Floorstanding loudspeakers — Gato Audio FM-30

The FM-30 is a passive tower speaker with a three-way crossover, built by Gato Audio of Herlev, Denmark, for its FM series. Five drivers share the work in each cabinet - a ring radiator tweeter, a dedicated midrange unit and a pair of woofers, all with mineral cones apart from the tweeter. Each speaker arrives with a front grille set, and the two-carton shipment also contains eight spike sets and the manual.

Key specs that matter

Rated bandwidth reaches from 37 Hz up to 35 kHz. At 2.83 V input the speaker produces 87 dB, nominal impedance sits at 4 ohm, and Gato advises amplifiers rated from 50 to 250 W. Treble is handled by a 38 mm ring radiator, magnetised by ferrite and housed in an optimised chamber. The 150 mm midrange cone uses a low-loss suspension, shorting rings in the motor and an optimised voice coil, and two further 150 mm cones are built for long linear throw to cover the bass. The cabinet is 970 mm tall, 215 mm wide and 335 mm deep.

Engineering and use context

As across the FM line, the enclosure follows the FusedMass principle, combining high-density fibreboard with a vibration-absorbing layer, laminating certain sections from up to six mixed materials and adding heavy bracing inside. Gato fits its PurePhase crossover, whose parts - heavy-gauge inductors, capacitors picked for low resonance and non-inductive resistors - are mounted on a fibreglass PCB, with the network developed around driver phase, resonance and impulse response. Four spikes screw into holes in the base plinth, each held by a locking fastener, and spike feet can be placed beneath them to protect the floor surface. Magnetic cloth grilles on narrow frames attach over the driver fixing screws. The rear panel carries three switches, named Bass, Focus and Detail, each with three positions. Finishes are handcrafted veneer or paint, and the minimum warranty is two years.

Pairing

Two sets of gold-plated copper binding posts, accepting 4 mm plugs, divide the low-frequency and high-frequency sections for bi-wiring or bi-amping, with copper shorting plates bridging them in normal use. When the plates stay fitted, Gato's manual requires that they are mounted one from each side of the terminal row, since a wrong arrangement can short-circuit the amplifier, and spade-terminated cables should not be combined with the plates.

Alternatives

The Gato Audio FM-50 is the larger FM tower, stepping up to two 170 mm woofers and a rated low-frequency limit of 32 Hz.