If you haven’t heard of Fyne Audio before, don’t worry. The company is newcomer to the market, but it has an impeccable pedigree, with its employees sporting more than 200 years experience in the audio industry between them.
That’s quite some heritage—and it shows.We’re hugely impressed with the new F500 range, so much so that we’ve given the F501 floorstander a Best Floorstander £1000-£1500 in our 2018 Awards.
A passion for music lies at the heart of everything Fyne Audio does and that’s clear as soon as you start listening to the F501s. They’re a thrillingly accomplished pair of speakers, with a detailed, revealing, engaging—and above all—confident sound.
There’s some clever technology at play. The beautifully built cabinets may look conventional, but there are some intriguing aspects to the design.
The tweeter—a highly rigid Titanium dome—sits in the throat of the mid-bass driver in an arrangement Fyne calls IsoFlare.
This kind of point source design, intended to preserve the time-alignment and thus stereo imaging of the sound, is not unheard-of—but it demonstrate the sort of technical assurance start-ups aren’t necessarily known for.
The bigger drivers are multifibre paper cones, with unusually sculpted surrounds. Fyne Audio calls this design FyneFlute, claiming it offers more efficient dissipation of cone energy and reduction of unwanted resonances as a consequence.
The curved front baffle isn’t just for show, it also helps strengthen the cabinet. At the base of the cabinet there’s a conventional downward-firing port above a carefully profiled, conical diffuser to ensure bass is evenly distributed around the room.
These speakers have another nifty trick up their sleeves. Fyne Audio believes that the ability to remove the front grilles is important for the best listening experience, so they are attached with magnets to make them easily removable, and can be neatly stored on the back of the speaker when not in use. That’s the kind of thoughtful design we like.
Of course, none of this would matter if the F501s didn’t sound any good. But crank them up a bit and you’ll be enthralled by the sound they produce. There’s a broad, well defined soundstage, solid stereo focus and a lavish amount of detail.
The F501s look, feel and, most crucially, sound like the product of a company building on years of experience and expertise.
They’re available in four finishes: dark or black oak real wood veneers, or gloss black or white. Whichever you choose, you can be confident of owning a mighty fine pair of speakers.
It’s rare for a brand-new speaker company to pick up an Award in its first year, but Fyne Audio has done so and thoroughly deserves the recognition of a What Hi-Fi? Award.