Fane 12-250TC Retro Speaker.

[Cressy Snr]

The Fanes have become accepted in the living room. Ornaments have been placed.


Better get them prettied up with the retro makeover this week then before she changes her mind.

[chris661]

DO NOT run the subs off a NVA circuit amp.

The subs would be run with an active crossover and their own amplifier. Likely a Crown MA12000i, or I might get out the old MA5002VZ. The former is one of the best PA amplifiers on the market currently, and the latter is the previous version - a class AB/H 5KW monster with a pair of toroidal transformers that still mandate a 3U chassis.

Why won't an NVA amplifier run a couple of 15" cones?
The subs are pretty efficient, around 95dB at 1w, so I'd expect them to run fine with pretty much anything.

Chris

[steve s]

My little nva amp works fine with my speakers.. highly efficient bass drivers seem to work a treat with these amps..

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

I am biased as I have a distaste for them. I find them artificial and unmusical. PLUS, that company (forgotten the name) that recommends you run a line level (I presume) from the speaker terminals. When they were popular I lost a few amps because of them. Not sure why but just said NO SUBWOOFERS it made life simpler, problem stopped.

[Cressy Snr]

Four days in and these drivers are breaking in nicely. I suspect they will take a while longer to fully run in, but bass is getting stronger by the day.
What we have here is, in a word "fun." What there is, with these Fanes in the 78L sealed cabinets is an abundance of grin factor the like of which this enthusiast has not experienced in a very long time. Not since a schoolmate playing "Roxette" by Dr Feelgood round at his house, through his Dad's Goodmans Magisters, back in 1975, have I had such a good time with a sound system.

The Fanes have such a happily honest way with music, you can't help but be sucked in by the soulful sounds they give out. Records, CDs, streaming , rock, r&b, soul, funk, jazz, blues, pop oldies, classical, they extract plenty of music from whatever you feed them with. Fed by my DIYNVA amplification and a new twin mono pot passive preamp our Ant brought round a couple of days ago, the speakers are providing 8 hours a day of solid, no nonsense musical entertainment. Hi-Fi? You go wash out your mouth boy.

Veneer and oblique tapered legs are ordered, Rexine and basket weave grill cloth is ready for action, so they should soon be fully dressed in their 'fifties livery, ready to kick musical ass for the rest of me natural.

[chris661]

I am biased as I have a distaste for them. I find them artificial and unmusical. PLUS, that company (forgotten the name) that recommends you run a line level (I presume) from the speaker terminals. When they were popular I lost a few amps because of them. Not sure why but just said NO SUBWOOFERS it made life simpler, problem stopped.

Subwoofers can be very difficult to integrate. Once you've got the crossover in the right place, you've got to drop the subwoofer level until you just about can't tell the subwoofer is in use, until you switch it off - if you switch it off, you should find an octave or two of low-frequency information missing. Despite the large cones and amplification to match, they should be subtle. Many subwoofer users miss that entirely, and set their subwoofer up so it's very obviously audible, which detracts from the musical experience.

Chris

[Cressy Snr]

Here is the in-room, 3rd octave, pink noise response, taken at 1m and 30deg off axis, quarter space positioning.


Not bad for a single driver.

[andrew Ivimey]

Please Sir, waves hand enrhusiastically, what does 30degrees off axis errr and the rest mean,plesse?

[chris661]

The 30 degrees would be that the mic is 30 degrees away from directly on-axis with the speaker.
A cone has rotational symmetry about an axis, and it's that axis that we're comparing to.

Quarter-space is a bit easier - imagine a sphere, and cut it into four equal pieces. Each speaker is radiating into a space that's the shape of 1/4 of a sphere, when placed on the floor and against a wall. Corner-loading is 1/8th space, groundplane is half-space, and on a very tall stick is full-space. The latter is only really of consequence for PA applications.

Chris

[andrew Ivimey]

Hmmmm sounds like an act of faith to me but thanks Chris. This then is the right place to measure such things?

[Cressy Snr]

Nothing wrong with my measurements squire.

Bloody skeptics.

[chris661]

Hmmmm sounds like an act of faith to me but thanks Chris. This then is the right place to measure such things?

Measuring speakers at the intended listening angle and placement is a good idea, IMO.

I tend to do things a little differently with my PA speakers - they have to work (or close enough) in any room I happen to use them in, so I take them outside and get them flat. I then use the processing available to me to help smooth out room issues (like peaks due to standing waves, etc) at individual venues.

I'm quite tempted by the Fane full-range units for stage monitor use, but then I go back to something like a 10" coaxial - the good ones of those will match the 15" Fane for output while using a smaller box, but then I've got to do a crossover for the coaxial units. Decisions...

Chris

[Cressy Snr]

Stage one of the retro styling process is done, walnut veneer will follow this weekend.

Fronts have been covered with a nice vintage "Dansette" maroon coloured Rexine.
Walnut oblique tapered legs are due next Tuesday.

Did this last night and I've just come down an the evo-stik high
Far out Daddio.

[Cressy Snr]

Two in-room response sets below.

Response 1:
taken at 1m on axis, looking straight down the barrel at the dustcap:

Note the rising response, but it's fairly even apart from a peak at 8KHz, which is exactly like the Fostex FF225WK without damping ring.



Response 2:
taken 1m at 30deg off axis, which is representative in my room of listening in the near field, with the drivers pointing straight down the room.
Useful treble is maintained up to 16KHz (Fane claim 17KHz, which is probably about right)
Granted, it does roll down at that listening angle, but it is still a very good listen.


Obviously there may be a point somewhere in between, where the FR gets nice and flat. Nevertheless, these drivers do project a very useable, wide soundfield. Would love to compare this with the full-range 15"-er.

[Cressy Snr]

Moved from Colin's thread.

Steve,
From your posted up images just as shoddy as your new Fane FR speakers, of which from your reported performance feedback I am looking forward to hearing.

Aye, they are a good driver. I've been on a big push, for a while towards simplicity with both speakers and electronics.
This time last year everything amplification wise had become so complex that for want of a better description, I had disappeared up my own backside. All I got out of those adventures was a big hole in my wallet, an amp that wouldn't drive anything and a load of frustration and humiliation.

I'm hoping these speakers along with the pink SET will go a bit towards my rehabilitation, but there's a long way to go.
The only caveat I would make, is that what I think is great sound, because I'm in the process of climbing out of a hole, will just sound normal to you lot at Owston