Frugal Horn Mk3 builds

Dedicated to those large boxes at one end of the room
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Toppsy
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#106

Post by Toppsy »

The Stratmangler wrote
  • Any chance of a nice full length piccy ?
Happy to oblige. I'm listening to Herbie Hancock 'Head Hunters' at the moment and cannot believe the quality of bass and detail these speakers are throwing out. :shock: :lol: :lol:
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andrew Ivimey
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#107

Post by andrew Ivimey »

My Sabs have taken a week to run in properly - interesting in itself. These are no ordinary speakers.

Colin, could you get some more complex material and give it a blast, please? (forget Shostakovich for now;-)

Jupiter from the Planets Suite
or
final movement from the Saint Saen's Organ Symphony
or
4th movement of Beethoven's ninth
or
anything else that has full orchestra and a couple sopranos warbling their hearts out.

This will proove any loudspeaker.
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Toppsy
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#108

Post by Toppsy »

Andrew,

unfortunately I don't have any those recordings.

If you can rip any or all those to CD ROM for me and post it up north I'll happily put them through these speakers and report back.
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#109

Post by aquapiranha »

thanks for the reply Toppsy, very interesting. Steve
Steve.

FLAC / Tripath / Fostex
chris661
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#110

Post by chris661 »

Colin, I have Holst's The Planets on vinyl.

I don't know if it's in good nick or not, but I can bring it when I next come over..
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Toppsy
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#111

Post by Toppsy »

Chris,

Thanks for the offer. However, Andrew I has sent me a ripped CD with all them on.
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Toppsy
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#112

Post by Toppsy »

Andrew I,

just had a listen to the Daily Telegraph recording of Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on CD that you posted to me for review with these speakers.

Chris (Stratmangler) joined me for the listen to give his independant assessment.

Well we started off with them hooked up to the 300b monoblocs and as requested cranked up the volume.

Track four played: Britton: Young person's Guide to the Orchestra

Very nice indeed. They held together very coherently and the ending creshendo was something to behold.

However, Chris requested we re-listen through my GM70 amps. And.............

With this amp the music had so much more grip and presence. And the ending was hair raising from such small speakers. All the bass deatil was there it just all jelled together. :shock:

Next up track 6: Bliss:March from Things to Come :lol:

Again the gm70's got to grips with the music and oozed emotion.

Similar experience with Tracks 8: Gershwin:Rhapsody in Blue :lol:

Track 9 wouldn't play :cry: There are a few large scratches on the disc which with even cleaning the CD wouldn't resolve.

So to conclude the only music I have thrown at these wonderful speakers that they could not handle and stay fully in control was Metalica S&M on CD. This was really too much for the small 4" speakers but you'd expect that wouldn't you. Not the best recording and really needs large driver speakers designed to do justice to heavy rock. :wink:

I cannot say how the Fostex version of these speakers will fare against these very good MA drivers. They have a real fight on their hands to surpass these. But we'll have to see after I get them built.

I'm sure Chris will have some comments to pass on :?:

EDIT What I meant to include to say was:
Andrew, I think these speakers coupled with your Ongaku amp would be a perfect match.
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#113

Post by The Stratmangler »

I was very pleased with the way FH3 coped with things.
The FH3s do need a bit of grunt to get them going, but with a 4" driver and lowish efficiency that's no major surprise.

It was no surprise to hear that the GM70 monoblocs were better suited to the task of playing large scale orchestral works with the FH3s, although the 300B amps sound lovely with less busy pieces.
Some of the crescendos were quite literally breathtaking !

So rather a successful afternoon's listening, I feel.

The more I get to hear these speakers the more I like them :D
Chris :happy3:
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andrew Ivimey
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#114

Post by andrew Ivimey »

Marvellous! thanks for that - thumbs up then. Onto the 126s! I presume they are more sensitive? And I wonder how 127s would get on in these cabs.
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Toppsy
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#115

Post by Toppsy »

And I wonder how 127s would get on in these cabs.
To the best of my knowledge there has been at least one pair tested successfully with this driver.

My only concerns with the 126's is it has been reported they really need to be corner loaded to be at there best. And aparently don't produce as much bass as the MA drivers.
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#116

Post by chris661 »

Colin, we could push them back into the alcoves a little, might help.

And yeah, they are more sensitive.

Slightly off topic, still want to try the Tripath amp with the Fostex MTMs?
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andrew Ivimey
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#117

Post by andrew Ivimey »

Aha, okay. I see these speakers as being essentially in corners to make the best use of the back firing horns. Have you tried them in corners, Colin?
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andrew Ivimey
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#118

Post by andrew Ivimey »

I've just run through Young Person's at a healthy volume level; through the Sabs being driven by a 300B Monkey. Not bad! The Shape of and now Greensleeves.

Brass and harps get the thumbs up, perhaps the lower strings are a bit muddy, were I to be curmudgeonly. Crescendos are make or break really because they grip or suck up the listener emotionally and lead on to what sometimes is actually frightening; the bang, crash or wallop that inevitably comes.

And so on to Rhapsody in Blue - beautiful.

Prokofiev's Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (Prokofiev) is actually frightening in its intensity. It is probably the most dynamic piece of music I've ever heard. There is a BBC CD recording that is disappointing and I think only one vinyl recording on Melodia (would be wouldn't it!) that is absolutely fantastic - there are various other CD recodings around. But this music really can scare the willies out of me.

Digression over.

Young Person, Shape of Things to come of course have crescendos building all the time, all over the place to get the youngun's excited and and old uns shaking their heads in disbelief at the horror of what the next generation revere.

Both get heavy with the percussion to finish the crescendo. This is difficult to reproduce in a loudspeaker and typically, we miss the leading edge of the crash or bang but get dollops of what comes after the attack of the envelope. The bigger and better the loudspeaker design the more able a cone is of reproducing that leading edge. My Tannoys are better at it than the Sabs, which are very good indeed but can miss that leading edge of the crash; is it because the crescendo is building and the 'motor' is fully busy dealing with that so when the bang comes the motor can't go the extra mile, however hard it tries? I wonder.

12inch cones (for example) have the extra umph (in good cabinets) and can keep up with the climax or the hard loud percussive attack when the whole bloody orchestra is pumping it out. Four and a half inch speakers can do a creditable job; Sabs are more than than. I can't wait to hear for myself how good the Frug3s are ;-)
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#119

Post by planet10 »

andrew Ivimey wrote:Marvellous! thanks for that - thumbs up then. Onto the 126s! I presume they are more sensitive? And I wonder how 127s would get on in these cabs.
126En is ~8-10 dB more efficient.

I have FE127eN mounted up on the temp baffles, need to solder and screw into the cabs.

dave
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andrew Ivimey
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#120

Post by andrew Ivimey »

OOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo its a pity the last track wouldn't play for you two. Its just finished while I was washing up yesterday's tea time things and although I kept getting the urge to run out, jump into a Spitfire and roar off into the night sky to shoot down Heinkels and Dorniers, it is a jolly good piece of music to rattle windows and loudspeakers with very fast, very dynamic percussion set in long soupy strings, and contrapuntal brass raspings just to keep the listener electrified. The Sabs worked great!
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