The Japanese Experiment by Craig Schmidt In the late 60's / early 70's most of my armed forces buddies were coming back from Asia. Naturally they brought back stereo equipment. Pioneer or Sansui receivers and Pioneer speakers were the units of choice. These speakers had nice woodwork with sculptured grills but the sound was certainly different than what I was accustomed to. I pondered over this for about 30 seconds and then went back to what people did back then and getting into the tunes. Now, thirty years later, and I am thinking about it again. There are three reasons for this. The first reason is because of Dr. Gizmo (of course). On his website was an article about the virtues of alnico and pretty much how the cost justified the return gained in sound quality. Naturally I agree with that, but how many of us can really afford (or even want to spend) that kind of money on a set of drivers. Just how close could one come to audio utopia without them? The second reason was generated by my last project (The 66% Solution). This speaker system sounds very natural in the midrange and highs but the bass is a little strange. It goes very deep but there is a slight gap, so to speak, in the response probably around 80 to 100 hz. I think I could fix it easy enough, but I wanted to change the looks as well as the sound. The third reason is because the Japanese people seem to be into this hobby big time. I was curious to hear what their impression of a good sounding speaker was. I decided to make a totally Japanese designed loudspeaker system! I have stated this many times, but for the record, here it goes again. In my opinion, Fostex makes the best drivers for the money. To be sure, they are not cheap. They cost a lot of money compared to many others, but they are not expensive. They are worth what they charge. Plus the range of units they offer is phenomenal! You want alnico? You got it. You want wood horns? They are yours for the asking. Even just looking at their full range product line will blow your mind. Plus, every driver you purchase from them has paperwork offering suggestions for complete speaker systems. I chose one of these and stuck to the plan. I already had most of the drivers. The t90 tweeters are alnico but the cost is low enough to use these plus they are horn loaded. The midrange task was going to the H400 wood horns and the D1405 ferrite based drivers. This combo works extremely well (I found that out by using them on my 66's). The bass called for an extreme driver (for me anyway). The Fostex FW405 woofer is HUGE! It is also built like a tank. (I purchased these new from HIFIDO. I got an incredible deal on them and great service to boot. As far as I am concerned they are the only place to use for purchasing these products.) Mr. Fostex recommends a hundred liter cabinet using a four-inch port, so I built one out of ¾ inch MDF and mahogany veneer (but doubled the face). I then built the crossover that was also suggested. I used components of good quality (like Solen. I know the Japanese use these because I ordered caps from them before and that was what I got.), but nothing exotic. I also added a zobel network to the woofer as per the plan. I noticed that a lot of Japanese cabinets had removable backs. So does this project and I like it much better than a fixed unit. It is so much easier to set everything up and also to modify later if needed. I put the woofer on the inside of the 1.5" thick cabinet face. "Pray tell Craig, why did you do that?" Because children I learned something about driver alignment with my last project. It has to be close if not perfect. The problem for me was that the horn sticks out so far over the cabinet it does not look right (but sounds fine). So I figured I would give myself a little added distance to play with. Enough talk about the construction. Time to listen It has often been said that Japanese speakers tend to sound bright or too forward (at least that is what I have heard.). I do not agree! I now think I have a handle on what these people like. They want to be close to the music. An example of this would be like sitting in the front row of a theater. Up close and involved. This speaker system does just that! Yet it is not fatiguing like a lot of forward sounding speakers that I have heard (an example of this was a very popular speaker of the 70's put out by JBL.). Live recordings sounded like you were there and that is really it, there was a lot of thereness (if there is such a word) there. No one driver stuck out. The big three blended together quite well. The sound was immensely enjoyable. Third reason solved! You might think that using a fifteen-inch woofer would kick out prodigious amounts of bass but it doesn't. Oh, they go very deep when called for, yet these drivers are very smooth all the way up to their crossover point (which is pretty high in my opinion.). What can one say about the midrange that the 1405/H400 combo produces? Old clichés used many times to describe sound quality just do not fit here. They are just excellent period! Second reason solved! Now solving the first reason for starting this project is a bit tricky. I do not have a full alnico based system to use for comparison. No need to worry though. If it sounds right it is right!! So dear Doctor: Alnico may be the king of sound, along with it's kingly price tag, but I'll bet us peasants can come pretty damn close with good ferrite drivers assuming the drivers are designed properly. My wife loves these new speakers and says I am now allowed to converse with the good doctor again. What a gal! Top