Jordan Eikona 2 vs MarkAudio Alpair 10.3/ 10p

[IanLenco]

Indeed!

Did you get a chance to hear those wall mounted speakers with curved reflectors? - this looks quite fascinating to me with loadsof DIY experimenting options for anyone who fancies bending up some hardboard.

Hi Bigun,
No, but I'd like to! Unfortunately Jordan are offering this as a complete speaker and they haven't released plans so difficult to know what's going on inside.
Bill, those Eikonas are the Scanspeak made ones - the Mk1s had a sort of square mounting. Several "friends" have been encouraging me to buy them as a stepping stone to 4 driver arrays so please go for it and remove them from temptation

 

[Bill poster]

Yeah just light use and perfect condition..
Sadly finances are tight..
no money no audio honey for me

 

[Colin]

Thanks for the clarification, I got my information re Lowther here http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full-range/310331-advice-jump-lowther-league-2.html#post5139564 but I presume you have more accurate information

Yes, I was working with Ted at the time and have access to all the files. We used a small, specialist manufacturer who was more geared up to prototyping.

The Eikona 1 has the 'squared' chassis, so easy to recognise.

 

[scottjoplin]

That's what I have, bought them off you many moons ago. I prefer the shape of the square(ish) chassis

 

[Colin]

The square format was good for close mounting, especially if using two or more Eikonas in an array. But it did cause a lot of our constructors difficulty with rebating the driver so we went back to the circular chassis.

 

[Bill poster]

Can't be worse than the alpairs in this regard.. my only gripe with them.

 

[chrisb]

Bill - I could be wrong, but I think one of the goals of the recent Pluvia frame design was to alleviate the need to rebate. As the drivers are still relatively shallow, they still need chamfering of rear side of baffle, particularly when using material thicker than 15mm .

 

[scottjoplin]

I question the need to rebate, wonder how much difference it really makes and the surround protrudes farther than the chassis anyway. I did chamfer the rear of the baffle, definitely a good idea

 

[Colin]

Cone drivers are generally sufficiently directional at HF not to need a rebate but it does make for a neater appearance.

 

[sax512]

Anybody tried the EAD drivers? They look very similar to Eikonas, as far as chassis, but the cone has a dust cap similar to Mark Audio drivers.

 

[IanLenco]

I've a friend who has the EAD drivers. After hearing my Eikonas he bought a pair

 

[andyjevans]

Anybody tried the EAD drivers? They look very similar to Eikonas, as far as chassis, but the cone has a dust cap similar to Mark Audio drivers.

Pretty expensive compared with Mark Audio...

http://www.eadsweden.com/drive-units/

 

[sax512]

Pretty expensive compared with Mark Audio...

But not compared to Eikonas

 

[planet10]

Anybody tried the EAD drivers?

I haven’t. But i got the feeling that Ted did not like what they were doing with his drivers after he took his brand name back and started building Eikonas.

dave

 

[knarfor]

They seemed to measure well in Hobby HiFi's tests except for some messiness on the CSD above 12kHz.

How much that matters depends, I suppose, on how well you hear above 12kHz.

 

[sax512]

@Planet10. So EAD used to build the Jordans, before Ted took the name back and came up with the Eikona design? The chassis seems like an exact replica, so maybe some of the design was performed at the time when EAD was still owning the rights to Ted's design? I'm just trying to figure out the timeline..

@Knarfor. I did find that document too. Unfortunately I can't speak german and google translate does some weird thing with uploaded documents. However, it seems like the frequency extension is there, and it's nice that they produced the decay data. Not sure what the most right top image represents though.

 

[planet10]

EAD bought the entire Jordan buiness lock, stock & barrel. I guess Ted had a clause in the sales contract that allowed him to takee his brand name back… which he did, and then got Lowther to build the 1st Eikona, and then when that didn’t eork out, gotthe Danes to do Eikona 2.

dave

 

[scottjoplin]

No EJ Jordan cones have ever been made by Lowther, whose speciality is paper cones. Our cones are a very specific design by Ted Jordan. They are manufactured by a specialist in the UK and final assembly is by ScanSpeak.

There was a brief consultation period with Lowther but no Jordan product came out of it. The Eikona 1 was UK-made but the manufacturer was unable to keep up with demand, so the move was made to Scanspeak.

 

[planet10]

Thanx for the correction Scott.

dave

 

[scottjoplin]

I guess Colin should know, getting info out of him ain't easy though.....trade secrets?! When asked about how the Aurora works.....not much was forthcoming....