Condor-III (FaitalPro STH100 with Selenium D220Ti)

Condor-III
45 Liters Bass Reflex

The Condor-III uses the same FaitalPro 10FE200-4 as in the Condor-II but the horn section is now a FaitalPro STH100 mated with the  popular Selenium D220Ti (8 ohms) compression driver. I chose this combination because the D220Ti has the flattest response with the STH100.

Fig 1 – FaitalPro 10FE200-4 and STH100/D220Ti

Fig 1 shows the relative loudness of the 10FE200 (Black plot) and the STH100/D220Ti combo (Blue plot). These plots are the RAW measurements, meaning no crossovers are used. Assuming the final Condor-III sensitivity is at 95dB, the D220Ti will have to be lowered by 10dB.

Fig 2 – STH100 with D220Ti

The Black plot in Fig 2 is the RAW response of the horn combo normalized to the Red plot (95dB) which is the combo with a High Pass network. As this speaker is meant for pro use, I decided to cross at 2kHz. This will enhance the robustness of the D220Ti as crossing at this frequency, the power handling will increase. I should mention that though my electrical high pass filter is 2nd order, the actual acoustic slope is steeper at almost 18dB/oct. This will increase further the power handling of the D220Ti.

Fig 3 – Condor-III Crossover Passband

The Black plot in Fig 3 is the crossover passband. The Condor-III crossover is technically better than the Condor-II as no cancellations are seen in the passband. Equally encouraging is the steep roll-off in the 10FE200. This was achieved with a basic 2nd order filter.

Fig 4 – Condor-III Frequency Response

The Condor-III Frequency Response is in Fig 4. There is a slight emphasis at 2kHz which I prefer. This will add some presence in the midrange. The Intelligibility in speech in particular is better with a bit of midrange boost. During playback, I did not detect any excessive sibilance even with this presence boost.

Fig 5 – Condor-III Null

This is where the Condor-III beats the Condor-II. The Null is absolutely beautiful (Fig 5). The center frequency is 2.2kHz which is near my targeted crossover frequency of 2kHz. The depth of the null indicates the woofer and the horn combo are time aligned, or at least very close to. No delay network was used. Neither did I have to tilt the front baffle. 

Fig 6 – Condor-III Nearfield Overlay

For clarity, I spliced in the nearfield response at 500Hz. This plot is a good approximation of the lower frequencies when measured in an anechoic chamber. 

Fig 7 – Condor-III Nearfield

Fig 7 is the final frequency response with the Nearfield spliced in. The D220Ti/STH100 combo extends to 10kHz, after which it begins to taper off. This plot is the RAW measurement. No smoothing is applied. From this, we can see that the horn section is extremely smooth. There are no cancellations or peaks from 2kHz to 10kHz.

Fig 8 – Condor-III Step Response

The Step response of the the Condor-III (Fig 8) is similar to the Condor-II. The transient is “fast”, hitting the apex at about 50 microsec.

Fig 9 – Condor-III Excess Phase

Fig 9 is the Excess Phase plot of the Condor-III. There’s no phase reversal from 2kHz to 10kHz. Even at 20kHz, it did not reach 180°. It certainly looks like the Condor-III is as good as Time and Phase Coherent, at least in her operating range of 2kHz to 10kHz.

Fig 10 – Condor-III Waterfall

In the Waterfall plot in Fig 10, there’s minimal artifacts from 3kHz to 8kHz. However, there’s extended decay at 9kHz to 15kHz. 

Fig 11 – Condor-III Toneburst Energy Storage

The Toneburst plot in Fig 11 depicts the decays as excess energy. The horn section has virtually no excess energy from 3kHz to 7kHz. We can infer from this that there’s no ringing. From 8kHz onwards, it recorded a bunch of excess energy. They are from the horn ringing but from the D220Ti breaking up at 10kHz. We can see this in the Frequency Response (Fig 7) where the plot became jagged after 10kHz. 

Fig 12 – Condor-III Spectrogram

The Spectrogram (Fig 12) shows the excess energy from 8kHz onwards are harmless. All the energy is dissipated by 1msec. In the horn’s operating range, there are no peaks from 2kHz to 10kHz. This confirms that there’s no ringing. 

Fig 13 – Condor-III Impedance

Any well designed power amplifiers should have no problem driving the Condor-III. The lowest impedance is 4Ω at 200Hz (Fig 13). Electrical phase is almost linear from 200Hz to 20kHz. Box tuning is at 50Hz.

Summary

Frankly, I didn’t expect the Condor-III to surpass the Condor-II. In the Condor-II, I couldn’t get the Dayton H6512/JBL 2414-C combo to align with the 10FE200. It can be done with the addition of a delay network but I’ll leave that for another day. Whereas with the STH100/D220Ti, everything just fell into place.

Bass is deep enough for most music. In fact, the Condor-III can be used in the home for music. If deep bass is required like in watching movies, a subwoofer can always be added.

Fig 14 – Far Field Response

For the convenience of users, I added an extra +3dB (Fig 14-Blue plot) L-pad in the horn crossover. This is to compensate the treble loss when the Condor-III is put to professional use as the audience will not be at 1 meter. If the distance between the Condor-III and the audience is great, EQ will still need to be applied electronically to boost the treble. A spectrum analyzer will be needed in such situations.

Unless otherwise stated, all measurements were made in Full Space (4 pi) with the mic at 36 ins, tweeter axis. Impulse Window=5ms. No smoothing applied.