[cab]

John-

Any updates on the flat speakers yet???

The inventor of these, a Mr. Kageyama, has been writing a series of articles on the history of their development in the Japanese audio magazne "MJ". I believe the March issue has the 5th installment.

Keep us posted!

Thanks...

[jusbe]

John,

I'd appreciate any update on these too. Sounds like they could be worth investigating.

[John Chapman]

Hello!

I spent a great afternoon and an evening with the FAL folks and I'll post about that in a different thread. In a nutshell - they sounded as good as I remember from CES and they had a new smaller driver that was really great too. I should have a full report up within a day or so.

Cab,

Here is an e-mail from M. Shibazaki ( the owner of Sibatech who handles the export of FAL drivers) about the history of the FAL drivers:

"
It is way back to 35 years ago, when the father of Mr. Kageyama, Jr, the author to the MJ magazine, first thought of the flat speaker structure. Senior Kageyama later devised his prototypes and demonstrated about 25 years ago, but the sound was terrible, it was not a sound at all. Later, Mr. Furuyama worked toward practical use of it, and obtained patent. The MJ magazine essay by Jr. Kageyama also refers to the name of Mr. Furuyama.
 "

I was surprised to learn of how long this driver has been around. I gather from discussions while I was in Japan that Mr. Furuyama has been working to improve the design for about 25 years.  If you have time you must visit the new showroom Mr. Furuyama has setup in Akihabara. It is very nicely done and he had only been open a week or so before my visit.

I wish I could read Japanese so I could read the articles! I speak just enough Japanese to be funny when I try to talk and only have just begun to learn the characters/letters. Anyone out there care to translate the articles?


Thanks!

John Chapman
www.bentaudio.com

[RAW]

http://quicksitebuilder.cnet.com/wrnch2/diyspeakerbuilding/id13.html
Down at the bottom, the MTM using the FAL.
Removable top plate,removable tweeter plates as well.1.25" thick base plates, port panels to adjust the length  from 3/4" to 1.25"

Now John has to get them fired up!

Al

[John Chapman]

Hello!

Al has worked hard to get the cabinets done - Thanks Al! I should have them today and be firing them up over the next day or two. I won't have a lot of time to play with them this week but at least we'll be able to play with them at the Audionut meeting we are having here next weekend.

As Al mentioned these are the test cabinets that allow for easy access to the cabinet, easy adjustment of port lengths, and changing tweeters just by swapping plates. The tweeter we'll be using first is the G2 ribbon tweeter. Then later on we'll try the Heil from FAL and whatever else comes along.


Many Thansk!

John Chapman
www.bentaudio.com