Frugal Horn Mk3 builds

Toppsy · Post by **Toppsy** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:31 pm

Andrew I wrote

Sabs are more than than. I can't wait to hear for myself how good the Frug3s are

I just hope they can excel in the large room at Owston. Placement may be an issue. You really need to listen to them in a real room environment. By this I mean your average sized UK listening room. In the large room at Owsters I would expect the 126 version the FH3 will no doubt do better as it is far more efficient........ 8 - 10dB according to Dave. But then we have the amps to kick ass the less efficient MA's into life. Hey

Chris661 wrote

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

Yes we can, if I move the gm70 amps out the way. But in all honesty they would be too far apart with them firing across the room. they would really need to fire down the length of the room but the layout doesn't cater for that without a lot of furnature moved. Nothings ever perfect in this world.

chris661 · Post by **chris661** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:21 pm

Aye, fair point. We'll see how it sounds when we fire them up, then maybe play with placement. There might be no need...

Any thoughts on the Tripath amp?

Edit, if you want to give them a better chance at Owston, I'll be taking my tapped horns. Maybe not ideal, but if they're really struggling in there, letting something else handle the bass could be what they need. It'd be 4th order high pass at 80Hz if that makes a difference.

andrew Ivimey · Post by **andrew Ivimey** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:39 pm

Using tapped horns will only hshow what Frug3s sound like with tapped horns... which no one else has.

Still, no one lives at Owston either so Colin's point about hearing these schpeakers in the comfort of yer typical English living room is apposite.

Toppsy · Post by **Toppsy** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:45 pm

Playing around with them is the idea for the get together. And of course the need your loan drivers

By all means bring along your tripath amp to try on the Fostex MTM speakers. I still feel there is work to do on getting these proper sorted. may just be a SS amp is the answer. Or bigger inductor. ie one wound with larger diameter wire to give the same mH.

I have a cunning plan for Owston.

I doubt they will need bass support and folk need to listen to them as intended - stand alone. My concern is having to drive them so hard to achieve a decent loudness in the huge room without the drivers running out of Xmax.

I think you might be plesantly surprised how good these sound when you come over.

Scottmoose · Post by **Scottmoose** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:47 pm

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chris661 · Post by **chris661** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:48 pm

My point is that, when playing full-range, most drivers experience cone break up. Cutting out the bass signal to those full-rangers means cone break up still occurs, but you can push much louder before it becomes audible. This means they'll have the extra volume they may be missing. Time will tell.

There's other systems, too, that I'm sure we could borrow. Phil's 18" bass bins, for example. But matching monopole mid-highs with dipole bass drivers could be problematic, which is why I suggested the tapped horns.

As I said, time will tell. If they're really struggling, the offer's there.

Edit - this was a response to Mr I further up, others have posted since.

Scottmoose · Post by **Scottmoose** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:50 pm

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Toppsy · Post by **Toppsy** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:56 pm

As Boldric would say..............I have a cunning plan for Owston.

We have a couple of foldaway tables. You know, the cheap timber framed hardboard covered folding tables for pasting ya wallpaper on.

The plan is to place these upright behind the speakers to help rear wall loading. Might work and the tables take up little room in the car.

Cunning or what

chris661 · Post by **chris661** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:57 pm

Agreed to a point, but those FE126s have a really low Q, in a sealed box they won't pass 150Hz (according to winISD) - my not really controlled listening tests seem to confirm this - stuffing the ported end of my current cabinets means the drivers lose most of their lower midrange. Blocking the port had a more profound effect...
80Hz should be okay as most of the punch is still comming from the FH3. I think it might be worth a try, we'll see how they do on the day.

Anyway, it's easy enough to rig up (I'll have some kind of pre-amp sorted), so if we don't like, it's easy to unplug...

Edit - Colin, that'd probably help.

pre65 · Post by **pre65** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:58 pm

Quote "
The plan is to place these upright behind the speakers to help rear wall loading. Might work and the tables take up little room in the car. "

Or, use DTB ?

Toppsy · Post by **Toppsy** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:02 pm

Or, use DTB ?

They may require some bass lift from the rear wall NOT BASS OVERLOADING.

Scottmoose · Post by **Scottmoose** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:13 pm

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Dave the bass · Post by **Dave the bass** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:05 am

Toppsy wrote:
Or, use DTB ?
They may require some bass lift from the rear wall NOT BASS OVERLOADING.

Shurrrrrup you's lot awwwlright

DTB

Toppsy · Post by **Toppsy** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 3:30 pm

As we got a rebate on our winter gas bill, Lynn said I could use the money to order the Fostex FE126En drivers.

What a nice and understanding wifey she is

Well they arrived late yesterday afternoon having been posted in Germany on Monday. So last night I installed them into the new Frugal Horn cabinets. These are skinned in the same Ash veneer but are given a light dusting of Light Oak stain just as an experiment. The wife likes them.

I may treat the Fostex cones with similar stained varnish to blend in with the venner.

They have presently had around 4-hrs of music and test tones through them so it's early stages to A-B compare them to the Mark Audio driver pair. But, the one thing that stands out to date is they are a more directional speaker than the MA drivers and need toe-in. The MA drivers need no toe-in at all and have a wide dispersal designed cone shape that seems to bear out in reality.

Anyway I have attached some photos of the new Fostex version speakers and a couple shots of each version side-by-side.

andrew Ivimey · Post by **andrew Ivimey** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 3:35 pm

They look superb, really superb!

(don't like the spikes though I do appreciate that they may help in certain room conditions.)

audio-talk

Frugal Horn Mk3 builds

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