Audio First Fidelia on Erin’s Audio Corner

[Audiofirstdesigns]

Are you to use off the shelve production drivers in the build ? Reason I ask is it can be so very hard to get propriety driver replacements if one gets blown/accidental damage, etc in reality. I would say nice to be not cuffed to a proprietary driver. If someone puts their finger thru my mains I have to ask manufacture if any are even available instead of just going to Madisound web site & putting the driver in my cart.

Please don't worry, all the DIY kits are using off the shelves drivers.

 

[Audiofirstdesigns]

That's very nice, would you consider a horizontal version? With the same box but drivers placed like in a KH310?

Or alternatively, a Woofer-tweeter-mid version? Correct me if I'm wrong, especially since I don't know the crossover frequency between the medium and the woofer, but my guess is that you're crossing it fairly low and it shouldn't affect directivity negatively.

I'm mostly thinking that either of those versions would add a lot of flexibility in speaker height placement.

I don't have a plan for a horizontal version yet but I will consider, especially if I am making this active in the future it can be a pretty nice studio monitor.

Regarding the mid-range crossover, I am not going to cross it very low actually because this version is a passive speaker. For 3-way designs usually you can't low-pass the woofer too low without dropping the minimum impedance too much or sacrifice quite a bit of sensitivity if you want to make it work. But for a active version I can explore the low crossover point option.

 

[kharan]

I don't have a plan for a horizontal version yet but I will consider, especially if I am making this active in the future it can be a pretty nice studio monitor.

Regarding the mid-range crossover, I am not going to cross it very low actually because this version is a passive speaker. For 3-way designs usually you can't low-pass the woofer too low without dropping the minimum impedance too much or sacrifice quite a bit of sensitivity if you want to make it work. But for a active version I can explore the low crossover point option.

Good to know! Honestly, I'm okay with using something like a 2x500W @4ohm hypex power amp to feed a speaker, but I understand not everyone might be (or might want to purchase another amp).

 

[Jake C]

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.

Congratulations on what looks like a spectacular design and glowing reviews!

 

[red_delta]

Purchased, can't wait to assemble it. In the meantime would the topping PA 5 II be able to drive these well? Or would I be better off using dual Fosi V3 Mono's?

 

[digitalfrost]

Got the shipping notification a couple of days ago. One thing I did not think about - since the UK has left the european union, I have to pay customs for importing it. So now I have to pay 250€ ontop of the normal price.

 

[BeeKay]

Got the shipping notification a couple of days ago. One thing I did not think about - since the UK has left the european union, I have to pay customs for importing it. So now I have to pay 250€ ontop of the normal price.

And you'll have another small hurdle to cross, if you want to pay a visit to our friends and former EU members on this isolated island across the channel. In case you missed this too

Apply for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA)

What an ETA is, who can get one and how to apply before coming to the UK.

www.gov.uk

 

[kharan]

Got the shipping notification a couple of days ago. One thing I did not think about - since the UK has left the european union, I have to pay customs for importing it. So now I have to pay 250€ ontop of the normal price.

Custom import duties or VAT? Or both?

£950 is the price ex-VAT, which to be honest I'm not sure is legal to display in the UK.

 

[digitalfrost]

Custom import duties or VAT? Or both?

£950 is the price ex-VAT, which to be honest I'm not sure is legal to display in the UK.

It's just the VAT. Thankfully no additional customs fees. Since the product enters the EU in the Netherlands, I have to pay NL VAT of 21% even though the VAT in my country is only 19%.

 

[Audiofirstdesigns]

Hello everyone, I just want to give a little update regarding my recent work.

Apart from handling the Fidelia orders, I am also making some good progress on the new 3-way standmount design (See reply #193), and I would like to share some results of the very first prototype here with you all.

Spec:

Sensitivity - 88dB/2.83V
F3 - 45Hz
F6 - 35Hz
Size - W 30 cm x H 58 cm x D 41 cm

Spinorama:

PIR:

Directivity (Horizontal):

Harmonic distortion at 96dB/1m:

I am still refining a few things on the design, so it's not the final result or spec, but I don't think the performance of the final version will differ much from these.

The 3-way center channel is the next thing on my list; its going to take quite a while before I can launch this series.

I have been receiving many good feedback from my Fidelia customers. I really appreciate everyone's support, and I look forward to bringing more new products to the market.

 

[thewas]

That measurements look really good already, can you tell already about the approximate estimated price compared to the Fidelia?

 

[mrick39]

Looks like a great project! Will the entire front baffle be printed like the Fidelia? I really like that about the Fidelia from an assembly and looks perspective, and I believe offering a custom color option would be a very attractive selling point.

I am very very interested in a Center kit, glad to hear that’s on your radar.

 

[Jaxjax]

That looks to sound really good. Any ballpark time frame on the " it's going to take quite a while before I can launch this series "

 

[Audiofirstdesigns]

@thewas @mrick39 @Jaxjax Thank you very much for the compliments!

The whole front baffle will be in black like the Fidelia, I guess that's kind of my preferred design language.

These products will be named the Cadentia series. The estimated release time is around late June /Early. And I plan to "Purifi" them at the end of the year. But since my consultancy workload is increasing, I can't 100% guarantee. I will do my best to stick to the plan though!

I am using mostly Satori drivers in this series, they are not cheap and it will take long to prepare the kits doing it the Fidelia way, which will be reflected in the price.

The 3-way standmount will be priced at around GBP £2400 as a kit with everything thing included. Consider the sheer weight of the cabinet parts and the shipping cost It will probably be more sensible to offer a drawing plan option so buyers can produce the parts locally. The design of the centre channel is not finalised yet so no price information at the moment.

A few engineer friends from different audio brands visited me in Cambridge lately, and I received very good feedback on the performance of the standmount.

I am at a point where I really need to think it through regarding the direction of the business since there is only so much one can handle.

Either I focus on consultancy work, slow down my own product designs and release them as plan-only to balance the workload, which is a very safe option;

Or I rent a bigger space with dedicated rooms for the NFS/Production line/office, start hiring people and up my game in producing my products (be it kits of finished ones), which will be quite a big investment.

I know I will find a good balance eventually, just like a good loudspeaker design.

For now, let me go back and finish the design of the Cadentia series first...

 

[ahnafaf]

@thewas @mrick39 @Jaxjax Thank you very much for the compliments!

The whole front baffle will be in black like the Fidelia, I guess that's kind of my preferred design language.

These products will be named the Cadentia series. The estimated release time is around late June /Early. And I plan to "Purifi" them at the end of the year. But since my consultancy workload is increasing, I can't 100% guarantee. I will do my best to stick to the plan though!

I am using mostly Satori drivers in this series, they are not cheap and it will take long to prepare the kits doing it the Fidelia way, which will be reflected in the price.

The 3-way standmount will be priced at around GBP £2400 as a kit with everything thing included. Consider the sheer weight of the cabinet parts and the shipping cost It will probably be more sensible to offer a drawing plan option so buyers can produce the parts locally. The design of the centre channel is not finalised yet so no price information at the moment.

A few engineer friends from different audio brands visited me in Cambridge lately, and I received very good feedback on the performance of the standmount.

I am at a point where I really need to think it through regarding the direction of the business since there is only so much one can handle.

Either I focus on consultancy work, slow down my own product designs and release them as plan-only to balance the workload, which is a very safe option;

Or I rent a bigger space with dedicated rooms for the NFS/Production line/office, start hiring people and up my game in producing my products (be it kits of finished ones), which will be quite a big investment.

I know I will find a good balance eventually, just like a good loudspeaker design.

For now, let me go back and finish the design of the Cadentia series first...

Just made an account, I 100% understand the issues of not having enough bandwidth to process information or think of certain things.

If you would need any assistance in working with data, collection or analysis, I'd be glad to look into it and see how I can contribute pro bono. My field of study is software and I have a varied set of skills that extend to businesses and analysis.

I really like what you're doing here. Can't afford one of your speakers yet, but hopefully by the time I can; you'll have some stock haha.

 

[Audiofirstdesigns]

Some small updates about the Fidelia Kit:

Due to the increased workload, I have hired a friend for some occasional part-time work building crossovers and measurement checked before shipping. Little did I know that he is color blind since we didn't know each other for long, we ran into a bit of trouble during the cable soldering process. So in the more recent batches, I changed the negative woofer cable on the crossover to a green-yellow cable, which still implies "negative" while he can distinguish it from the red one and works smoothly. I hope this little change can potentially provide a smoother DIY experience for some of the customers, too.

I should put a little note in my Fidelia assembly tutorial Youtube video to mention this (Changed cable colour).

The other thing is that I have used all the Fidelia baffle parts already, so I have changed the product status on my website to out of stock. Taking this chance, I am working on a small modification on the front baffle design, which has nothing to do with acoustic performance but just addresses a production tolerance issue. I won't get the new baffles from my supplier until the end of April at the earliest. I expect they will be available to order again in early May.

WIsh everyone a good weekend.

 

[xray]

As a color blind person I thank you for taking that into consideration. I have to consult with my wife or daughters sometimes when I do wiring, especially Ethernet cables.