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Just ordered a pair on Amazon. The price is almost half from retail, so couldn't pass it up. Even if they don't sound that good, it will sound better than the cheap pair of Ratshack speakers I'm using for HT now.
Would that something that can be installed after purchase? I just made a quick trip across the line and picked up the 52's in Bellingham and installed them in my ex's living room. Sounded really good to me but I don't get over there very much for any serious critical listening....
Here's a progress report on my experiences with the FS52 towers and attempts to work up a mod. It's very tricky for me to say much about the sound of the stock version, since I have a conflict of interest. I'll just say that you get a heck of a lot of speaker for the money, but there are some things you just can't do (even if you're Andrew Jones) and still come in on budget. The 2.5 configuration adds to the complexity and cost. After listening to the speaker carefully, measuring it, tracing through the stock crossover, modeling it, and futzing, my opinion is that it would take more components to get the midrange out of the way sooner and to let the tweeter handle more of the chore in the lower treble. It's not exactly a state-of-the-art tweeter, and it needs to be rolled off fairly sharply to avoid overloading, but I think I was able to improve the clarity and presence of the speaker by reshaping the tweeter response and using a steeper roll-off slope on the midrange to get its breakup mode (which is not all that severe) suppressed further. I used the top of the cabinet as the design axis to avoid a crossover suckout at the normal listening position, which would be above the tweeter axis on this short tower. I also voiced the tweeter down so that it was flat with the midrange except for a peak at 15 kHz that I couldn't get rid of. My approach was to keep the stock crossover as is, and to simply add an additional circuit for ease of modification and economy. I added two resistors, 1 inductor, and 3 capacitors per side. The total parts cost is $30 - $40/pr depending on the quality of the capacitors used. I have to document everything and get someone to try out a Beta pair before I make the design available. Any current owners of 52's that would like to try out a pair for me to make sure the changes I've made are really going to make owners happy? The closer to Washington, D.C., the better. I'll pay shipping both ways if it's not too far.
Andrew Jones is a really nice guy too. Back in the day when I was studying for my first degree at Essex University and in the early stages of obsession with audio stuff, Andrew was working on noise cancellation- I think it was the Wolfson Noise Cancellation Project, or something like that- at Essex. Even though I wasn't studying anything related to this, Andrew showed me the workshop/ lab and demonstrated a vast bandpass subwoofer that was being used for the noise cancellation project. He also gave me a preamp PCB for a preamp that was, IIRC, designed by his brother, who also designed the Pink Triangle Pip preamp.
Hi Toaster, Andrew here. I'm glad I was nice to you back then!!
