Rolling Drivers In The FrugalHorns ~ Audio Adventures With EleFrugalKit Stereo 18Mar25

The Mark Audio Pluvia 7.2HD drivers (pic center) are super solid, very wide range, musical, and pretty flat in the FH3 corner horns, and they are very affordable. But can I do better? The FrugalHorns are known to be very tolerant of a variety of 4" drivers. I have some great 4" full range alternatives in other speakers that I can try: (pic left to right) Fostex FE108EΣs from the Metronomes in the NestMT, Fostex FE108NSs from the Blanda108s on the NestDesk, wild Tang Band W4-2356s from the TriPorts @ MLC's, Too, I like the specs and reviews of the titanium Tang Bang 4-1337s so I bought a pair to throw in the mix.

While I really like the MAP7.2HDs, driver swapping is the next alternative shot at rolling into a big sonic improvement in the Blodgett living room (BLR) stereo ~ plus I just really like the experimenting, obviously. I gathered all the speakers with these drivers in them into COS for the driver rolling.

Sweeping The "Home" Cabinets... Before rolling though, I swept all these speakers in their "home" cabinets in the room in which the FH3s exist. Interesting comparison... the FH3s with the current Mark Audio Pluvias are the best sounding overall full range speakers (not unexpected, being horns), with the excellent Metronomes (quarter wave transmission lines) being second ~ while this cabinet is very nice, the performance is attributable as well, in part, to the very nice FE108EΣ drivers (which display the telltale 1KHz dip). Both of these are larger and produce solid bass to achieve true full range. The TriPorts and the Blandas are smaller and just don't have the bass, and they display some BDS loss in free space to boot. The Blandas were 3rd best (they sound great as nearfields) and TriPorts were last in this list, which are nice in voices, but lose some high end.

Meanwhile... I'm breaking in the new titanium Tang Bands while futzing with the rest.

Rolling 4" Drivers In The FH3s... I will now rotate through these drivers in the FH3s and listen and measure. I added spade female quick connects to the ends of the internal speaker wires of the FH3s to facilitate switching drivers readily. They don't all have the same hole patterns but no holes will be exposed in the process and I used smallish screws. I am not going to optimize poly stuffing in the FH3s by driver ~ the 30g of poly fluff per throat and trap that I used for the Pluvias will be constant... not optimal but close enough. I will of course measure (from position A 4m from drivers) and listen throughout this roll. My playlist includes AJ Lee, Molly Tuttle, Sammy Rae, Sara Jarosz, and Mark Knopfler.

Whoa the Fostex FE108EΣ based FH3s are sweet... maybe a bit thinner on the back-loaded bass than the Pluvias but stellar on the mid-highs. They don't seem as solid on cymbals either.

Wow, the Fostex FE108NS based FH3s are even better... New Sols have stronger thump than the EΣs and full round sound all up and down. They're even offering great high end. Solid choice but at 3X the price are they worth the extra $, and am I willing to give them up from nearfield glory on the NestDesk ~ probably not.

The TangBand W4-2356 based FH3s are like these drivers, weird... 1st, they render 3-5dB less than the other drivers at the same amp setting ~ I had to bump the measurement up to the others to compare. 2nd, they just don't have the mid-high end of the others drivers... while the mids are OK, these speakers are just dull.

The new TangBand 4-1337 based FH3s are excellent... The big magnet and solid basket deliver tight sound, great cymbals & rim shots, present a wide soundfield across the complete orchestra, sound great on vocals and bluegrass strings, and deliver strong bass. These are a solid choice but not quite up to the FE108NSs. The TB1337s are a great alternative the the MAP7s with cool dynamism. I really like them and will not return them; these are more what I expected from Tang Band.

Here are the sweeps for all the 4" full range drivers measured in the FH3s, and a 2nd pic for just MAP7 vs TB1337. The SPL graphs kind of bear out what I heard above. Every driver is headed back into its "home" cabinet, and for now I will continue to enjoy the new Tang Bands... but the Mark Audios are ever available. The MAs might be a bit smoother but the TBs rock too. I also think there is more time needed for the titanium to relax a bit and the TBs to open up even more.

Well, this driver roll is likely the final optimization I plan for the BLR stereo. All the projects completed over the past several weeks have progressed and refined the sound on this kit. The lynchpins of course are the Frugel-Horn Mk3 cabinets with great MA or TB drivers, the Elekit TU8200R amp with TungSol 6550 power tubes and Valvo ECC82 NOS 1960 pre-amp tubes, and the recently added Modi Multibit DAC. Listen acutely friends.