Hi,
There is not much discussion on field coil speakers here ... so I thought it might be a interesting topic to start off with.
I got interested in field coil speakers after looking for upgrade on my super V2 Omegas (Which are amazing speakers BTW ..... absolutely a charm and pleasure to listen to day or night, and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone without any hesitation)
The web gave little information on the field coils ..... what interested me was the article on the Latour speakers from shindo.
http://www.toneimports.com/shindo/latour.html After reading about the field coils ... I wanted to know more about these enigmatic speakers .... Again the web provided little knowledge .... few DIYers knew and enjoyed some of the vintage field coils
The brands I came to know about ....
The Supravox
http://www.supravox.com/ The PHY-HPs
http://www.phy-hp.com/English/Products/Products.html The vintage altecs and the rest of the crew
Oh yeah the Feastex speakers ...
http://www.feastrex.com/english/index.html On AA I was able to get another brand name ... Fertin
http://www.jlbcreations.com/Fertin/default.asp All these seem to be some exotic species that I had to try out.
Finally after some soul search I pulled the trigger on the 20ex field coil speakers from Fertin.
They were shipped from a small town in the south of France (Siegan). BTW .... the manufacturer is shy and does not speak a lot of English ... so most of my emails were translated using babelfish. It was a very tense week and I was not sure if the wire tansfer went though right and weather this was a legitimate transaction ..... well I had the speakers at my doorstep in less than a week after the money was transferred.
I had asked a local cabinet maker to make me the open baffle according to the Fertin plan ( I had contacted Loius at Omegaspeakers ..... who was the one to Suggest that .... talk about coustomer support). I had everything setup in a few days. I use a 12V 26amp SLA battery for the speakers. I was using the sound card in the ibook which was fair. I upgraded to the "brick" from wavelength audio ... what a difference .... Scary real life presentations..
My wife and my mother-in-law ( most of you must know how difficult it is to please one .... in case you are trying to justify the costs) .... who are trained in classical music start talking to me in audiophile language ..... I can see a sound stage, voices are real, instruments are real, music is relaxing, bass (referred to as drums and thump are convincing). BTW my mother-in-law had a 3 hour listening session last Sunday and did not want to leave the sweet spot. Of course she walked out saying that some of the music gave her goosebumps.
How does it compare to other field coil drivers.
Supravoxes in a real loaded horns are really impressive
PHYs in a semi-open baffles ($40,000 at Toni's, Glendale, CA) are stunning
Does one sound better than the other .... maybe .... not all were in a similar setup
For example the Phys were driven by a solid state Supravox amp ..... sounded harsh and edgy ..... the bass was to die for, but needs a tweeter
The supravox in a rear loaded horn sounded coherent, fast and extremely musical, but again needs a tweeter.
My fertin in a open baffle are about a foot or foot and a half from the back wall sounds very very close to both as in terms of field coil speakers ..... but better as open baffle. Well, better placement will improve the sound ofcourse!!!! but its in my bedroom so the WAF in in full swing
Will one stand out as a leader when each one is put to test in a similar setup ..... I think Fertins will win as they have better frequency extension and also newer and improved voice coils.
So overall it is interesting to know that when the rest of the world has moved on ..... Field coils still survive in small towns of France and ofcourse in the really anal hardcore audiopile junkies in Japan.
So how much difference has the fertin's made to my upgrade ... I would say 45-50% ..... most of it is because its a larger driver when compared to the 4.5" fostex. How much improvement has the DAC made .... about 40%. I upgraded the ClariT amp to have paper-in-oil caps and a DACT volume control .... which has added another 10-15% to the music. Over all my music presentations now are scary real ..... from what I thought was good music to great music
Source .... ibook--->iTunes
DAC ..... Brick
Amp ..... RWA ClariT amp
Speakers ..... Fertin 20ex
Cheers
