Eminence FDM Speakers

[2deaf]

I ordered in an Eminence Reignmaker with their patented FDM technology.  I won't be able to take it to the studio and bolt it in for a couple of days, but I tried it just sitting on the floor.  It seems to be a little less bright at full attenuation, but it is way better than most attenuators.  Anybody got any opinions about these speakers?

[2deaf]

So I took the thing to my studio and bolted it into a Twin.  Then I compared the -9dB setting on the speaker with the full setting on the speaker with a Hot Plate set at -8dB.  The speaker at its own full attenuation sounded much brighter than the Hot Plate attenuation without the bright turned on.  The speaker was still a little brighter than the Hot Plate even with the bright on.  IMO, the speaker attenuation gave a better overall sound than the Hot Plate with bright on and a way better sound on real high leads.

I think Eminence may be onto something here.

[Willabe]

Interesting.   

(That's the 1 where they decrease the speaker magnets power by moving it away from the voice coil, something like that?)



 

[2deaf]

It has a big plastic screw on the back that moves in and out and it has a metallic clunk noise when it is screwed out to full power.  There are no patent numbers anywhere and my secretary hasn't been able to raise the patent online.  She thinks that it may not be an Eminence patent and that they might be paying whoever holds the patent.  It gives one the impression that the center piece of the magnet is moving in and out, changing the efficiency as it does so.

A problem that arises almost immediately is that this is not a speaker that I would use if it didn't have an attenuation feature.  I took a JBL E120 out to try the Eminence and there is no way I would swap them out.  The frequency response is really odd on both of their FDM models and it just might be a result of the adjustment feature.  If somebody happened to like the sound of these speakers at full power, they would be great for attenuation. 

[Ed_Chambley]

Hey 2deaf, I believe this is the origin
http://www.google.com/patents/US1789270

In some of my old radios with field coils you can adjust the speaker efficiency.  I did not know that is what it was doing, I have always just positioned them for the best sound.  Your post learned me something.

I have some old telephones that you can adjust as well.  Not sure if this is the same way Eminence had done with the FDM, but it is not a new idea.  Maybe a new way since magnets are employed.

I have not seen anyone give praise to the tone of these, but they may continue with the idea and produce various tonal qualities.  I like the idea for sure.

[avspecialist]

When I heard about these, I was excited to get them. I bought the Maverick and the Reinmaker.  When I first got them I did not care for them at all. After playing around with them for a few weeks I gave up on them. Fast forward 2 years later, I decided to rebuild a Fender Bassman Ten as a Super Reverb, including changing the output transformer to a Heyborer. I built a Blackface Deluxe style cabinet and decided to give the Reinmaker a shot, being it is a 75 watt speaker going on a 40 watt amp. I was looking to knock down the loudness of the 40 watts to a lower level. I reworked the bass channel to a Marshall/Tweed voicing and the Normal channel to the Super Reverb voicing. After firing it up, I must admit I was fairly impressed with the overall sound at full volume as well as the attunated volume. it's much better that the Master volume control types I have tried. It's not as good harmonically as my Webers, but is seems fine in a band setting.

[jojokeo]

It's not as good harmonically as my Webers, but is seems fine in a band setting.

I don't think limiting cone, spider, and/or coil travel is ever going to produce "normal" sounding results? Any limiting of these free flowing pieces will seemingly and naturally limit all of the nuances which make those naturally occurring harmonics we know and love. Take a hemp coned speaker, unless or until it can move like a pulsonic or others, it will not have the same high end and harmonic content especially at lower volume levels and why they are darker sounding in general.