Faital, Italy, has launched two new bass drivers, the 10RS430 and 12RS430, which seems more aimed at the hifi marked than public address, PA. Looking at the TS data quickly reveals these drivers more than suitable for hifi application. I quickly ordered a pair of both and here's my thoughts on the 10". The 12" will trigger a new Faital-3WC-12-430, maybe next year. This will not mean the end to current Faital-3WC-12, as this features high efficiency and may be desirable for some. Most likely a new Faital-3WC-12-430 is likely to go deeper at the expense of efficiency. We can't have it all from the same size cabinet.

Download Faital 10RS430 data sheet.

Many people may think speakers designed for PA application might not be suitable for hifi, and well, in terms of appearance there may be something to be desired, but to be honest, I don't care. I fully accept some do, but looking at our sales statistics it becomes crystal clear that a lot of customers share my enthusiasm for these drivers, as the Faital-3WC-10 is indeed very popular. A combination of price, size and performance makes this an ideal DIY kit.

So, this new 10RS430 features significant lower Fs, rarely seen in PA world, where a 12" is typically meant for midrange! However, doing box simulation we only get an extra F3 of 1 (one) Hz from a 50 litre cabinet. BUT, digging deeper into the TS data we find much larger excursion, significant increase in Qm (reduced loss in suspensions) and a lot more... read below.

For the Ellipticor-2F8 and SEAS-Nextel-2F we can plug in the 10RS430 without any changes to the design or crossover.
For the Faital-3WC-10, I cannot recommend other than the 10RS350. The 10RS350 has a bit higher sensitivity and as the bass driver is the foundation of any design, the rest must follow accordingly.

10RS350 to the left and 10RS430 to the right. Same basket diameter.
As can be seen the 10RS430 has a convex dustcap where the 10RS350 is concave.



Seen from the side, it appears these two units are very much not the same.
Different basket height and magnet size. What is also seen is the 10RS350 having a curvilinear cone where the 10RS430 appears to have a straight sided cone, the latter usually being less flexible ensuring better pistonic movement, more precise bass. The -430 cone also appears thicker than the -350 cone, but I wouldn't cut it up to see if true, but it may count for some of the 10 grams increase in Mms and not only length of coil windings.


Faital TS data sheets.
 


Frequency response of the two units on my 80 x 120 cm baffle. As seen below, the rubber resonance around 800 Hz is gone and we have a smooth response all the way up to around 2 kHz and a maximum at 2550 Hz.


Impedance profile of the two 10RS430 units, green and orange.
For comparison 10RS350, red.
What we see is a significant lower point of resonance going from 47 Hz to around 35 Hz. Now, Fs will vary depending on voltage applied, so these are comparative studies. The huge peak of the 10RS430s is the result of decrease in mechanical loss = high Qm, and based on my measurement CLIO calculated Qm = ~9.3 on average, where Faital claims Qm =10. Whatever, a huge value for Qm.


Frequency response of 10RS430 (red) and 10RS350 (green) on a 80 x 120 cm baffle.
It appears, for the same setting of the CLIO, the 10RS350 is some 1.5 dB more sensitive than the 10RS430, but here we have to look at Re for the two units. 10RS430 has a higher Re, 6.8 Ohms compared to 5.3 for the 10RS350, so in terms of efficiency, they may be the same despite the extra ~10 grams moving mass of 10RS430. The 10RS430 has a much larger voice coil winding height (~+10 mm) compared to the 10RS350, allowing larger excursion.
I've seen the 10RS430 advertised as a subwoofer. I wouldn't call it that, but in PA world, maybe so. In hifi-world, a bass driver.