Alpair 12 Studio Reference Monitors fired up

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Thanks, Chris.

I've not forgotten that Clairtone was a Canadian company. I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned it but I can't keep banging that drum too loud or too often or its just a lot of noise.

Been thinking about the Onkens a little. I think that I'm going to make the square versions that Dave has drawn up as it is closest to the globes that I need. Stay tuned.
 
Thanks, Chris.

I've not forgotten that Clairtone was a Canadian company. I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned it but I can't keep banging that drum too loud or too often or its just a lot of noise.

Been thinking about the Onkens a little. I think that I'm going to make the square versions that Dave has drawn up as it is closest to the globes that I need. Stay tuned.



one more post on the subject and I'll get it out of my system - why the hell do Canadians generally apologize when they get caught achieving anything exceptional?

as Craig would say "too bleeping nice and polite, until you give them a hockey stick, then watch out :p "
 
We did some (amateur) critical listening today, so I'll just leave this here...
 

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I have the fan set to low, so it isnt that loud (and if I crank the sound I cant hear them anyway!) I got it on a ridiculous sale when I was building my computer and I've no complaints so far.

Normally I would only have the small paradigms on my desk. Id have also tested all of this in the home theater where the majority of this is usually located, but I've yet to sort out the room acoustics so its quite echo-y. Building some bass traps this summer though so we will be doing this experiment again later.

Audio source is FLAC files running straight to a Dayton DTA-100a (which I quite like, at least for desktop purposes)
Sound quality wise, the Alpair 12 in the studio monitor box are certainly quite good. I personally find that the bass is a bit boomy when compared to the Saburo's with the 126eN (or 126En? whichever is the "enabled" version from Dave) with the basket stiffening . I'm going to tweak the dampening on these this afternoon since I still find them a bit bright.

The CHR-70 pensils haven't had much breaking in since they are relegated to Rear-channels in my setup so they still sound a bit stiff. Mids are also a bit lacking.

The paradigms which I use as desktop speakers hold their own, their biggest shortcoming is the relatively poor imaging. Not a problem at ~3 feet away, but becomes more apparent when pitted against the Studios and the Saburo's
 
I haven't used Macs so much. But the few times i've tried them i like them. Especially the MacBooks. Nice quality feeling. Nothing for gaming though so it would not suit me at all.
The downside with Windows is... We all know it so no need to mention.
Linux is free and appears to be nice. Never tried but it seems like you need to know quite much about it :)

Time to go a little more ontopic. Have you tried the CSS EL70?
 
Linux is free and appears to be nice. Never tried but it seems like you need to know quite much about it :)

Its easier than you think (I'm a big fan, and one of the reasons my mac felt so restricting)

I haven't tried the EL70. If I remember right, that's the paper version of the CHRs? Would it offer substantial gains over the CHRs? I'm going to be building some fancy speakers this summer as a continuation my clay speaker thing.
 
Its easier than you think (I'm a big fan, and one of the reasons my mac felt so restricting)

I haven't tried the EL70. If I remember right, that's the paper version of the CHRs? Would it offer substantial gains over the CHRs? I'm going to be building some fancy speakers this summer as a continuation my clay speaker thing.

Oh, you are the "clayman". I thought i recognized your name ;) Interesting project i must say.

I don't know if they're the same but paper. I think there's some more differences, maybe Dave can help us out.
I think they sound really good in my Mar-Kel70 cabinets. But for heavier music such as really heavy metal i think my headphones (AKG K271 MKII) sounds better. But for classic, acoustic music and more "normal" music the speakers sound better. And they're really cheap to build (the Mar-Kel cabinets are not the easiest though).
 
Let's stay OT for some more time :D

I'm a hard core PC guy too :), and a PC DIYer. So that way, Macs have not been on my buy list.

Dave,

The new iMacs are great AIOs (All In One) - the performance should be great with Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors and the form factor is stunning. I tried out a video editing suite in a Mac Store and it was super... my friend who was with me is a grpahics/video guy and he lamented why PC software isn't this easy to use; he's planning to get an iMac sometime. One knitpick I have is that the IPS display is glossy instead of matte...

Do you use the onboard sound or external DAC with your iMAC setup?

-Zia
 
Let's stay OT for some more time :D

I'm a hard core PC guy too :), and a PC DIYer. So that way, Macs have not been on my buy list.

Dave,

The new iMacs are great AIOs (All In One) - the performance should be great with Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors and the form factor is stunning. I tried out a video editing suite in a Mac Store and it was super... my friend who was with me is a grpahics/video guy and he lamented why PC software isn't this easy to use; he's planning to get an iMac sometime. One knitpick I have is that the IPS display is glossy instead of matte...

Do you use the onboard sound or external DAC with your iMAC setup?

-Zia

I am a computer diyer since i was... 13? Built my own computer which i am still using now (Intel I7 920, Asus P6T Deluxe and so on). Have been building all sorts of computers (from office to high-end gaming) for friends, relatives and other people and that has helped me finance my audio-hobby :p

The downside with the Macs are that the hardware is very bad for the price you pay.
 
Rullknufs,

Mar-Kel70 is a bookshelf, right? For metal it is likely you need a dual driver design like Micro Tower or some of the larger MLTL designs.

I have got CHR70 and can't wait to try them out in Micro Towers. EL70 and CHP70 should be better than CHR70.

-Zia
 
Rullknufs,

Mar-Kel70 is a bookshelf, right? For metal it is likely you need a dual driver design like Micro Tower or some of the larger MLTL designs.

I have got CHR70 and can't wait to try them out in Micro Towers. EL70 and CHP70 should be better than CHR70.

-Zia

Yes. The bass is almost deep enough, not a problem. It's just that the distorted guitars get a little muddy and "unclear" i think. Might be my room that is messing it up too. To be honest it's an acoustic nightmare i think :D
 
I am a computer diyer since i was... 13? Built my own computer which i am still using now (Intel I7 920, Asus P6T Deluxe and so on). Have been building all sorts of computers (from office to high-end gaming) for friends, relatives and other people and that has helped me finance my audio-hobby :p

The downside with the Macs are that the hardware is very bad for the price you pay.

Rullknufs,

Good to know that your hobby is fuelling your finances - keep it up! For me let's just say I've been tinkering with PCs for ~20 years :), and the hobby helped me also when I was a student.

Hope the moderators don't get annoyed by all this off topic PC talk! :D

Are you using on-board sound?

-Zia
 
Rullknufs,

Good to know that your hobby is fuelling your finances - keep it up! For me let's just say I've been tinkering with PCs for ~20 years :), and the hobby helped me also when I was a student.

Hope the moderators don't get annoyed by all this off topic PC talk! :D

Are you using on-board sound?

-Zia

I used to use the onboard soundcard (only for my headphones, using DAC in Harman Kardon HK3490 for the speakers). Now i got a Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 which is ~10 years old. I salvaged it from a wreckage and it sounds better than the onboard one. Planning to buy an Asus Xonar DX soundcard though. And an Emotiva XDA-1 for the speaker setup.
 
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