My first FR (Full-Range) speakers... (Coral Flat 10s)*

I am liking them quite a bit, especially with the Lute, et al kind of music.

They are Coral Flat 10s in their original cabs (OB in the future)...They really flesh out the midrange!

 

Haven't seen a pic of Corals in a while...

 

What's all that other junk?

 

FR? I'm guessing that's "full range"?

 

Hey, that's his gear!

 

Me too...what is FR?

 

FR is Freakin Real.............I think.

 

I don't know what FR means either... I am curious though.

 

FR means Ef Ar...Full Range fellas...

The other gear is
speakers: Cabasse Galion IV, Platinum Audio Studio 1, a pair of Telefunken and Clearaudio Delta monitors
other stuff: Telefunken S81 INtegrated tube amp, Spectron 1KW amp, 2A3 amp, 6SN7 preamp, Resolution Audio CDP, lexicon RT10, Parasound tuner.

 

I hope you enjoy them in the baffles soon. I don't have any experience with the speakers you have but I did have an 8 inch full range in a tapered quarter wave cabinet about 15 years ago. I truly enjoyed them and I miss that sound. I had subs to fill out the bottom end for a while but even without they were very nice - very real sounding. Vocals were intimate. They had pinpoint accuracy in the soundstage.

 

How are the highs in a FR speaker?

 

I don't think I will need subs...I mainly listen to solo Lute, Theorbo, Vihuela, etc...When I need to rock or do Jazz Fusion, I play the Platinum Audios with the SS amp...But, yeah..OB will be the next step.

 

I had the coral beta 8 for a while here and couldnt get on with them, I thought the mark audio alpair 12p sounded much better. the one's you have I think are the one's to get from what I gathered.

 

The ones I have are quite cheaper, but well liked....In all honesty I wanted to get some Beta's but couldn't justify the cost..

 

Not to rain on anyone parade, but I "did " Full Range around 5 years ago. I had huge cabinets made of MDF and had full range 10 inch speakers in each.

Now, for *some* music, they are great. Like Surf Guitar stuff.

But I ended up really missing the upper and lower frequencies that Full Range omits.
I went back to a 3 way pair of Tannoy Saturn Floor standers, and have been happy ever since.

Really, it depends on what kind of music you listen to more than any other.

 

Actually, it depends on the driver. Some really do quite well reproducing treble and bass. As you didn't reveal what driver you were using, or box design, we're left with zero context.

jeff

 

Jeff, NO Full Range driver is going to match having a dedicated woofer and tweeter. Such a FR driver does not exist, regardless of price.

My system was Audio Nirvana 10 inch deluxe (with the Bigger magnet) FR drivers, and the speaker boxes were made exactly to Audio Nirvana's plans.
Some things sounded good, like The Ventures, whose records had a lot of midrange.

However, Orchestral material sounded poor. It sounded like a blanket was placed over the speakers. Strings, especially.

 

I've been playing around with FR and open baffle (OB) lately. I started down this path because I was interested in very low power tube amps, which led to high efficiency drivers, which led to FR drivers, which led to open baffle (OB) applications. I suspect many have gone down this path long before me. Anyway, after getting sucked in by reading hundreds of posts in epic threads about FR and OB, I bought some cheap Visaton BG-20s and literally mounted them in cardboard in the basement. Interesting. Then I mounted them in barrel-shaped 1/2" ply. Better.

Then I bought WildBurro Betsy 8" FR drivers, which were mounted in the ply baffles. Wow, really nice. I've been playing around with them for a few weeks now, moving them around the room, supporting them on the bottom with a small sub. They sound quite different because of the back wave bouncing around the room. When well positioned, out in the room and away from side walls, there are moments I'm almost frozen in place because of the immensity of the image being projected. It is not pinpoint, almost the opposite, but sounds really good to my ears when it's right.

My next step is having bought Eminence Alpha 15A 15" woofers and 3/4" cherry plywood. I'll mount them with the Betsy drivers in the next week or two and will cross the woofers at 200-300 hz. Many others have reported success using these two drivers in OB applications. I'm excited to try it, and love the idea of these giant diaphragms cranking in free air. FWIW, when listening to the Betsy drivers, I haven't felt the need for tweeter support, although I'm also in my 50s.

I'm not going to claim that OB is the best thing ever, and there are plenty of detractors for sure, but it is (1) fun and inexpensive to play around with and (2) provides a markedly different sound than normal reflex designs. For me, it's an interesting way to play around with an aspect of the hobby that is very DIY but not insanely expensive. If you've never heard OB and are into the hobby, you owe it to yourself to hang some Betsy, Dayton, Fostex, AudioNirvana, Lowther or other appropriate drivers in a slab of ply and check it out for yourself. All IMO.

 

Crap, did you mean the tools?