| PHASS FD0780, just installed on Fiat Punto, reproduces a excellent music I
ever heard with car audio in spite of the "quasi trade-in" fitting.
Retrofit off-the-shelf midrange units with FD0780 but direct connection
from Clarion CX386USB, a budget head unit built-in 20W*4 amplifier
Mr Taniguchi, MaestroGarage, Tokyo conducted the "simple" installation.
Only some modest sound damping put in place on the front door panels. The
other existing units (tweets, rear) continue to be used as they were with
small attenuation.
It might be a down-scale installation that the manufacturer had never
imagined, yet the results were terrific.
Especially the male voice is best fit in terms of overall tonality and
staging.
I am always thinking that the quality midrange reproduction is essential to
hear music, while a very few product exists to prove my view.
FD0780 is one. It has a quality midrange with enough broad response both in
high-frequency and low-frequency, which sounds without any peak/dip or
coloration.
Piano is also matchless. If you love to hear Yamaha's purified fine tone, I
believe any other speaker in the globe could sound better than Phass does.
Yamaha was Sviatoslav Richter's favorite in his final years. Though his
live recordings do not always have good sound quality, FD0780 reminds me
the days when I heard his recital.
I would venture to call it "Japanese Beauty". The same taste of tonality
that may evoke Seiji Ozawa conducting his Saito Kinen Orchestra.
I recall the legendary Diatone P-610, a 6.5" fullrange monitor speaker unit
that another Japanese manufacturer produced for field monitoring use of NHK
broadcasting a half century ago. FD0790/FD0780 must be the flame keeper of
the tradition Phass interpreted for the 21st century generation.
Though there are enough resolution and transparency with excellent
transient property, it would appeal overall musical fidelity with staging
of live concert rather than the physical quality of the recording, which is
a great asset from view of music lover.
I could have enjoyed various historical monaural recordings such as
Furtwangler, Jussi Bjorling, Victoria Los Angels and Yves Nat.
It was really amazing that the small fullrange unit portrayed the
transition of atmosphere along with modulation in spite of technological
limitation of those recordings.
For your reference I would pick out a couple of recent CD's of which
recording/music and FD0780 have some extraordinary chemistry.
Songs from the Last Century
Paul Motian, Mark Murphy (Bee Jazz)
Youssou N'Dour: Egypt (Nonsuch)
Mahler: Sym #4
Philippe Herreweghe, Orchestre des Champs Elysees (Phi)
J.S.Bach: Goldberg Variation
Glen Gould, Re-performed by YAMAHA automatic piano with MIDI data
transformed from Gould's 1955 recording (Sony)
Mozart: clarinet quintet
Wolfgang Meyer, Mosaiques SQ (naive)
In addition some from decedes-old recordings
Berg: Wozzeck
Jose Van Dam, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera (MET live 1980)
Georges Onslow: String Quintet Op.78
Gerard Jarry, Bruno Pasquier st al. ( A. Charlin 1972)
Saint-Saens: piano concerto #2
Arthur Rubinstein, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra (RCA 1968)
In general the recordings with excellent midrange quality sound better fit
than "Hifi" recordings of extended frequency range.
Please keep in mind the CD's listed above are selected from among those I
have heard so far in my car.
Incidentally many of those on the list are vocal. piano and chamber music,
maybe due to the limitation in my current affordable equipment and
installation. If the unit is anchored on a custom baffle without any
audible resonance and driven by a quality amplifier, some of orchestral
recordings must be added.
However even my current configuration I could enjoy Shostakovich conducted
by Andre Previn with London Symphony (RCA 1965). Definitely RCA recordings
of 50's-60's golden era orchestra recordings, such as Fritz Reiner /
Chicago Symphony and Charles Munch / Boston Symphony, would fit it.
This is a form of ultimate speaker which can compete for musical fidelity
even with any state of the art products. If you are a music lover looking
for the car audio equipment with accessible budget, this could be it.
BlackBerry from DOCOMO
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