I have been listening to the FR5’s for nearly a year now. Thoroughly enjoying them! Small dedicated room 12(front wall) x 14 x 8 with wood slat sound material on the front wall and additional absorption on the side walls and back. On to the issue; when playing Sleep Paralysis track 5 (same title) I hear a ‘pop’ sound which I belive to be a kick drum througout the track. The drum is hit more than a few times but most notable around 2:30 to 3:00 minutes in. I am listening at moderate to loud level. Yeah, volume is relative. Turn the volume down a bit and that pop is gone. I tried moving the speakers to my main system; different amplifier, pre and cd playing with the same results. I do not hear this pop on my main system which is considerably different; 2x12” woofers, larger lower/upper midrange silk tweeter.
Anybody with FR5’s listen to Sleep Paralysis and experience the same pop?
Maybe I’m driving it too hard? To my ears it sounds like the cone is bottoming.
Your thoughts?
Yes, the pop is you bottoming out the suspension.
You can either play them at lower volume or use an electronic high pass filter to limit the low frequency going to the speaker (which will allow them to play louder). You could then add a subwoofer to fill in the low bass.
Chris, thanks for the confirmation. I was thinking of adding a pair of F12’s vs replacing the FR5’s with the FR10’s. Your thoughts? In my room the bass output of the FR5’s is quite impressive as well the phantom image of voices.
Yes, I think this is a good idea. However, the F12 won’t make the FR5 play louder unless and electronic high-pass is used. You would need an A/V receiver, outboard crossover/DSP etc. to limit the bass and make it play louder. This can have other knock on effects to sound quality and is something to consider (we can discuss this more with you about the rest of your system components). Otherwise, the sub will fill in the low end but you will still have the woofer “pop” at the same maximum level.
Yes, welcome to the forum!
The goal of the FR5 was to give them more bass extension and output than is typical of a 2-way speaker their size but there are definitely limits to how loud they can play. They still play over 102 dB at 1 meter, which is the mid 90’s at a typical listening distance. The FR10 will play about twice as loud.
Well not sure how this would work out. My current setup is vintage (ca 1980’s): Hafler DH500 amplifier, DH110 preamp (no digital, strictly analog) and Arcam DV137 cd. Very basic stuff. However I do have my eyes on Advance Paris A12 classic which is full digital processing and dual subwoofer outputs.
Well, unless you limit the bass going to the FR5, their SPL limitations will be the same as without a subwoofer.
You can do this with a passive line level filter (something like this) https://www.parts-express.com/FMOD-Crossover-Pair-70-Hz-High-Pass-266-272?quantity=1
or a DSP system like the minidsp flex. https://www.minidsp.com/products/minidsp-in-a-box/flex
The implementation of these does have an impact on sound quality (quality of parts and AD/DA conversion).
If you want to avoid dealing with a crossover, moving to a larger tower speaker (like the FR10) would be an option but there is a certain charm and point source imaging to a 2-way speaker that is appealing.
Thanks for the recommendations. I will say that 99.9% of the time the speakers are not bottoming out at moderate or sometimes loud volume. Sleep Paralysis was the most obvious to catch my attention. I will leave things as is and watch the volume. I like the idea of vintage gear mixed with the latest tech.
Let me add that I did a brief demo of a Lindsey Webster song for a friend. Her immediate response was that it sounded like she was in the room. I agree. Her voice was large and centered hovering between the speakers. Excellent!
Well, if you’re happy enough with the output level and want to keep it simple, you could still integrate a subwoofer to fill in the sub bass. I’m just trying to manage expectations so you know not to expect more output (before bottoming the woofer) unless a filter is used.
I’m glad to hear that your friend was enjoying the system too. I thin that the phantom image and midrange is a highlight of the design too.
How do you know that his amplifier is just not up to the task, I have an old set of polk audio sda2a speakers that make this same sound when the amplifier isn’t powerful enough.
Yes, an amp clipping can sound like a driver bottoming but, in this case, I think it’s the woofer. It just doesn’t take a massive amount of power to get there on an FR5 (especially being that he says is rather loud).
I have had my polk audio sda2a do this many times when the amplifier was clipping, but you know your speaker design much better than I do.
The Hafler DH500 is rated at 255 per channel at 8 ohms. Mine was tested by McIntosh in 1986 at 320 watts and 0.003 percent distortion at 1000hz. Of course there is no guarantee what it does today. Still sounds good to my ears.
Here is a good writeup: