DIY FB1i anyone?

[h.g.]

ProAc has made a living off basically doing that.

Why do you think ProAc are using off the shelf drivers? I am not familiar with the products but a glance at their website shows many drivers with Pro-Ac written on them which would require a driver built to specification rather than an off-the-shelf driver. Some of the drivers are non-standard colours for off-the-shelf drivers. They would appear to be drivers built to ProAc specifications by various driver manufacturers. It is possible that the easily customised parts like magnets, coils, formers, spiders, cones, etc... are the same as off-the-shelf DIY drivers but it would be odd if the driver manufacturer is having to gear up to produce batches anyway for the cosmetics.

And they are arguably better than PMC.

It will depend on what you look for in speakers. Both companies have been around for a while and likely have a bunch of happy customers which is perhaps the most important criteria to the market. Neither seem to be players in the high technical performance for reasonable cost that is of most interest to me but that doesn't make them bad speakers just inappropriate ones for my interests.

 

[westsounds]

doesn't make them bad speakers just inappropriate ones for my interests.

Don't you like good speakers

 

[h.g.]

Don't you like good speakers

Probably not in the way most audiophiles mean good. I lean towards technically correct rather than sounds good in order to move towards what was intended to be heard (assuming that wasn't listening with earbuds and a high background noise). Not 100% obviously because unlike most hardware there isn't an exact technically correct for speakers which makes their design much more interesting. I also value one or two other parameters apart from technical performance.

Can I ask again why you think ProAc are using off-the-shelf drivers rather than ones built to their specification by the driver manufacturers? There are significant numbers of posters on DIY forums making similar assumptions/claims and it would be interesting to get a feel for the supporting evidence. My assumption, and it is an assumption, that most speaker manufacturers that purchase complete drivers from third parties specify custom drivers rests on them having the capability and interest to do so. For small scale manufacturers consisting of one or two people it is likely they use off-the-shelf drivers because they won't meet reasonable minimum order quantities for custom drivers. Even here, AVI (2 people) used the fact they had ordered custom drivers from SB Acoustics as part of their marketing. At the expensive end companies like Audio Technology seem to have a minimum order quantity of 1 for custom drivers at least for the components that are straightforward to swap.

 

[westsounds]

Can I ask again why you think ProAc are using off-the-shelf drivers rather than ones built to their specification by the driver manufacturers?

I would say and I am making assumptions here that ProAc actually do have specific drivers made for them now to suit their marketing needs. I've spoken to Stewart Tyler (who basically is ProAc) on multiple occasions and reading between the lines it seems his passion and focus is greatly on the crossover. He spends a considerable amount of time and effort on these more so than any other component. I would say the old models were certainly just off the shelf drivers however as proac have grown they have put more effort (paying) into having drivers that look like they were specifically made for them. The thing is why reinvent the wheel. The likes of the Scanspeak units he was using in the early response speakers for instance and tablets are still some of the best drivers that can be bought. So why change them other than mark them according to your brand which I'm assuming is what is happening now. No doubt he might collaborate sometimes with these driver manufacturers and use something special made but a lot of his models still have some very familiar looking units in them, and that is kind of reassuring at the same time.

 

[Dozey]

I have a pair of original FB1s (s/n 073 and 074) and I got them updated to + spec at the factory a few years ago.

The difference was quite subtle. Treble slightly less splashy and mid bass slightly leaner. They also repaired one of the threads in the base for attaching the plinth.

I understood that an update to I spec was not possible because of the size of the I tweeter.

 

[westsounds]

I have a pair of original FB1s (s/n 073 and 074) and I got them updated to + spec at the factory a few years ago.

The difference was quite subtle. Treble slightly less splashy and mid bass slightly leaner. They also repaired one of the threads in the base for attaching the plinth.

Did you enjoy them more?

 

[Dozey]

Yes. Treble sounded more accurate. But as I said subtle difference for me. (Using Bryston 4B-ST amp).