Mark Audio CHP70

[Waves73]

Being new to the DIY speakers I've chosen to start by building a pair of Pensil P70's, using the Mark Audio CHP70 Gen 2 drivers. These will be used in a home theatre setup accompanying a sub-woofer and a Dali Suite C0.7 centre speaker. Although stereo music will be played through them, their main usage will be TV, linked to a Sony STR-DG520 AV amplifier supplying Dolby Digital sound.

I'm looking for any feedback on the drivers. Reading the notes from Mark Audio these drivers seem more suited to reproducing human voice so my thinking is they will work well in a home theatre setup.

Any ideas and feedback welcome.

[fastbike1]

The CHP70's are quite rolled off on top. They were designed for a vintage sound, so make sure that is what you want. For your use, you may be happier with the EL70 or CHR70.

Originally Posted by Waves73

Being new to the DIY speakers I've chosen to start by building a pair of Pensil P70's, using the Mark Audio CHP70 Gen 2 drivers. These will be used in a home theatre setup accompanying a sub-woofer and a Dali Suite C0.7 centre speaker. Although stereo music will be played through them, their main usage will be TV, linked to a Sony STR-DG520 AV amplifier supplying Dolby Digital sound.

I'm looking for any feedback on the drivers. Reading the notes from Mark Audio these drivers seem more suited to reproducing human voice so my thinking is they will work well in a home theatre setup.

Any ideas and feedback welcome.

[tuxedocivic]

Take a look at the EL70 comparison thread in this forum. (currently right below this thread).

Note that Mark posted in that thread that the CHP is very popular, however other users are saying they aren't very impressed.

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by Waves73

Being new to the DIY speakers I've chosen to start by building a pair of Pensil P70's, using the Mark Audio CHP70 Gen 2 drivers. These will be used in a home theatre setup accompanying a sub-woofer and a Dali Suite C0.7 centre speaker. Although stereo music will be played through them, their main usage will be TV, linked to a Sony STR-DG520 AV amplifier supplying Dolby Digital sound.

I'm looking for any feedback on the drivers. Reading the notes from Mark Audio these drivers seem more suited to reproducing human voice so my thinking is they will work well in a home theatre setup.

Any ideas and feedback welcome.

First - my experience has been after experimenting with HT setups, that you should consider using speakers "cut from the same cloth" - ie. across the entire front row.

As I've described previously, I happen to be using a combination of Alpair7/6M in my 5.1 rig, and with the EQ and bass management functions of recent HT receivers, this size of driver can work very well in moderate sized rooms (340ft^2 in this case).

There's been a lot of chatter about the intentionally shelved high frequencies of the CHP70 - possibly more by folk's who haven't heard them at all, or certainly compared to either the R70 or (CSS) EL70. Among that group of drivers, I happen to have a preference, but would be surprised if other listeners didn't differ on the subject. Can anyone who's played this game for any length of time remember another speaker manufacturer who has gone out of his way to solicit customer's feedback and build drivers to meet the demand? To have that effort (even unintentionally) subverted by perceived denigration of forum talking heads would be very short sighted and counterproductive.

Back to the system question, much of my music listening is with lower powered tube amplifiers that might be considered "warm and fuzzy" compared to a SS HT receiver which will include substantial DSP if not class D output stages as well. The CHPs might well have excellent synergy with these types of electronics - if still a bit soft on the top end, well the tone controls / EQ exist for a reason, and with all the DSP going on in a HT processor, wouldn't it be disingenuous to proclaim aversion to that?.

Pensil is a very nice sounding box and a very simple build if you don't get carried away with sliding dovetail interlocked swiss cheese holey bracing - a few spars of solid hardwood or chunks of broom-stick handle can work just fine.

[yai]

May i ask: what do you mean with "rolled off" and "intentionally shelved"? My main source of wisdom concerning english-to-german translation (dict.leo.org) is not very helpful in these cases.
Thänx,
yai

[planet10]

Originally Posted by tuxedocivic

Note that Mark posted in that thread that the CHP is very popular, however other users are saying they aren't very impressed.

That last bit has to be taken in context. Mark has set a very high bar for price/performance. Comparison to what came before is one thing, evaluating stand-alone against other makes a different thing.

Bernie should be bringing back the home audition kit with the new CHP this WE. I'd be pleased if you could take it home and form your own impressions in your own system

dave

[planet10]

Originally Posted by yai

May i ask: what do you mean with "rolled off" and "intentionally shelved"?

FR curve from driver brocure:


You can see that the responses rises about 5dB to 5kHz from mid levels and then shelves down 10 dB before having a nice 15k roll-off. (the rise at the bottom end is very helpful when dealing with baffle step)

dave

[tuxedocivic]

Originally Posted by planet10

That last bit has to be taken in context. Mark has set a very high bar for price/performance. Comparison to what came before is one thing, evaluating stand-alone against other makes a different thing.

Bernie should be bringing back the home audition kit with the new CHP this WE. I'd be pleased if you could take it home and form your own impressions in your own system

dave

Yes, they do likely represent good value and performance. I was just summarizing the thread.

I'd love to take a stab at listening to them. I've been working in Nanaimo so hopefully my work will wrap up soon and I can get back to hifi

[planet10]

If you are in Nanaimo you could actually pick them up... be a good chance to go hear Bernie's stuff in his home. eMail me if you need his email address.

dave

[tuxedocivic]

Save Bernie a trip too. Email incoming.