FaitalPRO HMF200 — First Impressions and Testing

[FastlaneDave]

I recently picked up a pair of FaitalPRO HMF200 2-inch midrange compression drivers after Al at US Speaker recommended that I give them a try.​

My first impression is pretty simple: this is an incredibly smooth driver. I was particularly interested in the HMF200 because of its unusual paper diaphragm and its ability to operate considerably lower than most conventional 2-inch compression drivers.

The HMF200 uses a 1.46-inch (37 mm) voice coil, double-edge paper cone diaphragm, annular phase plug and neodymium ring magnet structure. It has a 2-inch exit, 108 dB sensitivity and weighs only 3.6 pounds. FaitalPRO specifies a frequency range of 450 Hz–9 kHz and a minimum crossover frequency of 450 Hz with a 12 dB/octave or steeper high-pass filter.

The paper diaphragm was one of the things that caught my attention. After listening and measuring it, I can say that so far I really like what I'm hearing. It has a very smooth, natural presentation, and the measurements I've taken so far reflect that smoothness as well.

The low-frequency capability is probably the most interesting part for the Klipsch crowd. My testing so far suggests that the HMF200 is comfortable operating down around 400 Hz on a properly sized horn. That's below FaitalPRO's published 450 Hz minimum crossover recommendation, so I'm treating 400 Hz as my test result, not a manufacturer recommendation.

That makes it particularly interesting to me for use with the ALK CSW-450 crossover, which I'm currently preparing for testing. A driver specifically designed to operate this low, combined with the smooth response I'm seeing, makes the HMF200 a very interesting candidate for Heritage-type applications where the horn is large enough to properly load it.

For reference, FaitalPRO rates the driver at 40 watts AES / 80 watts maximum, with a 2.1 T flux density. Unlike many conventional HF compression drivers, this really is designed as a dedicated midrange compression driver rather than simply trying to force a high-frequency driver farther down than it wants to go.

FaitalPRO HMF200 at US Speaker

The comparison here is between the FaitalPRO HMF200 and the PRV Audio D2200PH simply because these are the two drivers I currently have available to test side by side. I'm not really approaching this as a question of which driver is "better," because I think their strengths lend themselves to somewhat different applications.

So far, the HMF200 appears to be the smoother of the two, particularly when looking at the response across its operating range, and its low-frequency capability makes it especially interesting for applications requiring a 400–450 Hz crossover. The PRV D2200PH, on the other hand, remains an impressive budget driver and offers a tremendous amount of performance for the money.

To me, the more useful comparison is where each driver makes the most sense, rather than trying to declare an overall winner.

 

[rmlowz63]

PRV Audio D2200PH Makes the most CENTS. IMO

 

[DirtyErnie]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 450Hz /40w / 12dB thing is a full power, excursion limited guarantee by the manufacturer. Should be able to math those numbers into a reasonable solution that goes a bit lower for HiFi use.

 

[FastlaneDave]

I would agree with that. The 450 Hz / 40 W / 12 dB recommendation looks more like a safe full-power operating recommendation than an absolute lower-frequency limit for the driver.

In my application, the HMF200 will never see anywhere near 40 watts, so I suspect it is capable of useful operation below the published recommendation. The important qualification is that the horn still needs to provide adequate acoustic loading at the frequency being asked of the driver.

So I would not treat 450 Hz as a hard wall, but I also would not put a specific lower crossover point on it as a general recommendation. How far below that it can be used safely and effectively is going to depend on the horn, the crossover slope, and the actual power level in the system.

 

[Gigantic]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 450Hz /40w / 12dB thing is a full power, excursion limited guarantee by the manufacturer. Should be able to math those numbers into a reasonable solution that goes a bit lower for HiFi use.

Not if you want to maintain phase coherence. It loses directivity around 450hz with the PRV WG4550; it’s possible it might hold it together with a longer horn, but there’s no guarantee.

 

[FastlaneDave]

Not if you want to maintain phase coherence. It loses directivity around 450hz with the PRV WG4550; it’s possible it might hold it together with a longer horn, but there’s no guarantee.

I see what you’re getting at, and I think we’re probably pretty close on this. My only thought is that some of what you’re seeing around 450 Hz may be the WG4550 beginning to lose stable acoustic loading rather than necessarily a limitation of the driver itself. As you mentioned, a longer horn with a lower cutoff frequency may support the driver better in that region. I certainly wouldn’t assume that guarantees useful operation below 450 Hz, but I think the horn and driver probably need to be considered together before drawing too firm a conclusion.

 

[Gigantic]

I had a horn from ZXPC that was similar to the PRV WG4550, but had a longer throat, presumably with lower loading. It arrived broken in shipping; ZXPC was unresponsive, so I repaired it and sold it on before I had a chance to test it, unfortunately.