FH3 [ Frugal Horn 3 ]

[bibin3210]

Which amplifier was used?? just curious to know if match should be made in heaven.... hyeah:

It was Pass F5.

 

[badrisuper]

Alpair 7.3

I received the drivers 4 weeks back. Since then it has been in burn in process. Initially I played with very low volume and then to normal. I felt very bad when I sold my Monitor Audio RX6 but then now these drivers brought my smiles back. I cannot compare it head to head. Its lacking in producing stomach tickling bass and there is a bump in high frequency sometimes. Though I am very much satisfied. Its really good in producing mid frequencies. Never heard this much clarity from MA with my current setup.
I preferred this speaker based on choices which is more musical and warm. It really is. My preference goes to mid frequency and voices and others later. I had similar experience when I had my Hifiman HM-601 which is very musical and warm and considered as colored by many.
Now I have those drivers in a box temporarily. It didnt do it well. But voices it producing is more clear and beautiful. Its like producing voice as if the singer singing in front of you. I didnt feel like hearing it from a speaker. I have been spending time to listening to more music than ever.
My current setup is Mauro penessa's MyRef Rev C and modified Marantz CD67.
Now I am very much tempted to see how its going to sound in FH3. I will be having it in 2 week time.


Thanks
Badri

 

[captrajesh]

Hey Badri, congratulations. We are all waiting with bated breath.

BTW, it would pair well with a tube amp rather than the Mauro Penasa IMO.

 

[badrisuper]

Hey Badri, congratulations. We are all waiting with bated breath.

BTW, it would pair well with a tube amp rather than the Mauro Penasa IMO.

Yes captain. I felt the same. I had the similar experience when i listen to this driver and the combo dared tube amp + cadence speaker i auditioned in last year hifi meet. MyRef is in little brighter side but really sounds good similar signature like tube but little bright and not so warm like tube. I had experience listening to music like more than 4 hours. Never felt fatigued or tired. Its a very good design done with a specific sound signature in mind. Thanks to penassa and Dario of DIYAudio and Linuxguru. At present I am going to build a ACA for this which is already on the way from sachin. Later I will add a tube amp.

Thanks
Badri

 

[kanwar]

Badri,

I respect your listening tastes but how come one can get satisfied by lack of bass in the music when the bass is there in the music and you are not getting it upto a satisfactory level. Saying it having a good midrange and not much bass points to what?

Awaiting listening impressions with FH3.


@ Captain,
You are Bass envy or what?


Kanwar

 

[captrajesh]

@ Captain,
You are Bass envy or what?

Bass envy!!! I'm assuming that you are implying that I do not prefer bass. Actually the kind of music I listen to contains generous amount of Bass. Exactly what would be generally missing in the Wide Bander designs unless augmented by putting them in BLH or TL boxes. I'm suggesting tubes amp because they would bring out best of what the Wide Banders excel at; the mid range magic. I'm actually curious to know how much bass do the Frugal Horns produce.

 

[kanwar]

Bass envy!!! I'm assuming that you are implying that I do not prefer bass. Actually the kind of music I listen to contains generous amount of Bass. Exactly what would be generally missing in the Wide Bander designs unless augmented by putting them in BLH or TL boxes. I'm suggesting tubes amp because they would bring out best of what the Wide Banders excel at; the mid range magic. I'm actually curious to know how much bass do the Frugal Horns produce.

Glad to hear about that,

Tube amps lack the lower octaves considerably, heard Dared and Lyrita's creations as well. Yes the midrange is what they are good at but music is not only the midrange, we have high and lows to make it complete.

I have strong feeling that Frugal horn will perform better in lower octaves also.

 

[bibin3210]

Glad to hear about that,

I have strong feeling that Frugal horn will perform better in lower octaves also.

Yes it is.....

 

[badrisuper]

Badri,

I respect your listening tastes but how come one can get satisfied by lack of bass in the music when the bass is there in the music and you are not getting it upto a satisfactory level. Saying it having a good midrange and not much bass points to what?

Awaiting listening impressions with FH3.


Kanwar

I guess with FH3 it can produce decent bass. I mean to say it shines in area which I like most and I am happy with that. If I dont like in future I have already plans to add stealth woofer as suggested by Dave.

Thanks
Badri

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Maybe I should say that I do not mean this question in any controversial way. In fact I am more than happy to take the word of some of our experienced HFVers' ears, and this is not at all about the subjective/objective thing, but...

DIYers, do you measure? Is that even possible with anechoic rooms and all? And if you do, how and what do you measure?

Just curious and desiring to learn.

EDIT: This should be a different thread, I'll make one. Requesting answers/discussion Here.


.

 

[badrisuper]

I got my FH3 delivered. Its very safely packed which survived DTDC's hard handling. Bibin and Brijin did fantastic job. Thanks to both. Speakers were with me for more than a week now. I dont have any CD players to do a complete test though playing it with a blu ray player. It didnt fail. But I listened to it when I went to cochin to meet Bibin and Bijin and their work, the setup is like this computer through USB type sound card and Le Monstre setup. We kept the speakers in an open space and were listening to it for few minutes. Immediate thing I feel is bass. You have to listen to it to believe this. Never expected such a bass from small speakers. Here attaching the picture which I took it in cochin. The speaker build is fantastic. They paid very good attention for each and everything.

To mention The Le monstre amp sound is musical like tube sound. To my ears I like Le monstre than F5. I happened to hear both F5 and Le Monstre at their place. But with different setup. Le Monstre is with Alpair Drivers and F5 with Fostex. Cab for those amp looks so beautiful. After I listening to it I started gathering parts for Le Monstre. Hope I will bug them again for cab.

Thanks
Badri

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Would love to feast eyes and ears on these if I may, please?

 

[Hari Iyer]

Hope this is not too much offtopic. We are always reminded that, due to laws of physics, the bass from small speakers is limited --- but isn't this usually to do with the size of the box, rather than the driver?

A quick answer from in-thread speaker experts will do me fine . But the answer probably relates to these speakers anyway, so not so offtopic.

]I respect your listening tastes but how come one can get satisfied by lack of bass in the music when the bass is there in the music and you are not getting it upto a satisfactory level.

Bass if less can be improved by optimum speaker placement. With my experience with TLs, i have seen that adding the correct amount of damping density can increase bass as this helps to make the cone little stiffer. From the images seen, i think the damping is quite low causing the cone stifness to suffer a bit and there by reduce the bass. Increasing the damping coefficient can actually increase the bass and also tame the mid-range a lot. Also if the mid-range is on the higher side then the bass would be masked by the mid-range. If this is the case adding some kind of compensation network can be of help to bring the level accuracy.

@bibbin: what is the weight of the polyester fiber used by you in the open and closed end? Let me know the length of the open side of the line and i could suggest you some method to increase bass (if possible).
Also let me know the fostex driver model nbr for simulation. thxs.

 

[sbg]

Bass if less can be improved by optimum speaker placement. With my experience with TLs, i have seen that adding the correct amount of damping density can increase bass as this helps to make the cone little stiffer. From the images seen, i think the damping is quite low causing the cone stifness to suffer a bit and there by reduce the bass. Increasing the damping coefficient can actually increase the bass and also tame the mid-range a lot. Also if the mid-range is on the higher side then the bass would be masked by the mid-range. If this is the case adding some kind of compensation network can be of help to bring the level accuracy.

@bibbin: what is the weight of the polyester fiber used by you in the open and closed end? Let me know the length of the open side of the line and i could suggest you some method to increase bass (if possible).
Also let me know the fostex driver model nbr for simulation. thxs.

I think, you all should be keeping a tab on the diyaudio thread too. Post 1191 ,1192,1193 As far as fostex is concerned, damping does not help much. Corners /walls/reflectors .

 

[manoj.p]

Is it just me or that these speakers are placed only couple feet apart? I wonder how the sound stage would be. These mid-ranges are quite small, so even if these are placed near walls, it can actually help bass rather than hurt it.

 

[manniraj]

Is it just me or that these speakers are placed only couple feet apart? I wonder how the sound stage would be. These mid-ranges are quite small, so even if these are placed near walls, it can actually help bass rather than hurt it.

Manoj, I think this photo is posted by badri taken in bijin's workshop and not the actual placement in his home i think.

 

[manoj.p]

oh okay. I read "just got delivered" and I thought this is how its set up. Hope he has enough space to spread these apart and shine.

 

[Hari Iyer]

I think, you all should be keeping a tab on the diyaudio thread too. Post 1191 ,1192,1193 As far as fostex is concerned, damping does not help much. Corners /walls/reflectors .

I do not agree totally. If they are used in an back loaded horn enclosure the acoustic crossover will work and you do not need to damp much. If they are used in a linear transmission line loading then you need to damp them quite heavily (FE166en) especially if the length is around 4 feet.

 

[sbg]

I do not agree totally. If they are used in an back loaded horn enclosure the acoustic crossover will work and you do not need to damp much. If they are used in a linear transmission line loading then you need to damp them quite heavily (FE166en) especially if the length is around 4 feet.

ok.

TL vs Mk3 - how different are these two? (Pardon me, I'm only on few books and Google "knowledge" )

I guess the thread was specifically for 126e needing Support from walls/corners not all Fostexs.

My 126e is sitting in this enclosuer - below image ( something recommended hybrid ( pdf link ) )

Damping did not help much - Walls are his family now.
Possibly I'll move them to Mk3 later this year.

 

[Hari Iyer]

ok.

TL vs Mk3 - how different are these two? (Pardon me, I'm only on few books and Google "knowledge" )

I guess the thread was specifically for 126e needing Support from walls/corners not all Fostexs.

My 126e is sitting in this enclosuer - below image ( something recommended hybrid ( pdf link ) )

Damping did not help much - Walls are his family now.
Possibly I'll move them to Mk3 later this year.

Thanks sbg for the images. I am not able to open the pdf link. By looking at the image, yours box is a back loaded expandable horn and not a TL and hence it has an acoustic cross-over. Damping at the open end will not be of any use here. Also the close end is very small and cannot get additional stiffness by damping here. Try putting some sand near the mouth opening. You can contact FM Satyaki for more details as he is an expert with this kind of box loading.