Полочная акустика — Gato Audio FM-8

The FM-8 is the most compact loudspeaker in the FM series from Gato Audio, the Herlev-based Danish maker of amplifiers and speakers. It is a passive bookshelf design with a ported enclosure and two drivers, a ring radiator for the treble and a mineral-cone woofer that handles both bass and midrange. The carton holds two speakers, two sets of front grilles, a pair of foam bungs for the reflex ports, four pads and the owner's manual.

Key specs that matter

Gato specifies a bandwidth of 45 Hz to 35 kHz, and sensitivity is 85 dB measured with 2.83 V at the terminals. The nominal load is 4 ohm, and Gato suggests amplifiers delivering between 50 and 200 W. High frequencies come from a 38 mm ring radiator powered by a ferrite motor and backed by an optimised chamber. The lower unit is a 150 mm mineral cone mounted on a low-loss surround, with shorting rings in its motor and a voice coil tuned for the job. Cabinet size is 180 mm in width, 300 mm in height and 260 mm in depth.

Engineering and use context

Gato builds the FM enclosures with its FusedMass method, in which high-density fibreboard is bonded to a damping layer, certain parts are laminated from as many as six different materials, and substantial internal braces reduce panel movement. The crossover belongs to the PurePhase family and sits on a fibreglass board populated with thick-wire inductors, capacitors chosen for low resonance and resistors of non-inductive type. According to the company, the filter was shaped with attention to phase, resonance and impulse response of the chosen drivers rather than frequency response alone. Buyers can choose between hand-applied wood veneers and painted surfaces. Fabric grilles on slim frames clip on magnetically, locating over the screws that hold each driver. A pair of three-position toggles on the back, marked Focus and Detail, alters the voicing, and the warranty period is a minimum of two years.

Pairing

Twin pairs of gold-plated copper terminals take 4 mm banana plugs and allow the treble and bass sections to be fed by separate runs of cable or by separate amplifiers, provided the copper links between them are removed first. Gato recommends matching cable types in a bi-wired setup and using identical power amplifiers for bi-amping.

Alternatives

For a bigger stand-mount from the same family, the Gato Audio FM-15 moves up to a 170 mm mid-bass unit and a stated low-frequency limit of 40 Hz.