What Amp do you use with your Mark Audio Drivers?

[doors666]

Originally Posted by Goto

In that setup a smallish class A would be one approach. I'd be amazed if you needed even 40watts per channel in your room/setup. I use Hypex UCD180s with my Alpair 7.3s and use only a fraction of the available gain (I have lowered the overall gain of my system to ensure I am able to extract an optimal performance - I use digital attenuation so need to optimise my bits!).

Class A or D would get my vote, though Class A may be more expensive to implement and run.

I have another pair of speakers on my desktop thats a lot less efficient (continuums, some 83db), hence the 40-60w requirement.
This is for my desktop, so class A is pretty much ruled out due to heat and heat sink size, no AC in the room either.
Any good recommended diy kits or designs. My next speaker build is a 4 ohms speaker, so I would prefer something that can handle 4 ohms.

[Goto]

Doors666

How about a chipamp. I run a pair of Peter Daniels chipamps off a 12 cell 5000MAH lipo pack, split 6 cells per rail. Gives several hours listening between charges. These batteries are pretty good for power supplies in AC free rooms.

They generally drive 4ohm without issues too.

Mark

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by Goto

Doors666

How about a chipamp. I run a pair of Peter Daniels chipamps off a 12 cell 5000MAH lipo pack, split 6 cells per rail. Gives several hours listening between charges. These batteries are pretty good for power supplies in AC free rooms.

They generally drive 4ohm without issues too.

Mark

+1 to the sonics of Peter's designs, although the bulk associated with large battery packs might not be most convenient for a desktop situation

[OlavHaal]

Hi Mark and everyone who is into this tread!

Today I finished the new amplifier LÒl-Res- which is my version of Nelson Pass SIT amplifier. It is based on the Sony SK82 and mine is buildt around a bunch of resistors. Some have buildt it with bulbs(LÀmp). Michael Rothacher is the mainhead behind this.
I have nearly finished my build( from two wood-box that was intended for 3liter Wine). I can add a round Meter in the front.
The sound= full-bodied, tonally very rich, clear and quick. Maybe somewhat like a tubeamp - but oh so distinct and life-like.

So my Alp10.2 was really coming home today with a splendid amplifier - inspired from mr. Pass and Mr. Rothacher.

So - in september/october I will build my version of the Alp12P.

Thanks to Mark for keeping us alert to get even better sound!!

Best to all.

Olav

[OlavHaal]

Hi again!

My small amplifier should be able to output 2x8 watt in 8 ohm in ClassA. It is perfect to the Alp10.2, and I use it with my passive B1 at 40-50 % volume and it fills the room.
So a small ClassA currentSource amplifier is perfect for the Alpairs!

Looking forward to the late summer when I will start my Alp12P building.

Such wonderful Drivers Alpairs are.

Best

Olav

[Monte Verdi]

Hello,

Using the Alpair 7 in a OB configuration I have tried and experimented with many different amplifiers, here is a short list,
Scott 222 C, Pete Millet Engineers ( built by Phil Townsend) amp and my favorite thus far is a Golden Tube Audio SE40. All amps have been customised. The beautiful thing about these drivers is that they not only play music extremely well, they can give me an accurate picture of what is happening with gear changes, even a power cable change becomes evident. Here is Diy link too photos of speakers with subs, I will post amp photos here later.

New Alpair 7, small OB project

Thanks, Ramon

[StevenZ]

I use a Bang & Olufsen ICEpower 125ASX2 with my Alpairs and couldn't be happier. I'd still like to get around to trying the infamous Topping TP20 as I've read in a lot of places it's about as good as Tripath gets.

Steven

[wcwc]

Originally Posted by chrisb

a range of them:

dual EL70 - Tubelab Simple PP EL84 (12-ish watts pentode) - 400sqft + room

Alpair 7 & 6M- Denon AVR 1610 HT receiver (70-ish "Denon" watts - whatever that really means) 320 sq ft room

Alpair 7.3 & 10.2 - EL34 SE triode & DIY hack-job EL84 PP class A/triode - in bedroom closet, oops, 8x20ft "man-cave'

none of these combinations can't play louder than I care to listen to, but of course for some folks less than a measurable 120dB on peaks is simply not realistic enough - live and let live I say - (except for the cochlear cilia destroyed by sustained listening at above levels , or 20+ years in a commercial woodworking shop, where SPLs can exceed an average 95 dB, with peaks well over 110)

So your Denon receiver doesn't have any issues driving the Alpair 7's? Aren't the 7's rated for 4 Ohms? The receiver is not rated for driving 4 Ohm speakers. Is it mainly an issue that you really aren't taxing the amps enough to make it an issue?

[Resetter]

I`m using my Primare i21 amp, gets its signal from my pc (APE and FLAC lossless) trough a Moodlab NOS DAC

Volume controll from 0 (mute) to 79 full blast, never really makes it past 20 here.

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by wcwc

So your Denon receiver doesn't have any issues driving the Alpair 7's? Aren't the 7's rated for 4 Ohms? The receiver is not rated for driving 4 Ohm speakers. Is it mainly an issue that you really aren't taxing the amps enough to make it an issue?

sorry for the long delayed reply to this query, for which you may have already found a satisfactory response, but in my own case - the answer is - "yes, they don't get rode that hard", or some more technically more eloquent explanation ( I guess I just don't listen loud enough to test the limits of either the Mark Audio drivers, or the Denon receiver - other folks might)