Greenie512

I noticed a question on DIYAudio from Hugo about horns and as he lived nearby I invited him over to do some listening. Hugo brought along John and Daniel.

So this is what I set up: -

• Outer speakers - Seas Thor transmission lines (my reference)
• Middle pair - Dennis Murphy’s CAOW1 - 2 ways, veneered except fronts (just not enough time)
• Inner - Fostex FE126’s in recommended horn cabinets. Cabinets raw MDF (see why later?)

TL’s biamped with X series Musical Fidelity amps/CD. Other two speakers initially driven with MF A100 amp and Denon CD (out of shot).

I asked they guys to do a review and Hugo was the first out of the hatch, so I’ve included it below. John will do one a little later when he gets time.

Mini-Meet, 04-03-2006, Phil's House

Phil's Fostex rear loaded horn speakers were my first introduction to single driver speakers and horn loaded speakers. They use Fostex FE126E drivers. I had no idea what to expect from the tiny speakers and was blown away to discover that the huge sound I was hearing was coming from such tiny drivers. The most immediately notable feature of the horn speakers is their massive and natural soundstage. The next thing I noticed was how beautiful and natural they sound with vocals and instrumental music. Upon listening to Ella Fitzgerald accompanied by a piano, I closed my eyes and could feel her singing in front of me. Probably more than any speakers I have ever heard, these were transparent. They simply disappeared when you close your eyes, due to their natural soundstage and natural reproduction of vocals and instrumental music.

Unfortunately, they were clearly unable to naturally product certain styles of music; particularly heavily electronic based music such as Bjork. When listening to Bjork the music was somewhat muddy, but her vocals were extremely natural, strong and somewhat exaggerated over the backing music. They never sounded ugly (distorting, overly harsh, etc), but at times were lacking in clarity - on this style of music.

The other downside of the Fostex horns was the lower bass. They had sufficient bass to reproduce almost any music beautifully, except for music which achieves low bass electronically. For comparison, a double bass' tone was reproduced very faithfully and naturally, whereas the intro to “Angel” by Massive Attack was absent if the horns were not augmented with a subwoofer. Fortunately, the bass rolloff was quite graceful, so when it was unable to reproduce lower bass it doesn't sound like there's a hole in the music.

The other common complaint about single driver speakers is the supposed lack of treble. The only instance in the day where this was noticeable was at the end of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where a 15kilohertz tone was added (to annoy dogs), which was inaudible on the horns. Whether your dog would hear it is another story. Otherwise there was no issue of lack of treble, and the horns were able to naturally reproduce the highs of violins.

Compared to the Thor TL’s the Fostex horns were clearly less rich and lacking in clarity and detail. This is fortunately not noticeable in normal listening due to the natural feel of the reproduction of the horns, and the relative lack of detail was only noticeable in A-B comparison between the 2 speakers. This comparative lack of detail is probably the biggest downside of the horns.

The volume produced by the horns was remarkable and definitely sufficient for music listening in the room that we were in. Powered by a Cayin A-50T 16W/channel valve amp, the volume knob had to be turned to 9-o-clock to listen at the upper range of what I find to be enjoyable. Despite the tiny driver size, they did not give any indication of wanting to quit at this volume. (Bugger - I didn’t realise they’d done that - no wonder I thought it load)

The horns would probably be best suited for smaller rooms, and the open-plan room that we listened to was somewhat too large for the speakers causing them to sound slightly thin. It seems that they would perform better in a smaller room.

The form factor of the horns is quite small, placing them somewhere between a standard bookshelf speaker and a standard floor standing speaker.

The 15W Sonic Impact T-Amp was easily able to provide sufficient power to handle the horn speakers. However, the Cayin A-50T valve amp provided a more full and lush sound when compared to the T-Amp. For the price, the T-Amp was outstanding, but it was not in the same league as the considerably more expensive valve amp (come-on - 18 x more expensive).

The Thor TL speakers provided a wonderful rich sound. The level of detail and clarity was fantastic with them, and they brought out another level of music. Their soundstage was fairly normal for floor standing speakers, and when compared to the Fostex horn speakers it seemed somewhat limited.

The CAOW1 - 2-way bookshelf speakers didn't get a good listen since they were less interesting than the various extremes of the big boys and the horn speakers, however they had a similar level of clarity to the horn speakers and low, if somewhat boomy, bass. They were also less efficient than the horn speakers but the 16w valve amp didn't appear to have any difficulty powering them.

We all left the meet desiring a pair of horn speakers of our own. Despite being less technically capable than the “big boys”, they stole the show with their charm, huge sound stage and natural presentation.

Hugo King - 05/03/2006

So, the following morning I broke down the demo and moved the horns to their new location. I did this before I received the above, so I think the boys may think this a sacrilege.

Shed Horns

I did offer to sell them the horns and got no offers ... so you can only blame yourselves boys.

June 2007 - it took a while for the penny to drop but John finally bought just the cabinets off me - well actually we did a swap. He made me some interconnects for an old Meridian Pre Amp I acquired on eBay that only used DIN plugs. John bought his own FE 126’s and strangely they had slightly bigger magnets at the back and wouldn’t fit my original openings without a minor trim.