This looks to be an excellent speaker design. Similar to the Ascilab C5B although DIY construction.
Audio First are local to me so I am tempted to try and get a demo…
Hello everyone, this is Harry Yeung, the founder and designer of Audio First Designs. Thank you very much for sharing Erin's review here.
As a fresh new brand established just a few months ago, I would like to take the opportunity and introduce myself and the brand here.
I started as a typical audio enthusiast back in Hong Kong 10 years ago when I was still studying at university. My first pair of HiFi speakers is the KEF R300, and yes, I spent all my part-time earnings on this hobby and I have bought many silly things like many others too, haha!
But I took a step further for my passion and went to the UK to study acoustic engineering because I really want to design my own products, I just love this so much. I was also very lucky that I got an opportunity to do my MSc thesis research with KEF. However, an R&D engineer vacancy in a HiFi speaker company is quite a rare thing to find, so I began my career as an architectural acoustic consultant. This is where I had my first-hand experience with how sound sources interact with different spaces and how we perceive the result, which later on influenced some of my focus on loudspeaker design (e.g. Directivity).
I kept doing my own research at home after work, and eventually, I found my way into the industry. I worked as an engineer for a few companies such as Celestion, Monitor Audio, and KEF. Those are some of the happiest years of my life. I made some lifetime friends and I learned so, so much.
People here are probably quite familiar with the KEF products because of the reviews. I worked on the R series Meta together with David and also designed the recent Ci-REFM-THX series, which consists of the first THX-Dominus class speaker in the UK. Before I decided "It is the time to do my own thing!" and left KEF, Prathmesh and I finished the design of the latest Q Meta series. I was very glad to see a very positive review of the Q Concerto Meta from Erin as well, and I hope people will enjoy our work.
And here comes Audio First Designs, as the name suggested it is all about sound quality. Growing up in Hong Kong, where the living space is small on average, I always wanted to design something compact, and Fidelia is what I would love to have back in 10 years ago (Now I can create what I want!). It is designed for a small to mid-size space and is suitable for a short listening distance. The output capability is its shortcoming as the Xmax of the SB Acoustics woofer is a bit limited, so for high SPL / home theatre purposes, I definitely recommend people use a subwoofer along with them.
I am actually spending the majority of my time doing consultancy work at the moment (clients including some of my previous employers) to fund my own product development, and I am in the process of acquiring a Klippel NFS through investment funding, which will be used as part of my services and to design my new products. Yes, my new designs will include Purifi driver... and small horn! I want to create a series of products with superb output capability, linearity and distortion performance. They may or may not be kit though. But as a one-man show, that will take time...
Back to the comparison to the Ascilab products (I actually know their designer, a really talented young man!), I would comment that our design target is a bit different. As people already commented, the main difference is the dispersion angle (Ascilab is usually around 100 degrees and Fidelia is 140 degrees), so the sensation of the soundstage they created is different at the resulting power response is also different. This is just down to personal taste at the end of the day. Due to the material and labour cost here in the UK, and the time it took to prepare a set to ship, inevitably I have to set the price of the kit to what it is now to make it profitable.
Please feel free to drop me questions, but I don't visit ASR very often and things are getting really busy now so please be patient for my reply. Thank you and wish you all a lovely day.
audiofirstdesigns.co.uk
