Alexey from Yekaterinburg, Russia
Faital 3WC-15 Beryllium dome tweeter
I assembled the speakers 5 months ago and now decided to write the most detailed review based on long time listening.
The first 2-3 hours of listening after assembly, the speakers sounded very rough - drivers with a rigid corrugated cone surround (suspension) take more time to soften. After 10 hours of listening, the sound became good and, probably, only after 20 hours of listening, the sound reached its final quality. So just be patient and don't jump to conclusions!
The sound is great, striking in its scale sound (the area of the sound stage, its density and richness of details), dynamics and transparency of sound. The large area drivers play with phenomenal detail, I think I can hear absolutely all the nuances of the recording. They are able to very quickly and accurately play any loud beat in a musical recording and can shock an unprepared listener with their dynamics! After listening to the Faital 3WC-15, the rest of the speakers seem small, emitting a point sound, even if in reality it is a floor speakers with two or three 6.5" drivers. It looks like size really matters, and you won't be able to get that kind of sound from a typical narrow speakers with 6.5” drivers for any amount of money.
A very wide soundstage, with a clear arrangement of instruments. Absolutely natural female vocals - I just can't tear myself away from the compositions of "Carpenters"! Crystal clear high frequencies, pleasing to the ears - don't be afraid of a metal (beryllium) tweeter, this is a completely different level of sound quality than you might hear from other metal tweeters used in inexpensive speakers from the store. Excellent crossover setup - I have never heard such a smooth transition (stitching) of drivers before. Even sitting close to the speakers (at a distance of 120-150 cm), you can hear an absolutely merged, "combined" sound, the whole speaker plays as one, it is not possible to distinguish the sound of a separate driver.
For the perfect soundstage, I recommend leaving a blank space between the left and right speakers. At the very least, it is advisable not to place any tall objects between them (higher than the low-frequency driver in height), especially tables or any other objects with a large reflective horizontal surface.
Faital 3WC-15 are less demanding in terms of placement in the room, they can be placed quite close to the side wall, provided that they are slightly turned towards the listener (I again compare with narrow floor speakers with 6.5” drivers). Most likely, this is due to the large area of the front panel, apparently the main part of the sound is reflected from it, and does not go to the side or back behind the speakers.
About the bass: it's enough, it's very fast, deep enough, with a lot of detail, without the slightest distortion at any volume. But it doesn't sink as low as a subwoofer. If you are accustomed to the sound of home cinema subwoofers with drivers with long-travel rubber suspension, you may be dissatisfied. But these subwoofers have a monotonous bass, inaccurate, often slow. If you are looking for fidelity bass reproduction, then the Faital 3WC-15 will love you.
These speakers can be listened to at a high-volume level of 105 dB(Z) SPL with peaks up to 110 dB without any distortion (measured with REW and calibrated measurement microphone miniDSP UMIK-1, microphone at a distance of 300 cm from the speakers). I think the speakers can play louder, but I get scared from this level of sound pressure in my apartment in an apartment building. Monitor the health of your ears! I usually listen at around 95 dB(Z) SPL.
About the power of the amplifier: despite the high sensitivity of the speakers (95-96 dB / 2.8V / 1 meter), in order to obtain the best dynamics, a high-power amplifier is needed (at least for the bass driver). First, I used an Arcam SA20 amplifier with a power of 90W/150W (8/4 Ohm) - its power was not enough. I changed it to an Arcam PA240 amplifier rated at 225W/380W (8/4 Ohm) - now there is enough power to get the best dynamics. If you want to use a low power tube amplifier, you simply need to power the bass driver from a powerful amplifier such as the Hypex. Also, do not forget that these speakers have an 8” mid-range driver in a closed box - it also needs power, I think at least 25W.
On forums on the Internet there is a widespread misconception that the larger the size of the speaker drivers, the larger the area of ​​the room they need, otherwise the bass will "hum/buzz". Actually, the size of the driver does not matter, the bass "hums" when you try to use the bass reflex port so that the small driver can play at a frequency lower than it can physically play. My Faital 3WC-15 is located in a small room of 16 m^2 and the bass does not "hum/buzz". Do not be afraid of speakers with large drivers, you need to be afraid of small speakers, the characteristics of which indicate the lowest reproduction frequency from 30-40 Hz.
My audio equipment:
- Source: Computer (Foobar2000 / RME ASIO Driver) - [USB digital Interface]
- DAC: RME ADI-2 DAC FS (with homemade linear power supply) - [XLR balanced connection]
- Amplifier: Arcam PA240.
*RME ADI-2 DAC FS is an excellent DAC for connecting to a computer: it has a built-in Bit Perfect Test function to verify the received data. It allows you to make sure that the computer software is working correctly and does not alter the transmitted signal in any way. Yes, and even though it comes from a pro audio environment, it sounds very good (just like pro audio drivers).
It took about 3 months to order components and assemble the speakers. All parts are made of 20 mm Baltic birch plywood on a CNC machine.

My small changes in the project:
1. Double front wall (20 + 20 mm) in the low-frequency compartment of the cabinet. I did not increase the size of the cabinet, since most of the area of the front wall is occupied by the holes for the drivers and bass reflex ports (the volume of the low-frequency compartment has decreased by 3 liters from the original volume of 119 liters - I'm sure it doesn't matter). The double front wall made it possible to move the plastic bass reflex ports of the 20 mm deep into the front wall - it seems more beautiful to me. The total length of the tubes remained the same 200 mm (20 mm plywood + 180 mm plastic tube). The main difficulty was to align the two parts with each other, so that all the holes fit perfectly to each other, and also so that the plastic tube of the bass reflex port smoothly (without steps) passes into the hole in the plywood. The double thickness also made it easy to make an insulated tweeter box - I just glued on the round plywood cover from the inside.
2. A Neutrik Speakon NL4MPR socket and a Neutrik Speakon NL4FRX cable connector are used to connect the speaker wires. I am an engineer by profession and therefore I trust professional connectors that have specifications about all the properties of the connector: contact material, maximum possible current, and so on. This is a 4-pin connector with Bi-Amping / Bi-Wiring capability and is easy to blind-connect by touch - just plug in and twist until you hear a click. Yes, and these connectors are inexpensive, with silver-plated contacts. I'm sure there is no difference in sound compared to the supplied Jantzen terminals.
3. Increased the size of the mid-frequency crossover board and slightly relocated the components to place all the large capacitors in line for better fixation. All crossover components are secured with SuperFix with additional plastic cable ties.
4. For attaching Faital 15PR400 I used stainless steel screws 5*25 mm (10 mm head) - this is better suited for large drivers mounting holes than the supplied Jantzen 4*25 mm screws (8 mm head).
Top coat - transparent (colorless) parquet oil in two coats, with intermediate sanding between coats.
The plastic bass reflex ports are glued with epoxy. Additionally, for their reliable fixation, plywood rings are used, cut into pieces.
A base plate with an M12 nut with a furniture bolt with a semicircular head and a square headrest (DIN 603) is used as legs. These bolts come in a range of heights from 30mm to 180mm, making it easy to adjust the height to match your listening seat. I have not yet decided on the required height, so I use cheap zinc-plated bolts. Later I will replace these bolts with the same stainless-steel bolts - they look nicer.
Many thanks to Troels for his DIY speakers projects and this site with a wealth of practical information on acoustics and audio equipment! Reading this site and the subsequent process of assembling speakers allowed me to acquire practical knowledge that would not have been possible by simply buying speakers in a store.
I will definitely build another DIY project of Troels speakers when I have the place, time and money)))
For example, I want to listen to a compression driver with horn and compare it to a beryllium tweeter, so it will most likely be The Loudspeaker 2 or 3 (or some future The Loudspeaker X).