New PM0.5 Compact Powered Monitors from Fostex

Fostex America has announced a compact, self-powered monitor system. The new model follows the successful design of the company's model PM-1, a larger version now selling at Fostex Dealers.

"We're very positive about the PM0.5," Product Manager Derek Badala said, "because it fills a price/performance niche requested both by our dealers and our customers. There is a definite place in the market for this kind of compact, high performance monitor," he added.

The 5" LF driver has been designed to deliver pure music reproduction by employing the latest technology in cone material. The cone uses a mixture of cut and milled fibers that are made from aromatic polyamide. It is then impregnated with resins to simultaneously achieve high rigidity and optimum damping.

An olefin film is thermally adhered to the surface of the cone to control frequency response and to establish long-term reliability. The center dust cap is made of non wood cellulose material and is also impregnated with resin. Finally, the voice coil is made of high purity copper wire to achieve very low distortion: <0.01% THD @25W/8?.

The .75" soft dome tweeter employs the Fostex UFLC technology (Poly Urethane Film Laminated Cloth). It is both lightweight and highly stable. Both drivers are powered by specifically matched amplifiers--40 Watts RMS for the woofer and 30 Watts RMS for the tweeter.

The compact PM0.5 measures 7-1/8" H x 11" H x 10-1/4" D (w/heat sink) and weighs 14.3 lbs. each. "Ideal for small project studios or even remote recording applications, the PM0.5 is amazingly powerful, despite its size," Badala explained. "For example, it generates 105dB SPL at 1 meter across the critical midrange bandwidth from 80Hz to 3kHz." Free field response is 50Hz ~ 20kHz +/- 2dB.

Performance is tailored further by the use of cut-off filters: 40 Hz for the woofer and 22kHz for the tweeter. These safeguards prevent the drivers from attempting to reproduce frequencies outside of their performance specifications.

"Priced at just $349 per pair MSRP ($249 per pair MAP), we feel confident that the PM0.5 will find many happy environments to perform in," Badala concluded.