Fostex FE126En DIY Full Range Speaker Final Assembly

It's a simple task now to solder up the connections to the the input jack cup and the speaker.  I'm really digging that cool Swedish wire.

One thing to keep in mind here is to make sure you have the polarity of the terminals correct - i.e., whatever side of the cable you connect to the positive side of the jack should also go to the positive side of the speaker.  Virtually all speaker cable will have something on the insulation to use as a reference - this cable has the "OFC Cable...made in Sweden" on one side, so I chose to use that as the positive side.

I left a bit of extra cable length between the speaker and the jacks - I am sure I'll be opening up the speakers again, so I wanted some extra slack so I can just pop them out and not have to unsolder them each time I want to take them out.

Now it's just a matter of attaching the terminal cup and speaker to the cabinet.

I took a shot of the back side (hee hee I said backside) of one of the speakers.  If you look carefully, you can see the gasket on the frame - this will help ensure a tight seal between the speaker and the box.

Initially, I'll use these with my '42 Amp test bed, but I may try them out with my main system - powered by a Dynaco ST-70.  Need to be real careful, since the Dyna's output way exceeds what the FE126 will handle.  I'm still pondering that.

I didn't trust myself with my little powered screwdriver on the speakers.  Visions of the blade going through those cool cones kept going through my mind.

So I just stuck to the old manual screwdriver.

Hokay.

I had to include a picture of the 'manual' that came in the box with the speakers.  There is an English spec sheet, but there is also a 6-page set of information in Japanese. If you've put together a Japanese model from, say, Tamiya or Hasegawa, you may have experienced this also.  You get a couple pages in English, and then a book in Japanese.

I don't read (or speak...) Japanese, so I always feel like I'm missing out on some good stuff.  For example here, there is a grey sidebar on the upper left in the picture that is describing the material the cone is made of.  In English, the description is:

"ES Banana Pulp Cone with whizzer cone.  Banana fiber pulp provides a fine, supple and dense cone material which improves mid-high frequency response. Treated cloth surround."

Now, this is okay I suppose, but there is no way the Japanese version just says that.  There are even little pictures which I assume compare paper fiber to banana fiber!  I want more description in English!

As an aside: banana pulp...mmmmmmmm.  They taste as good as they sound.

The other thing in the box is a postcard in Japanese that is clearly a registration/survey.  I only wish I knew Japanese so I could fill it out - in English of course - and mail it back!

This is almost as cool as the Russian writing on the PIO capacitors I bought from a seller in the Baltic.