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Portrait

Portrait

 
 Our Price: AU $160.00 inc. GST per pair
                   AU $145.45 export price per pair
 
 Product Code: V-5951

 This item is listed in the following categories:
Visaton Kits, 2 Way Speakers
 
 Quantity in your cart: None
 
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Art. No. 5951

Characteristics - Sound Properties

Many lovers of music have one problem in common: they want to listen to good music at a high quality of reproduction but they do not have the room to place the loudspeakers they would like to buy or they cannot find the right speakers to blend in with their furnishings and taste. What they need is loudspeakers that do not look like loudspeakers.

And so we developed the PORTRAIT design, which can be hung on the wall and looks like a picture. The objective was to keep the cabinet as flat as possible. The PORTRAIT will be satisfied with only 40 mm in depth. If you take the time to make some more complex cut-outs, you can even reduce this to 34 mm.

This is made possible by the use of particularly slim 13 cm FR 12 8 Ohm loudspeakers as woofers. Combined with the SC 5 8 Ohm tweeter and the specially designed crossover, this produces a sophisticated satellite speaker unit. Due to the small cabinet, low bass cannot be produced by the PORTRAIT. As a result, the bass range below 100 Hz is best covered by a subwoofer (e.g. SUB-W 20.39 ).

This combination with a powerful subwoofer means that the PORTRAIT set-up is a visually appealing and acoustically highly effective system which can, if required, be extended. If the wall space in front of and behind the listening position are free, additional PORTRAIT speakers can be hung to produce a multi-channel system for home theatre and music.

The point about the PORTRAIT is the option of fitting a fabric front to the cabinet which can vary, depending on the surroundings, e.g. single-coloured or brightly coloured silk. Of course, one can always put one's creative skills to work and make one's own silk covers adorned with favourite motifs. There are no limits to your imagination.

 PORTRAIT

Extract from "Selbst ist der Mann"

The aim of this VISATON development was to produce speakers that were so flat, they could be hung on the wall like pictures. Used on their own, these speakers, fitted with a high-quality 2-band system using a 13-cm low- to mid-range unit and a dome tweeter, sounded a little thin - the bass end was missing, which is completely understandable with cabinets of this size. However, combined with a powerful active subwoofer, whose low frequencies cannot be located by the human ear and can thus be positioned anywhere in the room, they are transformed into a visually unobtrusive but acoustically very potent system, which can be also be combined with other Portraits or other Visaton models to make up a fully-blown surround sound system.

 

Extract from Klang & Ton

The Portrait, which is the name of this VISATON speaker, requires a depth of no more than 40 millimetres. In our opinion, that must be a record.

This flat speaker can survive without a subwoofer due to its wall-mounting but, in that case, will not produce any breathtaking surprises in terms of volume. The speakers demonstrated their true colours, however, during our listening test in conjunction with the subwoofer recommended by VISATON.

In that combination, the speakers made a good impression and produced natural, clear sound, provided the volume was kept to within the optimum range. With voices the Portrait seemed to be particularly at home. The whole effect is rather fascinating because the music appears to come out of the wall as if from a stage. The spatial qualities were good, offering clear sound reproduction across the full range, and without the treble range becoming too poignant.

When combined with the subwoofer, the Portrait speakers prove to be not just a stop-gap but rather a fully viable set of loudspeakers producing a sound experience that goes far beyond what you would expect from a set-up at this price level, around 100 a pair, and with such an unusual appearance. Congratulations to VISATON and thanks for producing such a brave concept which will help to solve many a loudspeaker positioning problem.

 

Technical Data:
Rated power30 W
Maximum power80 W
Nominal impedance8 Ohm
Frequency response (-10 dB)80 - 22000 Hz
Mean sound pressure level84 dB (1W/1m)
Cut-off frequency7000 Hz
Principle of HousingClosed
Net volume4 l
Outer dimension height521 mm
Outer dimension width521 mm
Outer dimension depth40 mm

frequency response PORTRAIT
frequency response

 

Construction

The cabinet consists of two panels (front and rear panels) and narrow strips to make up the remaining sides. Add to this a frame for clamping the fabric which is removable and simply pressed into place. The nine strips arranged as a rectangle are crucial to strengthen the large-scale construction and are glued onto the rear panel with the side strips. The front panel is not glued but screwed to enable you to insert the crossover and damping material in the cabinet.

It is possible to make the cabinet even slimmer then shown in the drawing. The depth can be reduced to 34 mm if 14 mm strips are used for both the sides and strengthening struts. In that case, it is necessary to cut out a 5 mm deep recess behind the tweeter in addition to the existing opening for the magnet of the woofer. The crossover will also have to be let into the rear panel by 5 mm.

For reasons of appearance, no terminal connections are used. The cable is soldered directly to the crossover. The cable is led out through a small hole in the base and concealed in a cable duct on the wall. It is even more aesthetically pleasing if the cable comes through the rear panel and completely hidden in the plaster or a false wall.

The two drivers are recessed when mounted (4 mm) to enable the fabric cover to be in contact with the front panel. A thin silk material is ideal for the fabric covers. Linen and other firmer fabrics are less permeable to sound and will result in a noticeable reduction in the sound output in the higher range so they are not suitable. The front panel should be painted black to prevent the outlines of the dark drivers showing through the thin fabric cover.

To fit the speaker to the wall, drill and plug two holes in the wall and screw in two screws, but leave approx. 11 mm of the screws protruding. The speaker cabinet has two corresponding holes to hang over the screws.

Inner damping

One mat of damping material is cut into strips and distributed uniformly between the strengthening struts in the cabinet.

 

Component parts list for 1 box
 
The kit includes all the components listed here but not the cabinet.
 
TweeterSC 5 8 Ohm1 piece
WooferFR 12 8 Ohm1 piece
Damping material ½ bag
CrossoverCrossover Portrait 
Wood screws3.5 x 19 mm8 pieces
Cable2 x 1.5 mm21 m
 ................

 

Cabinet parts list for 1 box
 
PartsSize (mm)Quantity
 
Material: 10 mm MDF or plywood
Front, rear panel500 x 5002
 
Material: Wood strip
Side panels500 x 20 x 202
Side panels460 x 20 x 202
Braces30 x 20 x 209
Frame501 x 40 x 102
Frame521 x 40 x 102
 PORTRAIT

crossover PORTRAIT
crossover

sketch PORTRAIT
sketch