FR8C 25lt sealed mid-high in active bi-amp system

[col]

OK, if you are a fullrange purist read no further...

I recently acquired a pair of Hemp Acoustics FR8C. Looking around the forums abit seems like this driver has been the realm of the full range guys for quite a while. Some of the designs and work that they have done to get this driver performing at it's highest potential is quite frankly, amazing! Back loaded and folded horns, Demitri, 120lt bass reflex designs, the list goes on...

Well my surroundings are not so accommodating of such large enclosures and I already have a very compact pair of low sensitivity, high power consuming, 22lt, 10" car subs

So I thought I might try a bi-amp system and see how the FR8Cs perform.

I was quite surprised, at the result. I have the FR8C in a sealed 25 litre enclosure (which is bigger than the subs!) and according to winisd they should tail off fairly gently around 140hz.

I have a ESP P09b set to cross at 160hz so I'm using that to cross into the subs. The amps are interesting. Powering the 82db sensitive car subs is 2 channels of Hypex UcD400. Powering the FR8C (94db) i'm using a Tripath TA2020. So 400W for the subs and 20W for the mid-highs.

Obviously, all this requires some equalization. It's all going digitally through a Behringer DEQ2496 where I'm using a single PEQ on the subs and auto-set GEQ on the mid-high, all up it's using about half the processing power, not bad.

The beauty of this system is that I don't require another cross into a tweeter or compression driver. The sacred frequency zone between 1-12khz is handled by the FR8C, and flattened out with the DEQ2496.

This system is temporary until I get my waveguides back into operation, the crossover is under going a major rethink

Will probably end up making some fullrange for the office out of the FR8Cs, there is a bit more real estate there.


col.