Why hasn't America discovered the Fertin sound yet

Laurentgilles...I gather that "Fieldcoil" is what they call a driver that has an electromagnet instead of a permanent magnet. These were common about 70 years ago when the electromagnet field coil also served as an inductor in the receiver power supply. What possible advantage would this offer today?

According to what I read, most of the drivers in the Fertin line, including the 20EX, use permanent magnets.

Great question. At first in my quest for the ideal drivers.I wanted one with a high efficiency that I would use with a set amp. I was quite interested in the Tannoys. What made me change my mind was my search on the net about fieldcoil drivers. Then my choice was made. I had only to choose between a few drivers that had the characteristics that I wanted(fieldcoil-use in an o-b, full range, paper cone- no crossover).There were not too many. I think Phy makes one but it was not a full range. Also Supravox made one but what I found that the sound was more coloured(never heard it). After reading a lot of info about Fertin I decide this was the one. And if you look at the comments about fielcoils-full range drivers on the net , you see that what I've experience with the Fertin is someting similar to the fieldcoils and use in an open baffle , this give the sound a further openess that you don't find with regular boxe drivers.The sound is different than a regular driver. Where can you get info on fielcoils on the net?You can look at the Shindo site(about Shindo lab) and (fieldcoil technology)but there are many other sites which gives you info about this.There are many advantages to the fieldcoil: there is a constant flow of current to the voice coil and the magnetic field is much stiffer than a standard magnet. You get a huge reduction in the driver distortion which may be accountable for being more fatigue free(you can listen for hours without feeling tired afterward, very surprising).Also you get higher highs than reg magnet drivers. You can also vary the voltage to choose a more forward sound or more laid back.It offers other advantages: compare to a regular driver, the cone can operate 10 times as fast and stop 10 times faster . This must explain the dynamism (very fast) that we experience with these drivers and the micro details info that we hear(really astonishing to hear the wind blowing and fading, you hear it to the last fraction of a second-very impressive).This make you want to repeat a cd over and you never get bored because the experience is so unique. There's a coherence in the sound and being full- range without crossover , you get the full spectrum (less bass but this doen't bother me much because the midrange is so fullfilling and the other characteristics that I mentioned compensate for this. But these drivers are very directional, the sweet spot is where it's all happening.My technical knowledge doen't permit me to explain in debt but maybe someone else could complement on this aspect. Hope this help a bit.

Anyway, what I wanted to tell Audiogoners is to try a new approach to music, that is the fielcoil-full-range-open baffle.Instead of paying for a box , you'll be listening to fantastic music.Last thing on these drivers, in your cd collection you will recognize immidiately the well recorded cd and others will sound terrible , same with singers, there will be some that you thought to be good and now you hear all the flaws in their voice. Well recordes cd will sound like heaven , others you won't be able to listen to them.

If you have 3 audiophiles listening to speakers how many opinions will there be ? 5

I would be interested in buying 25 pairs at a price reflecting what could be had directly from the manufacturer, and research and build baffles in order to sell the complete package. But I would not need a Canadian middleman that doesn't want to make any money