GUYS, CHECK OUT  THE 'WHATS NEW' TO SEE THE FRX2. I AM GOING CRAZY OVER IT

To those of you that might be curious about the break in of this driver, I will frequently post it's progress as I play music through it. First of all, I am using a 12WPC Audio Nirvana amp that is of an ultra linear design. It uses 6v6 output tubes, and a solid state rectifier. Overall, I am impressed at the performance of this amp at the $1,000 level. The amp is being fed by a Cayin CD22 player. Rare to be sure, and it utilizes 24/196 oversampling plus has a tube output stage that I have liked very much over the years. I have been playing the speakers about 8-9 hrs. per day, starting this Tuesday last. At about 15 hrs., there is a change in the treble. Not so bright now, but it was never offensive to begin with. The midrange is going through a honk or two on male tenor voices that didn't exist when taken right out of the box. The bass, as expected has stated to increase, mostly in volume but not in depth. Some of the selections chosen have been by Patricia Barber, Lyle Lovett, Norah Jones, and Jon Anderson of YES, not to mention the musical score from the movie 'The Piano'. Things that stand out overall are how exact the dynamics are with drums, the rightness of piano like I have never heard, and the clean lines of the mid bass. Certain anomalies such as the honk heard in L. Lovetts' voice have appeared from nowhere, and I expect them to disappear in the same manner. I am playing so far, at a medium level raising it a bit for some recordings. I am also switching back and forth, the position of the switch on the back of the speaker, wondering if this has any effect at all on the break in process. Speaking of the switch positions, there is an undeniable difference in each position that really assists listening from one recording to another. I prefer the more open sounding position, but only when a recording will allow it. Aerosmith, for example does not.
I will not be reporting on the speakers unless there is a note worthy difference to report. At least, this is a starting point.

Gudday 4krow,

How is the burn in going please?

Ave no clue as to where I be on the wait list for these, have only just gt the plans Friday methinks, been reading what I can about building them to pick up as much info as possible!

Hope the Christmas break gave you some time to sit!

Cheers,

Flip Side,

D.

Is the FRX2 driver no longer being produced? I'm very interested in a DIY build of the ZOB...

There are currently 310 people on the waiting list - dating back 11 months.  I have just recently started production on these drivers beyond what we use in our turn-key Zen Open Baffle speakers.  I have 6 pair done and preparing to do 15 additional pair Christmas.  Since the list is 11 months old, many of the first people on it will have already moved on.  For example, I have already contacted the first 20 and sold only 1 pair so we expect the first half of the list to go pretty quickly without much action.

How would these fair in a minimalist OB with my Rachel EL34?

I just finished my ZOB with FRX2 - all I can say is WOW.

I have about 40 hours on them and the sound is incredible. By far the best-sounding speakers I have heard. On my direct to discs, it sounds like you are in the studio with the musicians. I have not listened to a couple of D2D that were recorded in churches, so looking forward to that, but it will be a couple of months before I am back home again

Agree with comments above about the switch positions. These speakers are super-sensitive to the material you are playing.

Even my wife likes these, and she barely indulges my speaker and tube stuff.....

THANK YOU STEVE!!  :)

I have an original SE84B (I think - it has the grey paint) with ZTPRE and Oracle Alexandria with Alexandria arm and Clearaudio MC cartridge - I forget the model number as I'm not at home now.

As usual, I am busy wondering what if. I came by a tweek offered by 'Mad Scientist' in New Zeland. It is a black disc that is supposed to improve sound when placed directly on speaker cable, power cable, signal cable, etc. In a word the result was 'Fail'. When used on my SE34.3 I had a different result that seemed to give a bit better bass. But with the speakers, no go. I tried them right at the speaker binding post. I figured since these drivers use a type of transformer  anyway, they might have a better chance than other drivers being affected by this product. I am getting some bigger discs from MS soon, and will report the results. I don't often try tweeks as a whole. I would rather upgrade caps or even cables instead. Something that I can make sense of. In this case, I went outside of my little circle just to see.

Ok guys, it has been a long time since I have had new things to report on this driver. This observation is short, but noteworthy. Recently, I sold my Rachael amp to help support a project coming up, and currently in progress. Before that time, I had noticed that the FRX2 drivers had some peakiness to them in the 1k range. Surprisingly, I had never really broken them in in all this time. So, out to the shop they went for a proper break in. 80 hours later, the peakiness was diminished quite a bit but not completely gone. The bass increased too. After I sold the Rachel, I moved on temporarily to a SS amp. A little Adcom amp actually. Man, I was right back to square one with the drivers. Important note, the peakiness was not heard on my headphones, so this eliminates the CD player and a few other possibilities. Only today, did I switch out the FRX2 for a different driver. What did I hear? Pretty much the same problem, but less. Pretty simple to me actually. The FRX2 is not a forgiving driver, and the Audio Nirvana drivers are. So while the problem still exists, it leads me elsewhere. I am thinking that it is the used Vincent tube pre-amp or maybe the Adcom power amp. The problem is more than with the Rachel amp. See what I am getting at here? The FRX2 is better voiced with tubes than SS, and will not tolerate less than the best. I actually have new mini tubes coming in for the Vincent, but doubt that the problem is there. The power amp has it's virtues, but that is where the suspicion lies for me.