Description
The Fader Series FX8 studio reference monitor was born out of trying to solve one big problem: How do you make an 8″ 2-way monitor that isn’t 15″ tall! In a studio environment (and more so in a home studio), when you put something that tall on a mixing console, it tends to obstruct the view in front of you. Then what ends up happening is you put these huge monoliths on their side (to reduce the height) and speaker imaging gets skewed because the high frequency energy is bouncing off the surface they’re sitting on. Not to mention, what was the vertical off-axis response is now the horizontal off-axis response, minimizing your sweet spot in the listening position. Another compromise! We solved this by creating a Coaxial 2-way design (or dual concentric), with the tweeter mounted in the center of the woofer. We were always impressed by the Manley Tannoy speakers that used a coax driver – we just wanted to do it less expensively. There are two huge benefits to this. One, you can shrink the cabinet height. As mentioned above, it’s not optimum to have huge, clumsy speakers on your console…and most 2-ways are so tall, that the tweeter is firing over your head anyway, then you have to tilt them down… and that notion is kind of scary.
The second benefit of the Coaxial design, is that you now have all frequencies (bass and midrange from the woofer and high frequencies from the tweeter) radiating from the same point in space. This is huge because suddenly your off-axis response is much more consistent (meaning your sweet spot is bigger and more even) and the speaker’s response doesn’t change whether they are standing up or laying down.
The tweeter waveguide was designed in such a way (using the same geometry as the F5 waveguide) to maximize the low frequency response of the tweeter and better integrate with the woofer. Using a 4th order crossover we were able to make the drivers phase coherent, and create a seamless transition between woofer and tweeter. Getting the phase correct between the drivers is crucial to having great midrange, with depth and transparency.
The FX8’s also include all of the great features and benefits of the other Fader Series speakers as well. The amplifier supplies 130 Watts of Class A/B power to each cabinet, and the heat sink and standby circuit allow them to operate conveniently and reliably. The Fader volume control and bass reflex port on the front baffle allow for ease of use and placement. Whether you’re mixing music in a professional studio or just your home project studio, the FX8’s work perfectly with all types of music.
