Fyne Audio F3-12 Subwoofer Review & Comments

Sounds interesting but is it better than the BK subs which you can get for around 400 pounds?

I thought I would get this question in first before anyone else lol.
 
I don't know, in part because when I asked BK for a sample to review they were unable to provide one in a timely fashion.
 
Sounds interesting but is it better than the BK subs which you can get for around 400 pounds?

I thought I would get this question in first before anyone else lol.

Intresting yes and nice to see compact sized vented sub that is also easily available at local hifi stores stores which matters to some people. Marketed as HT sub it has rather modest extension for the price.

At 600£ it`s going to have very hard time against BK Monolith Plus (530£ shipped), SVS PB1000 (519£) and XTZ 12.17 Edge at 689£.

Anyone has the HCC issue where it was winner of group test, which other brands/models were there?
 
:offtopic:

@Steve Withers hope you could push the BK guys little bit more as they have now two new models (P12-PR and Double Gem) which lot of members would love to see in AVF review! :) Actually i`m quite suprised why BK haven`t contacted you or AVF management as many members have been asking reviews for these.

PS. XTZ 12.17 Edge now has IcePower amp modules (745w rms / 1045w peak) and driver from Cinema serie so it´s also little bit different than the one you reviewed.
 
IAt 600£ it`s going to have very hard time against BK Monolith Plus (530£ shipped)

The monolith+ was £585 last time I looked, but it's almost twice the size (95l enclosure, 46kg) and I very strongly suspect it is a better sub for the money. You'd be mad not have it on your shortlist at least. Speaking of mad, to fail to mention the BK, SVS, or the XTZ as alternatives in the review is also of questionable sanity - they should be the first three subs on your shortlist, before this and the REL.

I second the request to get a Double Gem in for review, it looks like an interesting cheap sub alternative.
 
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Pity it’s got a hole in the bottom, as it rules it out for a flat unless you put it on top of a paving slab.

Bill
 
The monolith+ was £585 last time I looked, but it's almost twice the size (95l enclosure, 46kg) and I very strongly suspect it is a better sub for the money. You'd be mad not have it on your shortlist at least. Speaking of mad, to fail to mention the BK, SVS, or the XTZ as alternatives in the review is also of questionable sanity - they should be the first three subs on your shortlist, before this and the REL.

I second the request to get a Double Gem in for review, it looks like an interesting cheap sub alternative.
I can't really recommend subs I haven't actually heard, but since I did cover the SVS and XTZ, I'll add them to the alternatives part of the review.
 
The monolith+ was £585 last time I looked, but it's almost twice the size (95l enclosure, 46kg) and I very strongly suspect it is a better sub for the money. You'd be mad not have it on your shortlist at least. Speaking of mad, to fail to mention the BK, SVS, or the XTZ as alternatives in the review is also of questionable sanity - they should be the first three subs on your shortlist, before this and the REL.

I second the request to get a Double Gem in for review, it looks like an interesting cheap sub alternative.

Agreed. You can get new M+ for ~530£ shipped or basic for Mono for 445£ in UK (grade-b full warranty both) and the SVS PB1000 for 519£ which no doubt all are ahead in many areas of Fyne. BK P12-PR being similar size at 450£ would be tough competitor aswell offering better extension and output than the forum favourite sealed P12.

Fyne sells this as "half kilowat sub" 520w, but if one looks more carefully that is peak power figure (370w being RMS), secondly the low frequency response 28hz -6db typical in room is little high for a 600£ costing HT sub knowing that ported sub output drops like stone below tuning point. But it seems this sub sounds great at the range it´s meant to perform and no report of port noises yet. Shame it wasn´t tested against other ported models.

With new brand it´s always question mark how reliable the amps are going to be and how good the support is after warranty. Fyne amps comes with 2year warranty same as BK, SVS/Arendal/XTZ offers 5years, REL 3years.
 
Sorry @Steve Withers.

I was only half joking but the other half was because I think my BK sub is great and I really don't believe this sub is even close to being 300 pounds better.

Sorry.
 
Sorry @Steve Withers.

I was only half joking but the other half was because I think my BK sub is great and I really don't believe this sub is even close to being 300 pounds better.

Sorry.
No need to apologise. Based on owners comments, I'm sure the BK subs are excellent. Like I said, I asked BK for review samples in the second half of last year but they failed to deliver.
 
I can't really recommend subs I haven't actually heard, but since I did cover the SVS and XTZ, I'll add them to the alternatives part of the review.

It is a shame that BK have not sent you anything for review. Happily, if you have £5-600 to spend on a sub then there are all sorts of great choices (including the reviewed sub). The quality you can get on that budget is phenomenal.
 
Agreed. You can get new M+ for ~530£ shipped or basic for Mono for 445£ in UK (grade-b full warranty both) and the SVS PB1000 for 519£ which no doubt all are ahead in many areas of Fyne. BK P12-PR being similar size at 450£ would be tough competitor aswell offering better extension and output than the forum favourite sealed P12.

Fyne sells this as "half kilowat sub" 520w, but if one looks more carefully that is peak power figure (370w being RMS), secondly the low frequency response 28hz -6db typical in room is little high for a 600£ costing HT sub knowing that ported sub output drops like stone below tuning point. But it seems this sub sounds great at the range it´s meant to perform and no report of port noises yet. Shame it wasn´t tested against other ported models.

With new brand it´s always question mark how reliable the amps are going to be and how good the support is after warranty. Fyne amps comes with 2year warranty same as BK, SVS/Arendal/XTZ offers 5years, REL 3years.
Regarding the sentence that I have highlighted, in the Home Cinema Choice group test review, in actual practice as opposed to the specifications, the Fyne Audio was adjudged, by a relatively small margin but definitely, to be the deepest of the four subwoofers. As it happens, only yesterday I emailed Home Cinema Choice magazine to point out the disparity between the claimed low frequency responses and how the various subwoofers actually performed in practice. This is what I said:

"I would like to comment on an apparent (I say apparent because I'm not sure if it's true) anomaly in the results of the subwoofer group test by Mr Steve Withers in Issue 297. The group winner, and in the text it is described as the deepest subwoofer, is the Fyne Audio F3-12. Yet its claimed frequency response is given as "Down to 28Hz". The PBS SubSeries 250 turned out in practice to be the least deep of all four subwoofers in the test, yet its response is "25Hz to 150Hz", which at the lower end is specified as lower than the Fyne Audio! The REL HT/1205, which finished second overall, is specified as "Down to 22 Hz (-6dB)", which should be a fair bit deeper than the Fyne Audio but that's not what actually transpired, though it was close. The SVS SB-1000, which finished a strong third, is specified as "26Hz to 300Hz", which again is apparently lower than the Fyne Audio, which bests it. I realise that it would help if all the subwoofer frequency specifications had -3dB or -6dB limits, but even allowing for that, in this group test at least there seems to be no correlation to how deep a subwoofer actually sounds in practice, and its claimed frequency response."
 
Regarding the sentence that I have highlighted, in the Home Cinema Choice group test review, in actual practice as opposed to the specifications, the Fyne Audio was adjudged, by a relatively small margin but definitely, to be the deepest of the four subwoofers. As it happens, only yesterday I emailed Home Cinema Choice magazine to point out the disparity between the claimed low frequency responses and how the various subwoofers actually performed in practice. This is what I said:

"I would like to comment on an apparent (I say apparent because I'm not sure if it's true) anomaly in the results of the subwoofer group test by Mr Steve Withers in Issue 297. The group winner, and in the text it is described as the deepest subwoofer, is the Fyne Audio F3-12. Yet its claimed frequency response is given as "Down to 28Hz". The PBS SubSeries 250 turned out in practice to be the least deep of all four subwoofers in the test, yet its response is "25Hz to 150Hz", which at the lower end is specified as lower than the Fyne Audio! The REL HT/1205, which finished second overall, is specified as "Down to 22 Hz (-6dB)", which should be a fair bit deeper than the Fyne Audio but that's not what actually transpired, though it was close. The SVS SB-1000, which finished a strong third, is specified as "26Hz to 300Hz", which again is apparently lower than the Fyne Audio, which bests it. I realise that it would help if all the subwoofer frequency specifications had -3dB or -6dB limits, but even allowing for that, in this group test at least there seems to be no correlation to how deep a subwoofer actually sounds in practice, and its claimed frequency response."

Do you have measured frequency response graphs that you could post?

Edit: sorry, I should have put that question to @Steve Withers
 
Fyne sells this as "half kilowat sub" 520w, but if one looks more carefully that is peak power figure (370w being RMS), secondly the low frequency response 28hz -6db typical in room is little high for a 600£ costing HT sub knowing that ported sub output drops like stone below tuning point. But it seems this sub sounds great at the range it´s meant to perform and no report of port noises yet. Shame it wasn´t tested against other ported models.
That's a fair amount of power for a ported sub. I suspect there is also some filtering at the low end, to make sure the cone is controlled and does not bottom out.
My first sub was a REL strata which was a 10 inch driver with a 50 watt amplifier! It was a Mk1 with a huge port and went very low. But with some LFE tracks the driver would easily hit the stops. Later models introduced low end filtering and a boost at 80Hz which was termed 'slam' .
Sealed boxes also helped control the driver but required more power.
 
Regarding the sentence that I have highlighted, in the Home Cinema Choice group test review, in actual practice as opposed to the specifications, the Fyne Audio was adjudged, by a relatively small margin but definitely, to be the deepest of the four subwoofers. As it happens, only yesterday I emailed Home Cinema Choice magazine to point out the disparity between the claimed low frequency responses and how the various subwoofers actually performed in practice. This is what I said:

"I would like to comment on an apparent (I say apparent because I'm not sure if it's true) anomaly in the results of the subwoofer group test by Mr Steve Withers in Issue 297. The group winner, and in the text it is described as the deepest subwoofer, is the Fyne Audio F3-12. Yet its claimed frequency response is given as "Down to 28Hz". The PBS SubSeries 250 turned out in practice to be the least deep of all four subwoofers in the test, yet its response is "25Hz to 150Hz", which at the lower end is specified as lower than the Fyne Audio! The REL HT/1205, which finished second overall, is specified as "Down to 22 Hz (-6dB)", which should be a fair bit deeper than the Fyne Audio but that's not what actually transpired, though it was close. The SVS SB-1000, which finished a strong third, is specified as "26Hz to 300Hz", which again is apparently lower than the Fyne Audio, which bests it. I realise that it would help if all the subwoofer frequency specifications had -3dB or -6dB limits, but even allowing for that, in this group test at least there seems to be no correlation to how deep a subwoofer actually sounds in practice, and its claimed frequency response."

Would be nice to see what was the group test about, did they test the subs with movies mostly or music. I think HCC / Steve won´t measure anything in reviews, so it`s more about going by ear so very subjective and at the end of day just one guys opinion. With the Fyne F3-12 being only ported model it could have sounded just more beefier around the port tune.

Nitpicking, but there is mistake in the specs if 26hz mentioned, as SVS claims 24hz - 260hz (-3db) for SB1000 and SoundandVision measured 23hz (-3db) and 21hz (-6db). What is great with SVS is they keep what they say on spec sheet and offer you every measurements you want and more. For the SVS PB1000 19hz (-3db) is measured in real life same as with Monolith, both being cheaper. If the Fyne is already 6db down at 28hz, it´s rather poor but typical speaker manufacturer example of movie sub.
 
That's a fair amount of power for a ported sub. I suspect there is also some filtering at the low end, to make sure the cone is controlled and does not bottom out.
My first sub was a REL strata which was a 10 inch driver with a 50 watt amplifier! It was a Mk1 with a huge port and went very low. But with some LFE tracks the driver would easily hit the stops. Later models introduced low end filtering and a boost at 80Hz which was termed 'slam' .
Sealed boxes also helped control the driver but required more power.

Yes mate i didn´t mean there wouldn´t be enough power, only more sad about the marketing. XTZ isn´t selling their subs with 1045w peak power information on top and they aren´t making the number looks nicer by printing only -6db figures. :) These are very typical tricks for speaker manufacturers which tries to stand out from the competition, so in that sense understandable.
 
Rated frequency response is 28 Hz. Edge of Tomorrow opening scene bass is well under 20 Hz. Wondering how this sub was able to reproduce it. Please clarify
 
Rated frequency response is 28 Hz. Edge of Tomorrow opening scene bass is well under 20 Hz. Wondering how this sub was able to reproduce it. Please clarify

One factor could be under what conditions the 28 Hz figure was measured: a 2m ground plane measurement would show lower output at the lowest frequencies than would be achieved in a room (due to 'room gain'). That said, I'd want to see an in room measurement with a microphone to be convinced that the Fyne sub really did output anything meaningful that low in a test. It would after all seem rather unusual/surprising for a company to massively undersell the capabilities of their product.
 
One factor could be under what conditions the 28 Hz figure was measured: a 2m ground plane measurement would show lower output at the lowest frequencies than would be achieved in a room (due to 'room gain'). That said, I'd want to see an in room measurement with a microphone to be convinced that the Fyne sub really did output anything meaningful that low in a test. It would after all seem rather unusual/surprising for a company to massively undersell the capabilities of their product.

Agree. When I run frequency drop test in my SVS sub, it pushes air well until 10Hz but drops off at 17 Hz which is the rated lowest frequency of the sub.
 
Agree. When I run frequency drop test in my SVS sub, it pushes air well until 10Hz but drops off at 17 Hz which is the rated lowest frequency of the sub.

Room modes and applied correction will make a difference too of course. Here's an MLP example for my Monolith with the black curve being without EQ and the coloured curves being with EQ at different output levels.

(I didn't try louder so the top curve doesn't represent maximum output, and there was also an LP filter applied.)

Edit: the curves have 1/24th octave smoothing applied.

Monolith correction and compression example for AVF.jpg
 
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Room modes and applied correction will make a difference too of course. Here's an MLP example for my Monolith with the black curve being without EQ and the coloured curves being with EQ at different output levels.

(I didn't try louder so the top curve doesn't represent maximum output, and there was also an LP filter applied.)

Edit: the curves have 1/24th octave smoothing applied.

View attachment 1146364
That's a pretty good frequency response when all said and done. The EQ certainly smooths out the bumps and the bottom end is quite impressive.
 
That's a pretty good frequency response when all said and done. The EQ certainly smooths out the bumps and the bottom end is quite impressive.

Thanks. That was pretty easy to achieve with my miniDSP but it's worth noting I have 'thrown away' some headroom to achieve it so the maximum volume achievable will be lower than it could be. So far it seems to go loud enough for me though :). Oh, and I know the sub-20 Hz output will be pretty high distortion as this is going below the port resonance. My priority was a flat response above 20 Hz.

I'm still working on optimising integration with my main speakers though, so the full frequency range curves are less impressive right now... A different sub location may also preserve more headroom.
 
Hello Steve I know it’s only a small point but subsonic refers to speed. When you’re talking about bass that is below the level of human hearing the word is infrasonic. I doubt this subwoofer is going to go subsonic unless someone straps a jet engine to it.

Cheers.
 

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