Funktion-One debuts bass enclosure at NAMM
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Building on design-thinking first utilised for Funktion-One’s powerful F132 horn-loaded bass, the new F124 “takes the company’s bass loading and driver technology to a new level”.
Funktion-One co-founder Tony Andrews says that the new enclosure marks the next logical step in bass speaker development: “With the 32-inch F132, we introduced something unique to the market: transient in the sub frequencies, as far down as 25Hz. From there, we felt there was potential to go further by using the knowledge we’d gained when developing the F132 to create a 24-inch bass speaker.”
By re-visiting a 24-inch frame and tooling they had developed during a previous R&D phase, the basis of the new enclosure quickly fell into place. To create the completed package, Funktion-One invested significant time into ensuring the other elements were exactly right. Key among these was the magnet and coil.
Andrews and the Funktion-One design team worked closely with Precision Devices to find the best performing solution, eventually developing a double 6-inch voice coil motor with an unprecedented Bl factor of 50 to give the necessary motive power. To Funktion One's knowledge, this is now the most powerful electromagnetic structure in a loudspeaker.
Two voice coils and intense magnetic flux control a 24-inch cone with impressive accuracy, ensuring excellent transient response and extended depth to below 30Hz. This combination of mid-bass speed and impact with low-bass extension from a single enclosure makes the F124 the perfect bass partner for the company’s Evolution systems and other Funktion-One mid-high speakers.
As Andrews notes, the universally enthusiastic feedback the F124 has received during testing provides confirmation that the team’s time has been well spent. “It’s probably the best all round bass device on the planet,” he says. “Everyone who has experienced it has been blown away. It was quite a long development process - around two years - but that attention to detail has returned a fantastic result.”
He continues: “The fact that it’s horn-loaded means that its output is solid and precise. At this sort of size, most other manufacturers use bass reflex technology, which gets a completely different result. I believe we’re the only company doing anything that is genuinely different that works, and with the addition of the F124, I feel that we’ve got a complete range of the highest performing bass speakers on the market.”
(Jim Evans)
