Audio First Fidelia on Erin’s Audio Corner

[Somafunk]

Makes sense. The Fidelia page has the vibe of them making do until they get their NFS. Not criticizing.

If the measurements above are of the company “making do” then pretty much every comparable speaker company are gonna be shitting themselves once Audio First get their NFS,

Very impressive for the money

 

[AM88]

Welcome to ASR!! It is really great as the designer and company owner you are willing to talk on a public forum about your product. Good luck with the future and also thank you for sending your speaker in for a 3rd party review.

 

[Somafunk]

Welcome Harry, very impressive small speaker.

 

[totti1965]

Does it though?

All of their Fidelia graphs seem to come from the Audio Precision software suite, same as what KEF use internally. E.g: https://www.ap.com/blog/improved-polar-plot-utility

They're not from Klippel.

Hence my hunch that they're probably making do with what they got for now, until they receive their NFS (lead times must be crazy, same as the 5128).

Oh, you are right!

 

[MAB]

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.

Hi Harry, and welcome to ASR.
Thanks so much for the introduction.

Very nice speaker. I’m looking forward to seeing you succeed and bring more models to the market.

Make sure to register as a manufacturer. I am sure the moderators will be happy to assist.
@Jimbob54
@BDWoody
@AdamG

Best regards!!!

 

[tktran303]

Good on you Harry!

Brave to venture out on your own instead of remaining with the mothership.

Good luck to your new adventure!

Great first design- I think I will order as a taster!

 

[JSmith]

Hello everyone, this is Harry Yeung, the founder and designer of Audio First Designs.

Hey and welcome to ASR.

A nice looking DIY speaker, with some decent measurements there.

Make sure to register as a manufacturer. I am sure the moderators will be happy to assist.

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[Mnyb]

Good luck with the company and future projects.

Review looked really good, amazing quality work and solid science based design a rare thing in cottage brand/one man show .

+1 for specifying the use case , your design makes sense in that small room context .
Suppose the wide pattern makes it possible to sit two people’s beside each other or being able to move your head even if are somewhat close to the speakers in your small room .

+1 for not wasting resources on biwiring terminals .

+1 birch ply, nice .

 

[kyuu]

@Audiofirstdesigns Any chance of an MTM design to get better SPL vs distortion?

In any case, great first product and welcome to ASR!

 

[Sonny1]

Breaking News: Danny will have an upgrade ready before Christmas. Fancy caps and tube connectors, etc. Gotta get rid of those cheesy components. Just kidding…

 

[Purité Audio]

I wonder why they chose the DIY market first?
Keith

 

[kharan]

I wonder why they chose the DIY market first?
Keith

Financial reasons I believe, less money invested, less money needed to run the business.

There was an interview somewhere, I don't recall where exactly.

 

[Everett T]

I wonder why they chose the DIY market first?
Keith

My guess is they are the most critical and are willing to spread the word with good designs, without having to spend heavily on advertising in the beginning.

 

[Purité Audio]

Good to see, in the U.K. too, actual advance rather than just another LS3/5A version.
Keith

 

[kharan]

Good to see, in the U.K. too, actual advance rather than just another LS3/5A version.
Keith

Did you not want a set of well measuring and relatively cheap passives to sell?

 

[Purité Audio]

Yes but wasn’t counting on making them!
Keith

 

[CtheArgie]

This performance and this price, even if you have to do some work, makes Erin’s report on the previous speaker at $3.5k laughable. Or shameful.

 

[Mnyb]

Good to see, in the U.K. too, actual advance rather than just another LS3/5A version.
Keith

Yes progressive speaker design for the future, not looking back at years gone by in nostalgia . I can get my JPW P1 or Heybrook HB2 used and tinker with for that .*

Btw I’ll guess an a very small initial series for the diy version. The birch ply and possibly also the brand name caps would have to go in mass production, but without making the speakers any worse. You can make other QC choices when making more of a thing .

* I don’t mind making modern speakers look like the old model , but perform in modern way , there are several examples of these .

 

[RickS]

Nice measurements but reminds me of the SB Bromo kit (without the waveguide) and that kit is under $700 from Madisound.

Do not recall seeing any Klippel measurements for the Bromo as yet though.

 

[Matt_Holland]

@Audiofirstdesigns Any chance of an MTM design to get better SPL vs distortion?

In any case, great first product and welcome to ASR!

Whatever Henry has up his sleeves I’m intrigued.

Personally I’d like a 3-way design as this is how you get real SPL and low distortion. Or at least a 2.5-way which could be a similar width floorstanding variant of the Fidelia with an additional 3 or 4 woofers playing up to around 400Hz. This would allow the 4-5dB baffle step penalty to be regained, making 2.83V/1m SPL in the high 80s and at probably around 12dB more overall headroom.