Fostex P1000E DIY Kanspea 4" Full Range Speaker Kit - PAIR

Excellent little speakers. Easy to put together. Had them working in about 10 minutes.

I wanted a little speaker, to sit on a shelf, and sound good with background music for my living room, where I read. They do this perfectly.

Some have stated that they do not have much bass. This is true. but sonically, they are magical especialy with voices. All vocals seem to jump out of the speakers and have a very transparent and detailed sound.

I'm running these through a vintage Nad amp, a 90's sony cd player, a vintage pioneer turntable, and an Alexa steaming device. All sound good.

What the speakers do best is low-level listening. I have a higher end system downstairs that has big speakers and big amps. They sound incredible, but only at medium to high levels.

These Fostex speakers have great presence and detail at low volume which is just what I wanted for background listening, parties, and casual listening.

Great kit and good price, highly recomended.

I bought this speaker kit to make a pair of computer speakers to be driven by a 2 watt tube amp (a kit from Elekit). I used them for about 3 years for this purpose, and was very happy with them. However, after changing jobs, I ended up bringing them home and hooking them up to a Sansui 2000x receiver than I had mothballed for a few years (I do love than receiver, though). The additional power (about 35 watts per channel instead of the 2 WPC my tube amp puts out) really opened up these speakers! I have the FF105WK drivers in them, and it is amazing how much throw these little guys have when there is some bass present. When playing some rock music, I can feel a breeze from the ports about 1.5 feet back from the speakers.

The sound is amazing. It took a little breaking in, and I really think it took some additional break-in after using it with the higher powered amp. I listen to a pretty eclectic mix... classic rock, jazz, classical, etc. I am listening to Herb Alpert's latest release as I type this. Jazz is just beautiful, but even rock music sounds fantastic as long as you keep it within the limits of these little guys.

When I move into my new office in a few weeks, these speakers -- and the Sansui receiver -- are going with me.

BTW, they actually sounded pretty good with the famous little Lepai LP2020TI amplifier, too!

My girlfriend loved the sound from my system so I thought it was time to get her some audiophile quality system too.

I choose as speaker the Kanspea 4” with the Fostex FW105WK. I was told that the highs and mids were in better balance with the lows when used in a bass reflex enclosure. Instead of pairing these speakers up with the Fostex amp I choose the tube depot tube cube 7 amplifier.

Wow after initial breaking mid-range magic. The voices are super, Miles his trumpet is like he is in room. Now a couple of 100 hours later the system really mellowed out and gives great enjoyment. Yes the bass is not earth shaking from a 4” but gives enough foundation in a smaller room. We listen about 5 to 6 feet away.

The mids are so good that I bought one more kanspea 4” system with the FW105WK to try at home. Wow what a sound now they are played on a quad 300B OTL. Yes my Tannoy GRF sounds better overall no question or doubt but the midrange magic from the kanspea is hard to forget.

Fostex and tube depot has convinced me that audio does not need to cost a lot and single drive has merits you cannot get with any other multy driver system.



Highly recommended.

Great little cabinet and speakers. Very clean sound. I literally just turned the things on and felt the need to write a review. I never write reviews! I have to agree with the other reviews that these sound great at moderate volumes.

I have intentions of building the back loaded horn for the Fe103en speakers. I already built the Back loaded horn for the Fe126en. I could not believe the sound that those cabinets put out. I gifted those to my Father for Christmas and now I need my own.

I purchased the kit with the FSOL-103 special edition 16ohm drivers. I chose the 16 ohm speakers because I wanted to power them with headphone amps and most recommend 16-300 ohms. The speakers sound amazing for a small room or office. The max wattage is 5 watts per driver, and they are easily driven by any good headphone amp. They will not work will with portable players that do not have an amp built in. I have tried several and found that the Ibasso DX100 dap sounds great and takes up minimal space. The volume when sitting about a meter away can actually hurt your ears, they can get that loud. Although they can use a small sub, they are perfect for my office because I can only play them at a low volume. For a battery powered system that can play for about 6 hours, not bad at all for an audiophile quality system. The sound is very crisp, wonderful imaging, very accurate, and to mention - FAST (dynamic). Small speakers such as these will always have the small speaker syndrome and they can never equal to larger speakers, so I can only recommend them for a small room use.

If you are looking for small speakers to be easily powered, I doubt you can do better than these. Highly recommended. By the way, they look great and only took 10 minutes to assemble.

Positives: Speakers, cabinet and amp were well wrapped. No crossovers or woodwork needed. Good looks, a sound I liked and a chance to get a taste of a single source speaker for a reasonable price. The optional 5W amp powers these nicely and is so easy to set up. Low volume listening is splendid. The bare wire connectors are fine. The speakers sounded better when hooked to my main 100W rig and sub. No distress at moderate volume.

Upgrades: I was tempted to upgrade the speakers though the base 4” driver is more than fine. I should have purchased this sooner. A subwoofer is needed to get bass extension. I can hear the snare but don’t feel the kick drum.

I marvel at the sound from my PC without a DAC. I haven’t set up the sub but I will some day. They’re a respectable set of speakers and amp.

This was my first official dive into the world of full range speakers. I was needing something fairly cheap but good enough to listen to all day in my office at work without fatigue. I decided to give these a try and boy, am I pleased! The mids and highs were silky smooth on the FE103-SOL drivers (which I recommend!) There isn't much low end offered on these without using an EQ but I had a subwoofer already in place to cover the lower freq's. I have a friend that builds gorgeous speaker boxes and is building a custom box to really open these things up but to be honest, for near field listening at mid volume, they sound absolutely stunning with the included cabinets, especially if you have a good subwoofer to cover the low end. I highly recommend these, especially for such a great price!

Products Evaluated:
Fostex Kanspea P1000E with FF105WK $149 pr.
Dayton Audio DTA-100a $89
HiFiMeDIY Sabre USB DAC $46 (USA warehouse)

I didn't evaluate the amp that is available with the kit. Since my friend was willing to go to $300 on a system, I thought it was the weakest part of the system so recommended an upgrade.

The Kanspea as configured is an excellent speaker. It gives the listener a taste of the high end audio world. Listening and closing your eyes the speakers seem to disappear. There is no hole in the middle of the stereo. Dispersion is excellent. Detail is much better than anything I've heard in this price class. The enclosure doesn't look cheap. It is either real veneer or a good imitation. I don't like exposed speakers, but a grill wouldn't be hard to fabricate.

The music that sounded the best through this system was O Magnum Mysterium performed on Polyphony's Christmas Present from Polyphony. I preserved the CD's full resolution by ripping it to Apple Lossless. The speakers rendered the choral blend without losing detail as the arrangement's close harmonies reach moments of brief dissonance, then resolve. The music floats in space.
Listening to Diana Krallâ

I bought the Kanspea 4" with the FF105WK. I wanted to experiment with the Fostex Full Range sound I've read so much in the forums. The kit was cheap, easy to assemble and I like the appearance. The FF105WK driver has a sweet look that photos don't really capture. Most importantly I am blown away by the sound from such a diminutive speaker. The bass extends down to around 100hz. I use it with a sub woofer which is mandatory IMO. Out of the box it was nice but a little grainy. After a few hours of play I am just awestruck by the sound. The mid range is transparent, the high end is silky smooth and the imaging is impressive. It's the detail, especially when spinning vinyl that is addictive. I hear details in the music I've never heard before. I can't really describe the sound with words but it will replace a high quality 2-way I was using before the Kanspea. You need to buy one and listen for yourself. I plan on a few DIY upgrades to the kit in the future.