An Excellent Introduction To Full Range Drivers

With the addition of a few easy to do mods these little speakers will easily equal or even out perform commercial ones costing 2x to 3x more.



The mods:



1. You'll want to dampen the outside of the motor (the magnet) with some cork, felt or dense foam. I used a piece of 1/2 thick felt carpet padding I just happened to have around. A tip: the inside diameter of a roll of most brands of masking or painters tape is more or less equal to the outside diameter of the magnet assembly.



2. The FE130En drivers can be somewhat brittle and bright sounding in the upper midrange. A loose filling of the center of the enclosures (volume damping) with some cut or torn pieces of open cell foam can go a long way to warming things up without negatively impacting either the clarity or presence Fostex drivers are known for.

For my part, I used an old, long forgotten pillow purchased years ago from Costco. The foam not only was open cell but also had a series of regularly spaced holes originally meant to keep the head of the person sleeping on it cool throughout the night.

Note: take care to keep your pieces of foam large enough that you leave room for the enclosure to breath.



3. Lastly, if you're concerned about the stamped steel chassis ringing, you can dampen it by filling the gap between it and the magnet with something like duct seal.



Note: Mods 1 and and 2 involve little more than five minutes of additional work and should be considered essential. Mod 3 is a bit more involved and, at least in my estimation, is only necessary when whatever ringing occurs is audible.

Mod 2 is best done trial and error using your ear as guide. I started off with 1/2 fill and ended with about 2/3 fill. Less or even more might sound best to you.



One last note, making use of a short (stubby) hand held screwdriver can go a long way to helping prevent slipping and accidentally pushing the tool into and through the driver. I've built over two dozen speakers, subwoofers and sound bars and never once had an accident with a stubby in my hand.