FR125's in da house.
I received a set of these around 2 weeks ago, and have had some time to push them a bit, and would like to share my thoughts.
I recently built up the KIT41, and so I had a simple box to try these babies in. I unplugged the tweeter, and removed the WR125. I installed the FR125, and inverted the box (so that the driver was now at the top of the enclosure).
I have to compare the WR plus tweeter, and the WR alone vs the FR. Well, the WR alone, I found a nice satisfying driver, for the middle frequencies. In fact I listened to that driver alone in this box, for months, fascinated by the point source nature of the sound, the coherency, and the odd ability to throw a centered image, even when way outside the sweet spot. When I built up the full KIT41, I increased the top end, but to my ears, lost some of the magic of the point source, and image ability.
Enter the FR125.
Huh. Basically what many of you would expect - the magic of the mids, plus the extension of the tweeter, all in one neat, supremely well built package. The response seems smooth from bottom to top, no nasty peaks or valleys that I can hear in my room. Pushed with 30w, this provides great, listenable music in my room.
Clean extended highs, gorgeous mids, and decent bass from this long throw 4.5 inch wonder. I love the cyclops look, and find that when all the sound is driven from one point, it blends supremely well to my ears, at a 7-10 foot listening distance.
Perfect? Well, not quite - compared to my reference setup, Visaton B200's in open baffle, the WR is less efficient, and does not throw the windows open on the music quite as wide. But for the $$, and considering the small total package (my open baffles are roughly the size of a 32 inch TV with stand - EACH...) they are a great way to get great sound.
To put this into perspective, I intend to build small sealed cabinets (say .25 cubic feet) and use these as mains for my HT - I will support them with sub, and use the KIT41 as surrounds. Sure, there are more dynamic setups, but in the small room I will use (11x16) and seeking some WAF for that room (the basement is where I have free reign for OB, HUGE subs etc) this is perfect.
There are many over on DIYAudio who are posting about these little guys too, so if you are interested in a really good single driver entry point, I would strongly advise giving these a shot.
Bob at CSS has been great, and when I have ordered stuff from Kevin off DIYCable, he has been great to work with also. Does not matter which side of the border you are on, in this case, you are sorted!
