desktop speaker with Markaudio Alpair5

[Henkjan]

I wanted to present *) a design I made with the smallest Markaudio, the Alpair 5. Despite the design intent of the Alpair5 as a midtweeter, I decided to make a full range speaker for next to the PC. I made a TL enclosure (1:10 taper, driver at 1/3rd of the line) for it to make it truely full range.



and the result: truely amazing. the level of detail in the high of the Alpair5 is stunning, better than many tweeters. I have applied a notch filter (0.05mH, 27ohm, 3.3uF) to tame the 10-14kHz area (now it is flat within a few dB measured under 15°) but if you listen a bit more off axis this might not be neccesary. And the bass? nice and clean, deep enough (extends down to 60Hz, TL is tuned at 55Hz) for most music. I use them at my PC powered with a T-Amp, and I noticed I listen to music a lot more now...


*) this is also published in the dutch elektor magazine; I waited with posting it here until the mag hit the shelfs

[Stuey]

Nice, Henkjan. I've been considering using those in OB with a helper woofer, as they're easy to get here in Aus, unlike most speakers!

I made a similar purposed speaker based on Zaph's design using the Hi-Vi B3S and although the driver isn't quite up there with the Markaudio, I found the metal cone is excellent for nearfield listening at low-ish levels. Voices and percussion sound really good. I bet that Alpair is significanly better. Mind you. mine was a quick lash up nowhere near as nice as yours.

Cheers

Stuey

[markaudio]

Hello Henkjan,

Very glad to read about your work using the Alpair 5. The cabinet looks fantastic quality and its very interesting to read that your design is delivering such a low frequency response.

The same attributes of the Alpair 5 are being recognised in Japan. Linfof and AY Denshi have made TL and hybrid line designs using solid wood, Corian and Polymers. There's a growing "cult" following for the Alpair 5 inside the Japan DIY audio circles since the driver was launched earlier in the year. We hope to get translations early in the new year but here's some pics for now.

[markaudio]

[EUVL]

Any implementation examples for the Alpair 6 ??


Thanks,
Patrick

[Henkjan]

in the Needle it looks promissing... I'm testing them now... but I'll design something for on the desktop with these as well

[EUVL]

Keep us posted. Very interested.

Patrick

[ANDYLASER]

Originally Posted by markaudio

Do you have any more information of the small horn loaded cabinet on the right?
Thanks.

[Henkjan]

odd, I noticed the picture in the 1st post has gone.
can one of the moderators update it with this pic?

[pythonic]

Hello!
I am building a pair of these TLs for a pair of Alpair 5's I just ordered at a great price (Mark Audio lists them as an "Archived product" so I think they are on sellout).

It will be my first speaker build, and as such I have a couple of questions; I hope they are not too stupid!

1. Looking at the plans, in the top left just behind the driver, there is an area called 'VILT'. What is VILT?

2. The damping is specified in 1/16's of MAT SONOFIL. It looks to me that Sonofil is a product commonly used in Europe. I wonder if anyone knows of an an equivalent product that is economically available in Australia?

3. Also, as there are no units specified for the Sonofil, I assume that 1/16 refers to 1/16th of some defacto unit, perhaps a roll or a sheet?

Thanks very much

Rich