My beloved Fostex FE 103 SOL

Johantull,

Thank for the summary! As to amps, yes I run a variety of SS and tube. In fact, the F120a are most particular--don't do well on SS--bass is fine but highs are pathetic. Switch over to tubes & you wouldn't know that it was the same driver! F120a's sing like angels with both PP and single ended tubes.

Cheers, Jim
 
45rpmspinner said:
Welcome!

I've owned a similar pair of DIY horns with six inch drivers for close to fifteen years. Mine are ugly as sin [still in primer grey], but I absolutely love 'em.
They'd be hooked up now if they weren't so finicky about placement and I had the proper room.
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I'm really sorry for the late replay but here i am, finally. Hope you can use your gray ones soon. Gray i getting popular these days you know ;) I think it never matters how something turns out, finishing a project is what matters the most and when you finish a project with flying collars i mean, that's what keeps me going. the endless hunt for perfection and improvement. But most important, finish what you have started :) Did you use tweeters or were/is the top end of the 6" speakers enough? may i ask what drivers you use and maybe something about blueprints an you know, cables and so on. you got me really curios :)
Take care.
 
I dig the wallpaper :)

I got to listen to a pair of 3" fostex based horns at Decibel Audio in Chicago. I remember thinking they were... Weird - but I'd like to live with a pair for a couple weeks to investigate farther.

I'm sure yours sound great. Thanks for the push toward looking back into this type of speaker
 
Johantull said:
Did you use tweeters or were/is the top end of the 6" speakers enough? may i ask what drivers you use and maybe something about blueprints an you know, cables and so on. you got me really curios
Click to expand...

I've never had a problem with the top end, but then, I can't say I look to full-range horns for "perfection".
To me they're more about a "natural" sounding presentation. Some like the sound, others do not.

That said, I've had good results using them with modest open-baffle arrays. It's a fun, relatively easy, way to play with creating a somewhat larger, more open sound.

My drivers are Fostex-made proprietary units originally mounted in a much smaller dimensioned horn-type speaker, the manufacturer of which is now defunct.

Blueprints? A good question. They were built by a friend who used to be very active on DIY forums. He gave them to me for cost.
Could well be standard Fostex plans. Proportions look like they may be exactly the same as your speakers with all dimensions increased by approximately 30%.
Port is in the front however.
 
For around a grand it's hard to do better than the Fostex Horn Shoppe Horns. You can see the maze like folds that make many BL horns designs a difficult DIY build. I've read that Art Dudley owns a pair which are his daily drivers.

innards.jpg
 
asilker said:
I dig the wallpaper :)

I got to listen to a pair of 3" fostex based horns at Decibel Audio in Chicago. I remember thinking they were... Weird - but I'd like to live with a pair for a couple weeks to investigate farther.

I'm sure yours sound great. Thanks for the push toward looking back into this type of speaker
Click to expand...
Cool! what do you think of the bottom? they are only 3" but how was the presence? my 4" go really deep but in a very natural way :)
 
Poultrygeist said:
For around a grand it's hard to do better than the Fostex Horn Shoppe Horns. You can see the maze like folds that make many BL horns designs a difficult DIY build. I've read that Art Dudley owns a pair which are his daily drivers.

innards.jpg
Click to expand...
looks really cool :) that's god-mode in DIY in my opinion. MUCH easier whit starlight angles :)
 
45rpmspinner said:
I've never had a problem with the top end, but then, I can't say I look to full-range horns for "perfection".
To me they're more about a "natural" sounding presentation. Some like the sound, others do not.

That said, I've had good results using them with modest open-baffle arrays. It's a fun, relatively easy, way to play with creating a somewhat larger, more open sound.

My drivers are Fostex-made proprietary units originally mounted in a much smaller dimensioned horn-type speaker, the manufacturer of which is now defunct.

Blueprints? A good question. They were built by a friend who used to be very active on DIY forums. He gave them to me for cost.
Could well be standard Fostex plans. Proportions look like they may be exactly the same as your speakers with all dimensions increased by approximately 30%.
Port is in the front however.
Click to expand...
sounds really interesting, mine are 900mm without the foot. I've been poking around the woods of open baffle land but I'm not there yet. would be super cool to listen on a pair some day.
 
Poultrygeist said:
For around a grand it's hard to do better than the Fostex Horn Shoppe Horns. You can see the maze like folds that make many BL horns designs a difficult DIY build. I've read that Art Dudley owns a pair which are his daily drivers.

innards.jpg
Click to expand...
I run a pair of these with the ESS tweets ( Hornshoppe Great Horned Heils) I drive them with a small hand built(not my hands) 10w tube amp,or a First Watt F5. I think they sound incredible.
 
TEA FOR ONE said:
I run a pair of these with the ESS tweets ( Hornshoppe Great Horned Heils) I drive them with a small hand built(not my hands) 10w tube amp,or a First Watt F5. I think they sound incredible.
Click to expand...

I've listened to the Great Horned Heils on several occasions and they never cease to amaze.

the_great_horned_hei.jpg
 
Johantull said:
Cool! what do you think of the bottom? they are only 3" but how was the presence? my 4" go really deep but in a very natural way :)
Click to expand...
The pair I heard did a great job with imaging and midrange, but didn't do such a good job with frequency extension or dynamics
 
asilker said:
The pair I heard did a great job with imaging and midrange, but didn't do such a good job with frequency extension or dynamics
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Intresting, thanks to your reply I've now read about frequency extension:) I guess full range horns ar better suited for aucustic music. Jazz sounds best in my horns, in my opinion of course:)
 
Corner loaded HS Horns have excellent dynamics and surprising bass especially when driven by high current Pass amps.

Ed augments the LF of the Great Horned Heils with a pair of his bucket subs.
 
Johantull: I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised if you build a 300B amp for your FE103Sols. Those enclosures look beautiful, btw. Mine are in a pair of Woden Shrike that I built a couple of years ago (http://wodendesign.com/downloads/Woden-BabyLabs-081015.pdf) and had been listening through a small transistor amp. I breadboarded the Western Electric 91A schematic that was published in a 1992 issue of Sound Practices (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/sound_practices/1/single_300b.pdf) and decided to try it with the Sols -- and it completely transformed them. Like another poster here, I find the upper treble a tad shrill with the transistor amp, but with the single-ended 300B everything is just... right. Tone, ambiance, emotion of the performance. These really are wonderful drivers.

IMG_0555.jpg
 
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