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PORTRAIT

Art. No. 5951

Building instruction

Exploded drawing

Assembly

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 crossoverand 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.

Cabinet parts list for 1 box

Parts
Size (mm)
Quantity
Material: 10 mm MDF or plywood
Front, rear panel
500 x 500
2
Material: Wood strip
Side panels
500 x 20 x 20
2
Side panels
460 x 20 x 20
2
Braces
30 x 20 x 20
9
Frame
501 x 40 x 10
2
Frame
521 x 40 x 10
9

Crossover

Press

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.

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