Skeeter's SuperPensil12 Build

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Well, my Alpair 12's in gold arrived today. Beautiful drivers! Everyone here at my office is impressed, and NONE of them know what they're looking at :) LOL!

I'm going to be building a set of SuperPensil12's and I'll document it all here. This is my first speaker build period which is obviously my first single driver foray as well. I've never even heard a single driver speaker so I'm really taking a chance here. We'll see how it turns out!

Here are a couple pics of the driver that I just took with my cell phone so I apologize for the poor quality.

I'm thinking of doing the speakers in a Satin White with a Satin Black base. What do you all think?

Anyway, just wanted to get this started. I'm going to start break-in on the drivers when I get home and hopefully start construction on the cabinets this weekend. I'll keep you all appraised. Thank you very much for the awesome community here, you've been a big help in this decision :D

Scott
 

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Well, my Alpair 12's in gold arrived today. Beautiful drivers! Everyone here at my office is impressed, and NONE of them know what they're looking at :) LOL!

I'm going to be building a set of SuperPensil12's and I'll document it all here. This is my first speaker build period which is obviously my first single driver foray as well. I've never even heard a single driver speaker so I'm really taking a chance here. We'll see how it turns out!

Here are a couple pics of the driver that I just took with my cell phone so I apologize for the poor quality.

I'm thinking of doing the speakers in a Satin White with a Satin Black base. What do you all think?

Anyway, just wanted to get this started. I'm going to start break-in on the drivers when I get home and hopefully start construction on the cabinets this weekend. I'll keep you all appraised. Thank you very much for the awesome community here, you've been a big help in this decision :D

Scott


I think your phone takes a pretty decent picture

What material are you planning on for the case construction? In my experience a paint job worthy of a driver as competent as the 12s is not as easy as building the box, and generally more expensive /time consuming than veneer or plastic laminate.

I also think that plywood sounds much better, and know it is far more trouble to paint than MDF.
 
I think your phone takes a pretty decent picture

What material are you planning on for the case construction? In my experience a paint job worthy of a driver as competent as the 12s is not as easy as building the box, and generally more expensive /time consuming than veneer or plastic laminate.

I also think that plywood sounds much better, and know it is far more trouble to paint than MDF.

Thanks :) I used Picasa to make them look a little bit better :D

I know everyone poo poo's MDF but that's what I'm planning on using, at least for this first build due to cost and ease of getting it (I think I have enough laying around to build both cabs). I'm going to build the base cabinet without bracing first and just get it in and breaking in and see if I even like the sound. If not, there's no sense in wasting tons of time building out and painting and amazing cabinet. If I like it though, then I'll do the bracing to give it that extra added touch and paint it.

I am also thinking of building a set of the Avebury's if I really like the sound. Those would definitely be with Baltic Birch ply. I found a good source and feel those would really be beautiful in that finish.
 
I've got them now set up in a set of super fancy custom boxes to break them in :rolleyes: I hooked them up to my garage amp with some Cat6 cables. They're now breaking in softly to some Acoustic Alchemy. Volume is low and cones are not even moving. Can't wait to get these broken in, cabinets made and start listening :D
 

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Break in is going well, have about 20 hours on them so far and they're definitely opening up. When I first hooked them up my wife says, wow, those sound bad. Yesterday I had her running the stereo for me (pausing and unpausing every 4 hours) while I was at work and she said its really starting to sound good. Hoping I can start building the cabinets this weekend!
 
Over 100 hours now of break in and they are really astonishing how good they are sounding in the little cardboard boxes. I'm tempted to build a little OB platform and putting them into my system to listen to at low volumes until I get the cabinets built.

So far so good Mark!

Scott
 
I was looking around on the Madisound site and looking at the A6-P and noticed that they come with connectors for the terminals (see attached pic). My 12's didn't come with these, are they supposed to? If not, what are people using to connect the wires to the terminals or are you all soldering them?
 

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I was looking around on the Madisound site and looking at the A6-P and noticed that they come with connectors for the terminals (see attached pic). My 12's didn't come with these, are they supposed to? If not, what are people using to connect the wires to the terminals or are you all soldering them?

Hi Skeeter,
The current batch of Alp12's don't come with the terminal extension sets.
Thx
Mark.
 
Thanks Mark, just wanted to make sure. Are most people soldering their wires on to the terminals? I'm guessing that's the case ... I just have spades connecting the wires right now but that's just for break in.

Hi skeeter,
No worries, soldering is the nice way to go. Or, I did see some nice gold plated spade connectors from Japan but not sure where they can be bought.

If you're soldering your Alp12's, use a good flux to clean the terminals and cables. Pre-solder terminals and cables, it fixes so much better when you come to main solder cables to connectors. Apply just enough heat to get the solder running, remove the iron immediately.

Cheers

Mark.
 
Hi skeeter,
No worries, soldering is the nice way to go. Or, I did see some nice gold plated spade connectors from Japan but not sure where they can be bought.

If you're soldering your Alp12's, use a good flux to clean the terminals and cables. Pre-solder terminals and cables, it fixes so much better when you come to main solder cables to connectors. Apply just enough heat to get the solder running, remove the iron immediately.

Cheers

Mark.

Good tips, thanks Mark. I've not done much soldering with delicate components so that's so good info. I'll come back to this when its time to solder :D

Scott
 
Built some temporary OB housings for the 12's just so I could get them in the living room and hear them in a little better environment :) I know, impatience! These things image REALLY well! There is absolutely no bass but that is to be expected. The highs are incredibly clear. Everyone has said these are revealing speakers and I definitely hear that. These really show everything! Can't wait to get the ACTUAL cabinets built ...

Scott
 

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So what options are there for an Alpair12 center channel? I've seen THIS one but don't know any of the specs of the 12 in this box. I'd really like a -3db of around 80hz for crossover to my sub and prefer a large center channel (my current is 36"W x 8.5"T x 16"D). Does anyone know or has seen the modeled response for the center channel I linked to? What about other larger options?

Thanks!

Scott
 
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