4'' or 5'' coax front fill

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Primoz Vozelj

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Apr 21, 2014
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I need something like d&b's E4 or E5, if possible powered and way below 5k price tag or whatever the price of d&b system is. SPL and LF extension are not critical. I found a lot of small powered speakers, but they are all of woofer+HF configuration and when placed in horizontal position the dispersion is to small. I would like to have at least 90° of horizontal coverage. Out of desperation I started looking at small coax drivers and found 4'' B&C coax that would be ideal for this project. Simple solution would be to put driver in small box and power it biamp with cheap amp with DSP like Behringer inuke. No need for passive crossover and I could power 4 with one lightweight amp. The only problem is that this solution takes more space than I would like because I would like to be able to carry a pair of speakers in a small case like Peli. So ideally I would need small&cheap plate amp, max. dimensions 15x20cm, if there is DSP even better. Any suggestions?
 
You may have trouble finding an off the shelf plate amp that is as small as you desire. The one Rob mentioned will work if you don't mind the size. Personally I would much rather have passive front fills. Just running some NL4 is much easier than trying to carry power to each fill. If this must travel together as a package, just throw a small class D amp in the case too. Something like an iNuke 1000 DSP is only 8lbs and very shallow. This will also be significantly less expensive than trying to do plate amps for each fill.
 
Also, for what it's worth, (this isn't a very DIY forum compatible idea :eek: ), but there are other commercial non-coax fills out there that suit your desired coverage. I used to own EAW JF60's which were great sounding little fills and have 110deg conical coverage. They are not particularly expensive - under $500 USD each, you may also find them used (IIRC I sold mine for about $250 each) - several pairs available on eBay right now. They have a passive crossover so can be run single channel.
 
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Jeff Babcock said:
Personally I would much rather have passive front fills. Just running some NL4 is much easier than trying to carry power to each fill. If this must travel together as a package, just throw a small class D amp in the case too. ... This will also be significantly less expensive than trying to do plate amps for each fill.
Click to expand...
this is the reason i keep my passive meyersound mm-4 - just made a "nl4 splitter" to the phoenix connector the have ...:cool:
 
Problem with boxes like JF60 is that when they're lying on their side, the horizontal coverage in the crossover region narrows drastically. In case of JF60 its from 110º of nominal coverage to something like 35º at 2kHz. If that frequency would be below 1k or over 4k it wouldn't be such a problem, but with these type of boxes it seems to always be around 2kHz.
 

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I have noticed this, but I would normally be running 4 across a stage, 2 on the corners in upright position, and the 2 in the middle of the stage on their sides. This worked out pretty well. Sure, you can do better, but are hard pressed to do so without a much more expensive solution.

Your point is an excellent one.
 
Fulcrum RX599 is not DIY and is passive so perhaps a little off of what you were thinking, but seems like it would be a perfect little front fill. Pretty uniform off axis except a dip at 8kHz. It won’t be at its best without a DSP that is capable of their level 1 presets but will still sound good with a more standard DSP. Likely this unit is running a B&C coax driver as you were considering for a diy project.
 
Also VTC Pro Audio have their Inception FF1 2x6" front fill speaker. It's purpose built for that application. I did hear them once and was very impressed. They are around $1000 each new, and are passive.

EDIT: Also just remembered the Martin DD6. Very compact, rotatable horn. Also passive.
 
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