Fostex FE206En phase plug: yes/no?

Hi guys!
After few years with Dallas II horns with Fostex FE206EN and super tweeters,i'm looking for more mid range purity. What is your experience with phase plug on this setup,is it worth or not? I still have litlle scare to cut membrane,but if result is worthy,then i will find courage :).
I see also that there are diferent shape and size of plugs avilable. From 35-80 mm long and diferent shapes,from bullet like shape to konus shape. What are diferences and what is the best for mid range purity?
So,any one with experience,please share.
Setup:
DALLAS II with Fostex FE206EN and MONACOR supertweeter
Monoblocks SE with Eimac 100TH
Streamer Rpi based,allo kalli reclocker and i-sabre DAC 9038,powerd trough extra stable linear power plant
Woofer ACE BASS B2-50
Cables:
interconect- quad star 8x0.4mm silverplated coper
speaker- quad star 8x1mm silverplated coper
power-shielded 7x1.5mm squere coper

Everything except woofer is hand made. Woofer with 18" spesker is also in production,so after is finished,hole sistem will be hand made.

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The biggest upgrade you can make is to remove the whizzer. The driver will still have a rising response and your super tweeter cab be used to fill in the top of the frequency range. Done this mod twice now. Once on fostex 206e and on Goodmans twin axiom 8. The sound was clearer and smoother. A substantial improvement compared to phase plugs.
 
If you have concern about major surgery, try the 98 cent tweak - it's non-permanent.

Get some acoustic damping fluff, and tuck it in behind the whizzer. If you don't like it, take it back out.

The DIYAudio posts I found wouldn't load (too old? or just a temporary hiccup?), but here's a pic from a different forum...
https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/188819/fur-collar-for-my-whizzers
 
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I put pure coton this morning,listening for few hours,i hear big difrence in high spectrum,no itching sound any more,sometimes i miss sharpnes,but all together,for now,much better and more flat response. At least to my ears,i didnt messure,maybe i find time later to mesure response.
Good 98 cent hack!
 
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When I tried the 98 cent method I neatly tucked it behind the whizzer. The result was not much improvement to my ears. Looking at your cotton being proud of the whizzer on your speaker I've realised that the way you have done it is probably suppressing the half wave resonance due to the diameter of the whizzer, therefore much better. This seems to relate to the 2600 ish hz peak in the frequency response. Can someone please verify if I'm on the right track.
 
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Fostex 206e in Sachickos with one coat of tinted puzzle coat on the cone and whizzer.

Dust-cap-ectomy and phase plugs I machined from Delrin I had lying around.

With the phase plugs I mirror matched the profile of the whizzer as best I could and made them just long enough to be proud of the whizzer.

I spent some time damping the frame with cotton felt and cord and wrapped the magnet as well.

I personally never found the 206e to be horribly shouty…especially when compared to the likes of a Lowther DX3.

Tang Band W8-1808 sounded muted and dull compared to either the Lowther or Fostex.

In general I felt the Fostex was the best “all-rounder” and did a better job with a larger variety of material.

This is a speaker I play pretty much daily driven by my DCB1 (modified with Jensen transformers on the output a la Iron Pre style) and F2J monoblocks.

It is remarkable at some things. I really enjoy the imaging of point source drivers.

How much better is it modified? That may be different for each individual. I would say it wasn’t a waste of time.
 

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This is what I did on my Fostex FE 206 E.
It improved the sound a bit, but I won't do that again, since the wrench adapter was so strongly held by the magnet, that I did not even try to remove it, out of fear of damaging the driver…

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Don’t you find the single centred bit of steel causes the phase plug to want to tip over? We found that with early experiments.

View attachment 1308156

dave
Hi Dave

The hardware has an enlarged flat head. (See pic)

I think I had it left over from some IKEA furniture I tore down and saved the hardware from.

You can also find this hardware in a local True Value Hardware store here in the US for a few bucks. I’ve used them to anchor transformers in amp cases as well.

No tendency to tip over.

However, since the pole piece of the driver was uneven (which causes rocking) the screw heads are threaded in just below the contact surface on the base of the phase plug.

The magnetic force is still strong enough to hold the plugs in place firmly.

The foot in the final iteration is actually only 3-4 mm wide at the circumference of the plug base.

This arrangement allows the large diameter foot of the plug at its circumference to be the contact point with the pole piece and there is no rocking or tendency for it to tip.

The only real issue with this design was that the Delrin has a naturally “slick” nature. It will tend to migrate off center while playing bass heavy material enthusiastically.

My solution to that issue is to paint the foot of the phase plug with a thin coat of rubberized paint to give it better grip on the magnet and help keep it in place.

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frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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the wrench adapter was so strongly held by the magnet,

I imagine Steve Deckard poking around his shop saying what could i use for a phase plug (ours had been making a bit of a splash, so i expect he saw the marketing advatage of something a bit different), said, maybe this will fir, and when he couldn’t remove it said, lets go that way.

Simialrily we started with ductseal fileld lipstick tops and used a 7-pin tube once (Steve took that idea to market). We ended up using wood. Non-magnetic, easy to work, pretty.

dave
 
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frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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The hardware has an enlarged flat head. (See pic)

I think I had it left over from some IKEA furniture I tore down and saved the hardware from.

Looks like a fairly standard M8 bolt, i wish i could find some of those in M6, or M4.

We started out with a washer. It often tipped our lipstick plugs over, so we went with 2 (or 3 or 4 on bigger ones) to solve that issue.

dave