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Small speaker duo combines high, quality and big sound.
TOA Electronics continues to deliver quality products of all stripes. Even if the company isn't on your short list of speaker manufacturers in terms of name recognition, you'll want to be aware of its new HX-5/FB-120 combination. This high-quality package consists of a subwoofer, the FB-120 ($692), and a full-bandwidth modular speaker package, the HX-5 ($494), in which four trapezoidal enclosures are combined into a single unit. Together, these two present a truly handsome package from an aesthetic standpoint, but they deliver the goods from an aural perspective as well. I got to take the rig for a spin, and I was more than pleased. Let's dig into what I found.
Let's look at the HX-5 first, since it represents the truly innovative half of the package. I pulled the thing out of the box, and the first thing that came to mind was "line array." In the strictest sense of the word, it is indeed a simple line array, to the extent that it employs four identical enclosures arrayed in a vertical pattern with the goal of controlled directivity. It's not as sophisticated as a large-scale touring system, yet it nicely accomplishes the goal. TOA refers to it as a variable dispersion speaker, and that is the perfect description. And, frankly, if a full-tilt line array is what you need, TOA makes them as well.
Since the four enclosures are intended for use only as an integrated unit (and due to wiring, can literally be used only that way), there's really no point in describing the individual cabinets, other than to say that they are trapezoidal and made of polypropylene. Each enclosure features a center-positioned 5in. cone-type LF driver, and three vertically arrayed, balanced-dome-type HF drivers. In the four-enclosure arrangement, the LF drivers stack one above another, and similarly, you wind up with 12 HF drivers in a vertical line. Mind you, the package as a whole can be used in either orientation, depending upon the dispersion pattern you want. I'm guessing that...