Fostex FE126en Driver Bssed Horn Loaded Speakers

denom

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Heard these speakers made by FM satyakibanerjee, couple of hours back. Amp used was Lyrita 2A3, Source was laptop with HRT Music Streamer II DAC & Speaker cables also made by satyaki.
Putting up pics of the same.

Will write about them subsequently.


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Pic with the grille in place

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Does the speakers need reinforcement from a sub or they have adequate lower presence.
I am also contemplating a fostex horn speaker but I haven't heard one before so don't know what to expect.
 
Does the speakers need reinforcement from a sub or they have adequate lower presence.
I am also contemplating a fostex horn speaker but I haven't heard one before so don't know what to expect.

:D, I knew this question will be asked as the 1st pic shows a Jamo Sub in the background. It was just kept there(not connected) as there was no other space allotted for it by his wife, I suppose:p

The 'Serenata' as satyaki has christened them go to 40hz, so I do not see any reason for you to augment for more LF presence, if you use them for music only.
 
Great Build quality and finish. Looks very similar to the design provided by Fostex on their website. I am sure it has been modified internally as per Satya's calculations. If the lows are not strong enough due to masking by the mids & highs, it can be brought to level by using a Baffle Step Compensation. But again this has to be tweaked to the room the speakers will be finally installed. As per my last visit to Satya's home he has very minimum soft furnishing at home due to which mids / highs will tend to be a little bright due to more reflections. With an moderate amount of soft furnishing around this issue would be solved. I am planning visit tomorrow afternoon if time permits.
Cheers,
 
A Fostex BLH system that I have heard using 208 drivers is one of the best systems that I have heard and it certainly doesnt need a sub. Of course the amp also matters.-this one used high power NAD amp.
 
It has been a while since I last heard FM satyakis speakers & during that meeting he had informed me about making another set with a different design in mind. The details of the design & such I will leave to satyaki to write about.

Satyaki had just finished the speakers he has christened as Serenata a few days ago & had messaged me to come over for a listen. The speakers according to satyaki had hardly been playing for about 4 odd hours prior to my visit & so were virtually fresh off the blocks!

The Serenatas are made for a client of his having specific requirements of being placed in his bedroom & so the size of the cabinets was critical. Satyaki will mention more on this & about cab dimensions. They will be paired with a lyrita EL84 Tubes based push pull tube amp having out put of 18Watts per channel.

Satyaki had connected the Serenatas to his Lyrita 2A3 SET Amp using speaker cables designed by him & connected to his laptop with an HRT Music StreamerII DAC. He has yet to set up his Project TT & so could not get a chance to listen to an all analogue set-up.

Played my test tracks one after the other & satyaki also played some of his & suddenly what was planned as an hour or so of listening became a 2 & hour session! When one enjoys the music, it is very easy to lose track of time.

Couple of my observations:

The speakers require an amp with more power to really shine. Would love to hear how these go with the EL84 based amp that is going to be partnered with. Would also love to hear a SS amp with them as the SS amp might show us something more about these speakers, especially wrt genres such as hard rock/metal :licklips:

The HRT music streamer II yet again proved why I do not fancy it much. Was hoping to hear a Antelope Zodiac DAC but satyaki advised that it will take him some more time to acquire it :p Suggested that he look at the Maverick Audio Tubemagic D2 as a stop gap.

The Fostex drivers are class. Even though they need couple of hundred hours to really show what they can do, even in their current unopened status they played mighty fine.

Very good soundstage, instrument separation & vocals esp female ones are fantastically reproduced.

Very good cabinet workmanship & the veneer looks beautiful. Satyaki said that the speakers are heavy @ around 40kgs each!

Overall I was really impressed with Satyakis efforts. He plans to make these & a couple of other designs on an made to order basis, which is I feel is a good thing as someone looking for a musical pair of speakers which will do justice to almost everything (music wise) that 1 can throw at them.

On inquiring about the prices, he advised that the ones he has made with cedar wood veneer will be sold for 50k. Cheaper options would be with laminates which he can offer from 40k onwards.

All in all, a pair of these speakers with a sufficiently powered amp(tube/ss) & an mid level DAC/CDP/TT can do justice to ones requirements & keep one satiated for a long period of time without having to think of upgrading in the near future. A budget of a lac can get one there quite comfortably.
 
Thanks Denom for your kind words and for your time to come over for the listening session. Your passion for audio and specially for speakers is simply amazing.

Coming to the subject of the Serenata speakers... Having built a size no constraint double mouth horn for the Fostex FE166En driver....and having discovered the virtues of such a design; I decided to build a smaller BLH with dimensions that would be comparable to a conventional floor standing speaker.

I decided to use the Fostex FE126 En drivers for this design. The volume of the driver chamber has been tuned to provide an acoustic crossover at 150Hz for horn loading. The horn has been tuned to augment frequencies upto 50Hz and then gradually sloping down till 40Hz and then dropping like a stone.

The driver and the horn as a single system would provide a frequency response from 25kHz to 50Hz, sensitivity of 93 dB/W/m and an impedence of 8ohms.

The length of the horn is a bit longer than 2.5m, with an exponential expansion profile till about 1/2 wavelength of the driver's Fs and then rapidly expanding to the maximum mouth area I could fit into an enclosure of such a modest size (as per horn standards). I have based the folding pattern and the external appearance on a Fostex design that is recommended for a different driver.

I have used Monster XP cables for internal connection.

Thanks Hari for your comments. I am pleasantly amazed with the Fostex FE126En driver. The performance of this transducer in the mid and high frequencies, the extreme speed and the resultant details that it brings out of the recording is absolutely stunning. I am finding it more musical than the bigger 166En.

Its hard to believe that a 4in driver with a Fs of 83Hz and xmax of 0.35mm would produce bass.. But thats where the incredible motor strength and the low Qts of 0.3 comes in handy. In a horn enclosure these drivers would work like a piston and the Fs becomes less relevant. When I did the simulation using my spreadsheet, I realized that in a right sized horn, these drivers can produce as low as 20Hz.... WAF of such a horn is a different factor altogether.... But with a modest target of 50 or 40 Hz, its possible to design a horn with reasonable dimensions.

At the design stage, I did feel that the speakers would need a baffle step compensation but after listening to the completed speakers I personally feel that its offering a fine tonal balance across the frequency spectrum.

Denom, can you share your thoughts on the tonal balance and the LF extension?
 
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Satyaki, I agree with your observations written above.

As for writing more about the tonal balance & LF extension, I think the speakers need to be paired to a more powerful amp than 2A3SET, to do justice. As you are aware, I also did not fancy the HRT Music StreamerII as the DAC & so I feel that with a different DAC & Amp, surely these speakers will sound even better than what I heard the other day.

Maybe another person should have a listen to the speakers with the current set-up, to give another perspective?
Who better than the owner who will have them set-up in his home!

:)
 
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