As most of us know, unless cutoff is up around 400hz small drivers have difficulty with 87db+ from experience. Here's an excellent Forum discussion concerning this!
Ramon
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/markaudio/213566-running-a7-3-full-power.html
Ramon
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/markaudio/213566-running-a7-3-full-power.html
Dayton PS220
Alpairs, especially Dave's modded versions are a very nice choice. Very refined.
An interesting alternative is the Dayton PS220... requires a fair amount of fine-tuning and eq'ing but once that's done it is a superlative driver with astonishing impact. When properly eq'd it has a lot of refinement as well. Have a look at what I've done with my TimePulse Lambda speaker using this driver. (On my website, ref'd below). This one WILL play loud (and clean) if and when it is required to do so.
BTW, PartsExpress ships to Canada also.
One of these days I'll get around to having Dave mod a pair of these for me, I think it would really be a great option.
Alpairs, especially Dave's modded versions are a very nice choice. Very refined.
An interesting alternative is the Dayton PS220... requires a fair amount of fine-tuning and eq'ing but once that's done it is a superlative driver with astonishing impact. When properly eq'd it has a lot of refinement as well. Have a look at what I've done with my TimePulse Lambda speaker using this driver. (On my website, ref'd below). This one WILL play loud (and clean) if and when it is required to do so.
BTW, PartsExpress ships to Canada also.
One of these days I'll get around to having Dave mod a pair of these for me, I think it would really be a great option.
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By far the best way to get PE stiff into Canada is to order it from Bob @ CreativeSound
dave
On an OB with no load maybe. Other than electronics failures (a pair of FE126 & FE127, and an FF85k) i have not killed any FR in use.
I have given up (actually i have one more build to try) on OB so it is not an issue. I like to keep XOs <350 Hz, lower if the rest of the design suits.
dave
actually your personal responsibility there is less than the quantity listed
"how many Geeks does it take to melt a voice coil?"
does the builder have your drawings yet, or is it still brewing along with your morning Turkish?
No drawings at all -- still just in my head. This is one Bernie & i discussed building in cedar to use up 4 of those lovely 10" dipole woofers we have (the other 4 i want to put into Demetri's system -- that will likely be a low rectangular H-Frame)
dave
I'm guessing that for some examples, 2 is a sufficient number. I suppose 1 is the minimum when not adequately supervised 
I'm guessing that for some examples, 2 is a sufficient number. I suppose 1 is the minimum when not adequately supervised
if other audiophools present in the room qualifies as "supervision", then it's still no guarantee (or perhaps it's an excuse
) poor gentleman will not live that down for a while yet
The best advise is to let your ears be the judge. Your the only and final person who has to live with the drivers you buy. The Alpair is more of a 6 inch I was told with a big cast frame? The fostex's hummm? The older fe206e has a peakness problem I don't know about the new one. Heres a idea? I saw these on audiogon? Its fostexs top of the line 8 inch fullrange drivers for sale Half the price
.I meet a guy at the A.K. fest in march that bought these drivers new. He told me he had dave from planet 10 do his mods 
to the drivers because he wanted the best out of his drivers he told me and he really enjoys them. Here is a link cheers.jmFostex F200A 8" Full Range Alnico Drive Units Pair | Full range | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19147 | AudiogoN - The High-end Audio Community
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EL70 is a good choice. Performance / $ it's the best thing I've ever heard. I've heard plenty better, but cost much more. And I've heard worse, for less. But these have the best performance ratio of all I've heard. And if you don't like them, your can probably sell them pretty easy without losing much.
Like any speaker choice though, it's about application. (room, output requirements, bass support, no bass support, box size limitations, etc.)
Like any speaker choice though, it's about application. (room, output requirements, bass support, no bass support, box size limitations, etc.)
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It never sold as well as Bob hoped (it was the 1st Mark Audio driver here, and without the Mark Audio name so was destined for a gradual ramp-up) and he has moved into multiway drivers. By the time people realized how good it was he was almost out, but still a long ways behind original sales projections.
EL70 can be un-obseleted anytime someone can come up to the plate with an order for a 1,000 drivers. At this point we can only hope the CHP-70.3 recaptures much of the magic.
dave
The problem I think is that it isn't popular. It was destined for failure for several reasons. Dave mentioned a couple. But from experience, I dismissed this driver years ago all because of the spec sheet. It looks like a poor performer. It wasn't until I heard a pair at Dave's, only by curiousity, did I realize how good it is. In fact, it is THE driver that made me realize there's something to this whole full range thing.
Without that opportunity I would never have bought a pair and would still never know any better. If it seems popular, it's only several guys on Vancouver Island waving frantically about how good it is, without anyone really believing it.
Ya, maybe people are starting to wonder about it, but that ship has sailed
Especially sad for me cause the dust caps on mine got crushed by my 2 year old (darn, thought I had her trained).Don't get me wrong, there are better, or speaker that do different things for different applications. But dollar for dollar...
well, some of us are on record for realizing how special it was from the beginning,
edit: in honor of Ryan's comment "spec sheet be damned, I say"
indeed, it'd be hard to imagine that Mark doesn't have a few tricks up his sleeve - whether the (so far still) mythical replacement matches or surpasses the original is yet to be heard - I wouldn't bet against it, but certainly not hold my breath either
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Both. The answer is easy for multi way. For full blown reference speakers, there are quite a few multi-ways that are better, imo. But they also cost about 5x as much to build. The cross overs are usually more expensive than the EL70 along. And if the speaker costs less than the EL70, well they just suck. Maybe a 2 -way built out of close out drivers with parts someone has on hand could do it, but that's not being fair.
For full range it's tougher to say. Most of the FR I've heard are from Dave's inventory. The ones I think are better, aren't necessarily better in all areas. In fact, possibly there is none better at being full range than the EL70. The alpair 7 is, imo, a more refined driver. It's better. But I personally wouldn't be satisfied without a sub. I just used the FE83En (or eN, I don't know, it had enable) and it had to be crossed to helper woofers. The EL70 would eat it for lunch if it didn't have help. I've heard some larger FR drivers, which I can't remember which, and they suck imo. Even the smallish alpair10 didn't do it for me. And that's coming from a guy that has a 10" pro woofer and CD horn 2-way with 4 12" subwoofers in his living room right now.
If I could only have 1 driver (well, a pair) to do it all, from all the drivers I've ever heard, it would be the EL70.
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