Alpair 12 Studio Reference Monitors fired up

[Douglas Ingram]

Hi All,

Just wanted to show these. A quick photo for now and will post more later as time allows.

Alpair 12 in Studio Reference Monitors. This is phase one of my Clairtone Project G project. I will be working on some globe speakers using these drivers, but as the development proceeds I need a reference, something which I can describe the new work against.

I can`t wait for the drivers to open up, as it is, I am amazed at how much change they go through in just the first couple of hours. They sound pretty good so far, but still tight and not a lot of the lower end. Its there, but there is not the openness that should be there.

[skeeter99]

Wow! Those look fantastic! That Alpair speakers are really getting a lot of press/builds lately. Very cool to see. The build quality of those is definitely top notch. What wood is that??

Scott

[vitalstates]

Hi Douglas

I love the finish and the method, they look terrific. Be interesting to read the future installments. I agonised over the alignment and port position for my alpair 10 monitors and I'm still not sure I chose the right direction(wicked pun alert).

Will you be doing any in-room measurements?

rgds

Ed

[spind]

Wow--very nice! I hope they sound as good as they look!

Steve.

[Scottmoose]

Very nice.

[Rullknufs]

Really nice!

[planet10]

Originally Posted by Douglas Ingram

I can`t wait for the drivers to open up, as it is, I am amazed at how much change they go through in just the first couple of hours. They sound pretty good so far, but still tight and not a lot of the lower end. Its there, but there is not the openness that should be there.

It is important to not that before i shipped the drivers to doug, they got at least 300 hrs low lwvel music on th break-in bench. So even with such a head start, the driver still improves as it gets mor juice.

dave

PS: i suspect the guitars in the background of the 1st pictur ar also Doug's work

[Douglas Ingram]

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words.

These are just basic birch plywood, probably Aspen core, that I bought at Home Depot. Not quite Baltic Birch, but better than MDF. The corners are Cherry from offcuts that I have around the shop. Not required for what these cabinets are intended for but I just didn't want to have the plywood edges showing, not bad on BB, but not cool on this stuff.

One particularly annoying problem that I had is that this plywood was not as flat as it should have been! There are some slight curves to the panels that no one can detect, but made it very challenging to work around.

The finish is 4 coats of spar varnish because that is what I have a lot of here. It is gloss right now, I may sand with fine grit and buff some Tung oil on it. We`ll see how ambitious I get.

As for critical listening and appraisal, I don`t know what I should be expecting from these drivers right now and as they open up. After all, I only got them into the cabinets yesterday. There are so many factors affecting their performance: room, amp, source, ect. They are really revealing the shortcomings of everything upstream!

The only thing that I really have to compare them to are a pair of Saburos that my son made last summer, but different amp, different room. Haven`t compared them yet, so don`t ask yet.

Yes, Dave, I did build those guitars. Thanks for noticing and mentioning.

Here`s a little reminder of what I am working towards. The Clairtone Project G (for globes). Only 400 built during the early `60`s. I will be building an updated version with modern speakers and digital media center inside, we even a correct model turntable for it!

So, Phase II will be to get cabinets for the Alpair 12s that will fit inside an 18`diameter globe. I`m already in discussion with Dave on this problem and the solution will probably be a variation on his Mar-Ken 12. The original speaker was a Wharfedale 10" mounted on a plate at the equatorial region of the globe. I`ll also have to make a decision about the front globe; the original was spun perforated aluminum, one layer of black over a layer of natural. Looks really cool, but at what price is cool?

Don`t worry, I`ll keep the collective posted on progress.

[aptquark]

what the heck is that claritone thing??? Did it sound good?

[Douglas Ingram]

Welcome to Clairtone

I haven't heard one myself, but hope to. Apparently they sounded quite good, but there are no critical reviews that I have found, as in "quite good compared to..."

Endorsed by Frank Sinatra, Oscar Peterson, and many others. It was the height of '60's cool. They are very, very collectible right now, and very expensive.