Welcome to the FM Acoustics forum

[ack]

Thanks to Steve for creating this forum. Like other established ultra high-end, _high-speed_ audio designs like Burmester and Spectral (not to belittle the Soulutions, Goldmunds, Constellations et al), FM Acoustics has had a long history in the field as well. The last two are the only ones I am aware of in the SS domain that also put _extreme_ emphasis on complete system design, down to the cables - e.g. see http://www.fmacoustics.com/c_dom_speakercables.html. FM Acoustics takes it one step beyond, and for example, their products come with no detachable power cords. It's hard to grasp the end-to-end design approach, but I often ask myself: could I possibly know more than them? And if specs mean anything to you and you believe in the partial value and meaning of some, Spectral and FMA are the widest bandwidth SS designs I am aware of, although I must admit I don't know what it means for others in the same class to be relatively narrower bandwidth. The FMA website is a very interesting read, and I would especially urge people to take a look at the Q&A section, if nothing else, to avoid fraud.

We have a couple of members here with exposure to FMA and are hoping to hear more from them and their own impressions. My own exposure has been mostly from friends' systems overseas, but suffice it to say I was mighty impressed; none of those few fortunate have looked elsewhere since.

[flez007]

The only FMA I have heard was Gary's room setup some years back at RMAF (can't tell the year) - it was a revelation with a Reimyo CDP which I ended up buying! The amps looked un-pretentious, but sounded great!

[garylkoh]

Unfortunately, I'm now an ex-FMA owner. But, I still think that FMA is one of the finest ultra-high-end brands out there.

They take to the extreme total system design - down to the screws and PC-board stand-offs inside the units. They look unpretentious, and from first glance when you take the top off utilize "cheap" components. However, they take component matching and tolerance to the extreme. They may use what looks like a cheap transistor (for example), but then they put hours and hours into matching the 4 pieces that would be needed to make a 2-channel full balanced circuit. I was once told that they throw away far, far more parts than they use because of tolerance.

Four $1 coupling capacitors that are matched to +/- 0.5% at all frequencies can end up being a couple hundred dollars each when the time and effort needed to run each capacitor in, and then match and tolerance them, and throw away those that are out of tolerance. I tried to take this philosophy to heart, but ended up costing too much, so I only match to an extent. Having gone through (just for passive components) the exercise, I no longer think that FMA are outrageously expensive.

I don't think that they measure particularly well. And there isn't a great following because of the price, but once you are in the FMA camp, few leave.

[Thf99]

Unfortunately, I'm now an ex-FMA owner. But, I still think that FMA is one of the finest ultra-high-end brands out there.

I don't think that they measure particularly well. And there isn't a great following because of the price, but once you are in the FMA camp, few leave.

Just curious, Gary. Why did you leave then? Because of your own amps?

[garylkoh]

Just curious, Gary. Why did you leave then? Because of your own amps?

It was necessary as a designer and manufacturer - I have speakers that go down to $3,500 per pair, and demo-ing them at CES and other shows with over $250,000 of FMA equipment was getting embarrassing. I found better gear elsewhere that I can mix and match to a pricepoint. The FMA set-up needed to be all-FMA (including cables) so it was difficult to demo and design with. My speakers needed to work with everything. Whenever I could not find something I liked enough that I could work with, I designed it.