Visatron FRS8 - Are they actually any good at this price??

[JammyBStard]

I'm fairly new to speakers; I want to build a small pair for the bedroom; nothing too big, not to bass heavy. I'm thinking T-Amp driving fullrange 3" drivers (possibly Open Baffle).
I've been doing some googling and found quite a lot of decent looking DIY efforts with a Visatron FRs8 (especially on German sites). But I was really supprised by how cheep they seem to be when i looked them up, Rapid are doing them for £7.31 a pop. Can they actually be any good at that price? anyone used them? anyone used them OB?

[bear]

Sure, if the curve shown is correct, these are nice little drivers.

You will need more than one to get decent SPL and sensitivity.

If you use the FRS8 then you will only get 82dB + 15dB = 97dB at 1 Meter when
at maximum power (30 watts). The 8M seems to give more sensitivity. Not sure what
the diff is exactly. Keep in mind that you will get NO bass from these.

Qt is NOT spec'd. Not on the website for Rapid or in the pdf linked. This means that
it's impossible to know how to use them properly until you know that and the VAS. OB will have less bass.

Imo 6 on a channel might be very impressive... but again, no bass.

I have not used these particular drivers, nor seen any.
Others may have more experience with this driver, etc...

_-_-bear

EDIT:

Found it online.
The 8m has 2x the magnet (better in this case) and has a Qt 0f 0.49.
The 8 has a Qt of ~1.0

I'd opt for the 8m if possible. That Qt is fairly "magic" and will tend to work in almost any cabinet
you chose to use, vented, sealed, etc...

The Qt of 1.0 is a bit high, but would be the one to chose (probably) for OB... I'd avoid OB unless it was carefully done and tested since you could end up with not much happening below 300Hz, which would not sound good, or you could end up with very wooly fat sound around the resonant freq which is ~100hz. depending on things like baffle size and floor bounce.

The freq resp curves are usually done on IEC baffles, which are large flat baffles of specified size. The key is large area baffles. FYI.

[bear]

Also, search here, there are other threads on this driver... fyi.

[BHTX]

I've always found the FRS8M to be very tempting for the money.
No first hand experience, though. However, I'd definitely pick it over all similar Visaton offerings.

[JammyBStard]

The idea is to have them at less than 2m so I think that SPL would be enough.
They're not very pretty, I found a better looking alternative though: Vifa TG9FD10/04
A few quid more but it looks good for the money. and I've had some excellent experience with Vifa drivers in my main system.

Specifications: • Power handling: 10 watts RMS/30 watts max • VCdia: 20 mm • Le: 0.024 mH • Impedance: 4 ohms • Re: 3.2 ohms • Frequency response: 115-15,000 Hz • Fs: 115 Hz • SPL: 85.3 dB 2.83V/1m • Vas: 0.05 cu. ft. • Qms: 2.67 • Qes: 1.01 • Qts: 0.73 *• Xmax: 3.15 mm • Dimensions: Overall diameter 3.85" (3.30" across flats), Cutout diameter 3.10", Depth 1.65".


Bass may still have to come from elswhere though by the sounds of it!

[mjf]

hello.
driver data you can find on the manufakturer's site
Visaton - Lautsprecher und Zubehör, Loudspeakers and Accessories

i have used them for many years in a closed box (around 1,5l ........2 liter).

[AdamThorne]

I wouldn't expect that you could get a good sounding open baffle out of a single 3", but the Needle I think was designed with that driver in mind.

Cyburgs-Needle for Tangband W3-871S

[stevieg]

Something like this?
They hang off a T-amp driven by my computer and sound OK - they image well, as you would expect from a single driver. Bass not exactly trouser flapping as you would expect from the titchy driver and enclosure, despite a plethora of ports! As you can see, I am a fully paid up member of "what the eye don't see, the heart don't grieve about school of construction.
I think without evidence that open baffle would be a bit weedy. Good luck with the build. These Visatons are decent enough for a lot of experimenting without fear of wrecking mega expensive drivers. Get stuck in, get it built and learn. Then, when the injuries have healed, do it again if you want. Fail better.

Cheers Steve

[talaerts]

FYI, the good German loudspeaker magazine Hobby Hifi published an interesting transmission line with it:

Strassacker: Lautsprecher - Boxen - Selbstbau

It does look like an interesting little speaker.

EDIT: Oops, sorry, I was confused with the more recent and more upmarket B80. In any case, I'll leave the link as it is interesting as well.

[yai]

there's a backloaded horn Mini-Basshorn mit VISATON FRS 8 i built some years ago, but the bass was too weak and i didn't quite like them. was glad when they got stolen ;-)