Giant Alpair

[badman]

Wondering if you've considered making a large-format alpair? 12" or 15"? I ask because while you're making driver art, some of us are high-efficiency guys, and would relish a 92-94dB driver instead of sub-90s allowed by the small cones.

[mp9]

badman, Mark is approaching that efficiency range with his prototype paper cone A12

next gen Alpair 12.3 diy community development

[badman]

Aha! Interesting! Still would like to see a big gun though

[skeeter99]

I'm thinking 15" alpair as FAST in an H frame with an A7 above ... MMM

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by skeeter99

I'm thinking 15" alpair as FAST in an H frame with an A7 above ... MMM

I could be wrong, but I think Mark has already mused that the material / manufacturing processes used on the Alpair metal series has a size limit - quite possibly already attained with the 12.3. Cones as thin as these of much larger diameter could possibly suffer exponential diminution of durability?

[badman]

Naturally he'd need to increase thickness and work out new cone tech. We just don't have a lot of examples of 12"s and 15"s with the attention to detail of the mark audio drivers- for well-behaved "hi-fi" style drivers.

[skeeter99]

Originally Posted by chrisb

I could be wrong, but I think Mark has already mused that the material / manufacturing processes used on the Alpair metal series has a size limit - quite possibly already attained with the 12.3. Cones as thin as these of much larger diameter could possibly suffer exponential diminution of durability?

Ahh got ya, makes perfect sense. Given I barely impacted one of my 12's and it dented quite a bit I'd wager a large cones twice the size of the 12's would be probably too delicate.

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by badman

Naturally he'd need to increase thickness and work out new cone tech.

I'm just thinking that it in doing do with existing materials, they'd loose the magic. Of course there might be other materials or composites which Mark might already be quietly exploring, but unlike our imaginations and wish-list, his resources / time are finite.

We just don't have a lot of examples of 12"s and 15"s with the attention to detail of the mark audio drivers- for well-behaved "hi-fi" style drivers.

Yes, there are certainly few folks working with thin metal cones, but many examples could be found of exquisitely engineered an meticulously manufactured high-end drivers, and they're priced accordingly. The shipping and taxes on some of these exotica are more than the cost of a pair of Alpair12s.

There might simply not be a large enough market among the silent majority of cost conscious DIY builders for drivers of this size.

[skeeter99]

Originally Posted by chrisb

There might simply not be a large enough market among the silent majority of cost conscious DIY builders for drivers of this size.

This very well may be the key here. Seems like lots of people use the Eminence Alpha 15's for their large drivers due to cost and relatively good SQ. Probably a pretty hard target to beat.

[badman]

You fellas may be right. I know that my eyes far exceed my wallet, and there are a pretty broad range of 12"s and 15"s through the pro market already, and most folk don't want as big a speaker in their room.