Falcon Acoustics DIY

[stuckinthepast]

I keep thinking about trying a pair of tweeters from Falcon Acoustics, KEF replacements.
Anyone used or heard these, are they worth the cost??
Thanks

[Chris Roemer]

W/out a datafile link, you're asking a lot for peeps to hunt down the info to give an opinion.

[stuckinthepast]

No, just anyone familiar with the Falcon drivers... someone who has actually heard them. It seems they only make one, the T27.
Sorry for any confusion I may have created.
Thanks

[andy19191]

The Falcon T27, B110 and B139 are replacements for the KEF equivalents from 50 years ago. These were popular drivers used in a large number of speakers from that time particularly in the UK. Along with the current audiophile fetish for BBC LS5/3A speakers, low volume/high price production of these drivers was considered a profitable venture. Don't know how profitable it is turning out to be but people with old speakers that want to keep them running now have an option to do so albeit at a price. They are not alone in doing this, whoever ended up with the tooling for Audax drivers has been running off batches of old driver designs and selling them through companies like Falcon.

The drivers themselves are modest 50 year old designs with a modest technical performance compared with modern drivers. They are not really intended to be drivers for new designs but replacement drivers for existing speakers.

[Chris Roemer]

Have you tried/considered the (often mentioned - as a "replacement") D27TG35 (Vifa/Peerless/Tymphany)?

[stuckinthepast]

Thanks Andy!!
I heard many of the KEF and other British speakers 50 yrs ago, and loved the sound. More tuned toward realistic reproduction than most stuff made today. I've tried the SB Acoustics (awful), and listened to many, where output is prime, and just done care for most. So, thought I'd try some older stuff (like me😊😊) that I've never bought before.
Thanks for the info and help!!

Chris, no I've not tried those. I'll check them out!!

[mikebarney]

I recently built a pair of LS3/5a's using Falcon drivers & crossovers and Stirling broadcast cabinets. I measured the Falcon T27s against a couple vintage 1977/78 T27s I has on hand and they appear virtually identical. So is you want new production T27s, I can recommend them. My LS3/5a build log is here:

https://sites.google.com/view/mpbs-ls35a-project

Mike

[ontariomaximus]

Thanks Andy!!
I heard many of the KEF and other British speakers 50 yrs ago, and loved the sound. More tuned toward realistic reproduction than most stuff made today. I've tried the SB Acoustics (awful), and listened to many, where output is prime, and just done care for most. So, thought I'd try some older stuff (like me😊😊) that I've never bought before.
Thanks for the info and help!!

Chris, no I've not tried those. I'll check them out!!

If you say the SB is awful, I would say it was likely user error

[skatz]

I had a TL system made with the T27 and B110 as the bass driver. I actually liked that a lot, but I don't recall that there was anything special about it. I reused the B110 in something else but ditched the T27s. I agree with Andy above.

[stuckinthepast]

Thanks Mike!!
Your DIY is simply perfect... including documentation. The pics brought back good memories!! I appreciate the thumbs up on the T27. Have a good day

[fdieck]

The Falcon T27, B110 and B139 are replacements for the KEF equivalents from 50 years ago. These were popular drivers used in a large number of speakers from that time particularly in the UK. Along with the current audiophile fetish for BBC LS5/3A speakers, low volume/high price production of these drivers was considered a profitable venture. Don't know how profitable it is turning out to be but people with old speakers that want to keep them running now have an option to do so albeit at a price. They are not alone in doing this, whoever ended up with the tooling for Audax drivers has been running off batches of old driver designs and selling them through companies like Falcon.

The drivers themselves are modest 50 year old designs with a modest technical performance compared with modern drivers. They are not really intended to be drivers for new designs but replacement drivers for existing speakers.

No...no....no. They were designed by the man who designed the original B110 for KEF. The original B110 sounds very good and don’t think modest technical performance is a fair description. It is excellent in the vocal range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CzHERDEDc

[andy19191]

No...no....no. They were designed by the man who designed the original B110 for KEF. The original B110 sounds very good and don’t think modest technical performance is a fair description. It is excellent in the vocal range.

Not sure if this humorous or serious post which can be a problem sometimes on the web when it comes to audiophile matters. Assuming the latter.

How much design is relevant for a replacement/cloned driver? The original tooling would be useful to keep production costs down and Falcon may have obtained/accessed it. When KEF moved to improved drivers for their own speakers the B110 remained in production due to demand from the LS3/5a phenomenon. Towards the end I believe the production was eventually moved out of KEF to a company like Harbeth although it may have been someone else. Interesting stuff but quite separate from technical performance considerations.

The B110 itself has a modest pressed steel frame with resonance issues in the passband. The response of the plastic cone is fairly nonlinear and resonant with hand painted doping to bring it under modest control. The linear displacement is modest and not really suitable for a midwoofer. No shorting rings leading to modest performance in terms of distortion. The production process lead to fairly wide variations in parameters and the closer to spec drivers tended to go to manufacturers leaving us DIYers with drivers from the tail end of the distribution. If you do buy a pair and have some interest in technical performance then paying extra for a matched pair is likely to be worthwhile.

It is not a bad driver or else it wouldn't have been widely used. It is a decent standard range driver from 50 years ago but in comparison with an equivalent decent standard range plastic coned driver from today such as the SB Acoustics SB15MFC it is significantly outperformed in pretty much every relevant technical parameter but costs nearly three times the price (£108 vs £41 on the Falcon website). I would have compared against a standard range Dayton driver as the example but they don't seem to have plastic cones and the OP referred to SB Acoustics.

[djg]

The Continuum.

[fdieck]

Not sure if this humorous or serious post which can be a problem sometimes on the web when it comes to audiophile matters. Assuming the latter.

How much design is relevant for a replacement/cloned driver? The original tooling would be useful to keep production costs down and Falcon may have obtained/accessed it. When KEF moved to improved drivers for their own speakers the B110 remained in production due to demand from the LS3/5a phenomenon. Towards the end I believe the production was eventually moved out of KEF to a company like Harbeth although it may have been someone else. Interesting stuff but quite separate from technical performance considerations.

The B110 itself has a modest pressed steel frame with resonance issues in the passband. The response of the plastic cone is fairly nonlinear and resonant with hand painted doping to bring it under modest control. The linear displacement is modest and not really suitable for a midwoofer. No shorting rings leading to modest performance in terms of distortion. The production process lead to fairly wide variations in parameters and the closer to spec drivers tended to go to manufacturers leaving us DIYers with drivers from the tail end of the distribution. If you do buy a pair and have some interest in technical performance then paying extra for a matched pair is likely to be worthwhile.

It is not a bad driver or else it wouldn't have been widely used. It is a decent standard range driver from 50 years ago but in comparison with an equivalent decent standard range plastic coned driver from today such as the SB Acoustics SB15MFC it is significantly outperformed in pretty much every relevant technical parameter but costs nearly three times the price (£108 vs £41 on the Falcon website). I would have compared against a standard range Dayton driver as the example but they don't seem to have plastic cones and the OP referred to SB Acoustics.

Almost all drivers have a cone resonance in the audio range and many current driver use coated cones. Yes the are many better measuring drivers made today. I own SB acoustics, Satori, Focal, Vifa, Dayton Audio, Arum Cantus SEAS,and Scanspeak. They all do differ things better. The B110 has pretty stiff yet lossy cone that is damped with PVA. The lower mid as a resonance that not hard to notch out. It has a huge magnet, non conductive voice coil and a large surround with a very compliant rubber surround. It is not the best driver I own but has a wonderful vocal reproduction with great decays and transparently
I bought it for nostalgia on eBay and LS3/5A “clone” with a Scanspeak 3/4 tweeter crossed around 25OO Hz. Put on your high def headphones and listen to some a of the you tube videos of vintage LS3/5A. You might be surprised.

I got to listen to the very Continuum’s above for several hours at lone star audiofest. I don’t believe the woofer even had a shorting ring and they were excellent as well.

[andy19191]

Put on your high def headphones and listen to some a of the you tube videos of vintage LS3/5A. You might be surprised.

Surprised in what way?

Perhaps I should add that I am familiar with the B110 having built a couple of designs using it in the late 70s. For perhaps a couple of decades there was a speaker somewhere in the home with a B110 driver. I still have one somewhere in the garage pulled from one of the designs when it was scrapped during a house move.