Faital Pro 3FE20 - anyone here try this interesting driver?

[freddi]

looks pretty cool - mms in the following spec has its decimal place over to the right

http://www.usspeaker.com/faital%20pro-3fe20-1.htm

[Patrick Bateman]

I'll post a review once I get them. The Tang Band W2-852-SH is tough to beat, but I'm willing to give these a look.

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Items Ordered:
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Item Number: US-FP144
Item Name: Faital Pro 3FE20
Options: None.
Quantity: 4
Price: $29.95
Unit Subtotal: $119.80
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Order Subtotal: $119.80
Shipping and Handling: $18.62
Sales Tax: $0.00
Grand Total: $138.42

[stinems]

@ Patrick Bateman - Have you received these Faital drivers yet? If yes, have you had a chance to test or play around with them? Thoughts on build quality?

I'm looking at using these for a FAST design (bass driver + fullrange on top), so I need to find a 2 or 3 inch cone driver that excels in the treble--I don't care about performance below 300-500hz.

This Faital unit looks especially tasty with its sensitivity and rather good dispersion. Top octave looks a bit ragged, but I believe any sound above ~12-15Khz is somewhat less important unless the driver is really beaming and spitting (this driver doesn't look too bad in that respect).

Of course, I'm also eyeballing the Fountek FR88EX...

Cheers,
Sam

[Elias]

Hi,

The high sensitivity looks interesting.

However the freq response graph looks more smooth above 2kHz at the manufacturer site:
http://www.faitalpro.com/img/product..._datasheet.pdf

than here:
http://www.lautsprechershop.de/pdf/f...ital_3fe20.pdf


Yes the amplitude scale is not the same but the difference in curves above 2kHz is apparent.


- Elias

[Poindexter]

They look about the same to me. The thing has a gnarly bell mode at ~14KHz.

P

[Elias]

The similarity is in the eye of the beholder

The driver still looks interesting though.


- Elias

[Elias]

Hello,

Anyone got the drivers yet?


- Elias

[Patrick Bateman]

Originally Posted by stinems

@ Patrick Bateman - Have you received these Faital drivers yet? If yes, have you had a chance to test or play around with them? Thoughts on build quality?

I'm looking at using these for a FAST design (bass driver + fullrange on top), so I need to find a 2 or 3 inch cone driver that excels in the treble--I don't care about performance below 300-500hz.

This Faital unit looks especially tasty with its sensitivity and rather good dispersion. Top octave looks a bit ragged, but I believe any sound above ~12-15Khz is somewhat less important unless the driver is really beaming and spitting (this driver doesn't look too bad in that respect).

Of course, I'm also eyeballing the Fountek FR88EX...

Cheers,
Sam

I've had them for a few months. It's been difficult to get excited about speaker projects ever since I bought my Summas. It all seems a bit pointless to build a speaker when I have a set that I'm happy with.


I haven't had a chance to measure the Faital woofers. The build quality is very nice, and so is the price. US Speaker shipped them promptly. I've listened to them, and they sound as good or better than most of the competition. I'd say they're competitive with Fostex, though I haven't given them a real good workout. The driver itself looks VERY similar to the Fountek.

Having said that, I couldn't resist the Faitals because they're the first woofer that I've come across that feature a specific set of parameters.

If you've seen my threads, I've built a bunch of Unity horn-type speakers. In a unity horn, you need a very specific set of parameters. The original unity horn used a woofer from Misco. I have a case of the woofers, and they do the job. My problem with the Misco woofers is that they have a conventional motor, and that means tons of distortion. (Relatively speaking, of course.)

Distortion rises with excursion, and the Unity horn reduces distortion in two ways. First, by using an array of woofers, that reduces excursion, and reduces distortion. Second, by horn loading the woofers, you create an acoustic low pass. This *also* reduces distortion.

Combine these two things, and you turn the Misco woofer into something quite nice.

But I'd still prefer something nicer.

Which is why the Faital is so attractive. If I'm not mistaken, it uses an underhung neodymium motor. (I'm too lazy to google it right now.)

Another nice thing about the Faital is that it's much smaller than the Misco. This allows you to mount it closer to a compression driver in a Unity, which makes the crossover a heck of a lot easier. (In a Unity horn you have to run the compression driver lower as the woofer gets bigger and bigger. That's one of the reasons that the two inch Tang Band woofers are really REALLY nice in a Unity horn.)

Sum it all up, and the Faital is a worthy replacement for the Misco in a Unity horn.

As for full range use, I think full range speakers are for people that are too lazy to learn how to measure loudspeakers

(lol, PB runs away from the forum!)

[Elias]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Patrick Bateman

It all seems a bit pointless to build a speaker when I have a set that I'm happy with.

lol what's the point of having a hobby if the outcome is not to have a hobby

Anyway since you have listened 3FE20, can you give more detailed subjective impressions. Do you think it can challenge FF85K above 1kHz for example?


- Elias

[Elias]

Seems to be someone made a line array with them:


from here:
ohne Namen - HiFi Forum



- Elias