going to the amp does NOT pass through the Rane crossover. The reason being that the stock T-amp starts rolling off its frequency response around 100Hz which works out perfectly for the little Fostex drivers so they cover the range of 100Hz - 21kHz. There are no passive components between the amp and drivers.
Now because of the cardboard boxes flexing a little, the aperiodic loading and roll-off of the amp, all of these combined makes the speakers roll off slowly around 300Hz in-room.
Under these I have a pair of 3way ported towers I built when I was 17! In these tower are the two Vifa 8" drivers that I'm using as stereo bass augmentation units to the Fostex drivers. They are tuned to 39Hz in 2.3cf enclosures. The Vifa's completely bypass the internal passive crossover networks and are wired directly to the binding posts on the rear of the enclosures. They are being powered by the AudioSource amp which in turn is being fed its signal via the Rane crossover, which i have set to 250Hz. With the time alignment and gains set just right, they blend perfectly with the Fostex drivers. With room gain, I'm getting an overall frequency response of 28Hz - 21kHz.
I have to say, I have owned, used and heard a lot of speaker systems in my day, everything from Maggies to electrostatics to horns to open baffles to you name it. This little setup ranks right up there with the best of them. I have a pair of AV123 X-Statik towers in my 7.1 system with the matching X-Voce, and they don't stand a chance to my little 2ch system. This little bedroom rig completely blows the big system out of the water. No question about it. I can't wait to finally be able to finish this project and actually build proper enclosures. When I do, I will get new Vifa drivers and have two per channel. :eyebrows:
Anyway, enough of the blabber. On with some pics!!!
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v8/p236404322-4.jpg
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p167760781-4.jpg
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p406842681-4.jpg
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p240877537-4.jpg
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p340633119-5.jpg