Anybody tried FAL drivers?

[Peter Daniel]

I received today a pair of FAL drivers to try out. They look very interesting. The membrane material looks like styrofoam.

[Peter Daniel]

Here's the magnet structure, note the cutouts for the coil.

[Peter Daniel]

More info can be found on Bentaudio site: http://www.bentaudio.com/index2.html

and at sibatech: http://www.sibatech.co.jp/FAL/Drivers.pdf

[el`Ol]

Looks like a Flat C with the membrane material of the Flat S. Is it new? And is it true fullrange? I saw a horrible price list many years ago, 3000$ per piece. Has that improved?

[Peter Daniel]

It indeed looks like FLAT C however it says Flat on the drivers, maybe the magnets were upgraded to C versions, but I'm not sure. Also, the prices from Bentaudio are much lower than $3000/pc, however, you would need to contact them directly for more details. I got those on loan, just to try out.

I was recently looking for some good drivers, Fertin and Supravox being considered, however, somebody from Europe (seems like FAL are more popular there ) suggested FALs. Since Bentaudio is North American distributor, I arranged for an audition.

I installed them already in my system. In the basement I'm using drivers mounted in a wall separating too rooms, so it's sort of infinite baffle arrangement. Normally, I have Raven 2 tweeter running above 12, or so, with first order crossover and Triangle midbass running full range. PHL driver on the bottom, crossed 1st order from top, runs below 1K and provides bottom end filling in.

With FAL, I disconnected both midbass units, Raven left as originally and FAL running full range (they supposedly work up to 10k). My first impression: amazing bass, really deep and well controlled. Seems better than what I had previously from two 6" units in parallel.

I can detect some coloration in a midrange. I'm not sure what it is but reminds me of the horns. Also, my GC runs in a bridged configuration at +/-34 V and combining it with 4 ohm driver may not be a good idea. All in all, FAL seems like an interesting driver and I'm going through very interesting listening experience. Now I imagine running two of those drivers per channel may provide quite amazing low end. No surprising that Japanese at the show placed sign "No Subwoofer here"

One other thing, it plays equally well with Holly Cole or Klinik.

[soongsc]

Than really looks interesting.

[Elso Kwak]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel

One other thing, it plays equally well with Holly Cole or Klinik.

How about Nina Hagen?

[LaMa]

Peter, do you have some additional listening impressions? Is it worth the effort (and money) to pursuit these drivers?

[jdybnis]

I had a chance to listen to the FAL drivers in their showroom in Tokyo. I was very impressed with the 3" model mounted in a BR. One of the best single-driver speakers I've heard. Although the comparison might be unfair because I've never listen to any other drivers in that price range ($1000 a piece). I didn't know how much they cost when I was listening. I planned on buying a set if they were less than $500 for a pair.

[jdybnis]

another showroom picture