New Eminence FDM speaker with built in attenuator....

[tomjackson]

Hmm... Interesting....

http://www.eminence.com/fdm.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1LCUOqJBuY

[HTH AMPS]

interesting, but 9dB isn't shaving that much off the volume - might be nice for an amp which is usually just a little too loud to get into the 'zone', but with this you can crank it up a couple of notches to get the amp singing.

[Alex]

I thought 9db was a lot... :-(

[Denim n Leather]

Interesting concept!

[hunter]

9db is more than 50% attenuation.

[LazyNinja]

Really cool design! Love seeing instrument manufacturers to come up with new ideas.

Just a shame, as HTH said, 9dB isn't that much. You can't get a plexi or even a 18W to break up at -8dB setting on the THD Hotplate at home volumes. More for stage use it seems. Might be able to get great results if this was combined with another attenuator since most attenuators work best in moderate attenuation levels. If the speaker itself sounds good, this could be a winner!

[tomjackson]

9db is the difference between an efficient Celestion and an unefficient Jensen which I think would be very usefull in the one amp.  I guess it's more about trying to fine tune live than getting power saturation in a home setting.
my 3 main concerns would be :-

How does it sound?
What does it weigh?
How much does it cost?

If the answer to those questions are all positive they will sell a truckload of these

[mikeluke]

Wish that I had not flogged my Eminence Wizard now! Just scored a Peavey Classic 112E that needs a new speaker.....

[tomjackson]

Ha! would of been perfect.  Do you mean the Governor though?

I do fancy trying a wizard as well though, they sound great here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKBCr3fk-qM

[mikeluke]

Sorry - yes - I have the Wizard in the combo!

[hunter]

This might also be a nice tool to finetune a cab - e.g. with one Celestion speaker and then one of these Eminences, and adjust volume of the Eminence until it sounds cool.

Just a thought ...

[Denim n Leather]

This might also be a nice tool to finetune a cab - e.g. with one Celestion speaker and then one of these Eminences, and adjust volume of the Eminence until it sounds cool.

Just a thought ...

There are really a LOT of applications you can use with this design. It'll be interesting to see how they sound/cost, as tomjackson stated above.

I do think that this idea will catch on, though.

[WezV]

Flux Density Modulation (FDM) Technology

such a cool name - it must be good

[hunter]

This might also be a nice tool to finetune a cab - e.g. with one Celestion speaker and then one of these Eminences, and adjust volume of the Eminence until it sounds cool.

Just a thought ...

There are really a LOT of applications you can use with this design. It'll be interesting to see how they sound/cost, as tomjackson stated above.

I do think that this idea will catch on, though.

The most important thing (like with any attenuator) will be that it still makes the power amp react naturally like with an unattenuated speaker. The fact that the product manager says it takes off top end sounds like a cheap attenuator to me though :(

[HTH AMPS]

by the sound of what they say in the videos, they're varying the flux density of the magnet and therefore the sensitivity of the speaker.  losing a bit top end isn't the end of the world, I'm sure it can be dialled back in.  of course, the speaker itself needs to be good in the first place - I'd like to see a G12H-30 version by Celestion.