Markaudio Alpair 6P in a 2-way-system

[LXB]

Hi,

as a new member from germany here I say a special hello to everybody who likes the sound of the Markaudio Alpair 6P which seems to be not very popular in my country so far. Hope I'm wrong, but this is maybe why:

Weeks ago when I took the little speaker out of its cardboard box for the first time I was absolutely disappointed. The noses/paper plugs (how do you say in english?) of both speakers were not glued correctly to the center of the cone, so I think you can call this „very unmatched“.
But because I had bought them for a cheaper price than usual I did not send them back and let them softly run in for a couple of weeks in two very small cabinets connected to our kitchen radio. I must say that the sound never really pleased me there. There was something missing in the voice of the singer, there was not enough bass for my ears anyway, and the treble was not at all clar enough, too. With some different loudspeakers I built a much better pair of speakers for our kitchen in the shortest time.

So what to do with the „useless“ little Alpairs? Hm... Maybe try them out in a 2-way-system...?...

This is the result: Yesterday I finished a large 2-way speaker containing the 6P and a Monacor SPH 225C, see picture (changed the color of the 6P cone to black).

And,... HEY!!! - Together with the dry, strong bass of the SPH 225C and in a bigger cabinet front wall the Alpair 6P sounds very different now. So sorry about my first judgement, Mr. Fenlon - what an awesome speaker! There is nothing missing in my ears. It gives so much more musical information to the listener compared to any speaker my ears have heard before. All the vocals and instruments are clearly defined, everything seems to be exactly in its place. And no treble missing. It's as good as a good dome tweeter.

Finally I can not recommend the Alpair 6P as a single speaker, but it is fantastic in a project such as I described above. Let's call it MonA.

Of course this is all my personal opinion and listening is always a matter of personal taste. A couple of people use the 6Ps happily in the popular speaker called „Needle“ (which is great but does not really hit my „listening habits“).

To underline the things written above I will be measuring the speaker and post all the data and more pictures in this forum in spring/early summer 2012.

Let me know if you work on similar projects containing the Alpair 6P or the Monacor 225C.
I am sure I can even improve the MonA with the help of your knowledge. And sorry for my english.

Cheers, Alex

[larryldspkr]

Crossover??

Larry

[LXB]

The Alpair 6P: 17,2 uF and 4,7 Ohms.
The Monacor: Coil + 47uF (parallel).

Sorry, can't say more at the moment, because I used an old coil for the 225C and unwound it. Have to let it be measured.

I' ll post everything later with all the measurements and more pictures. There also might be some little changes coming along with the mesaurements...

[vinylkid58]

Interesting project, and a nice looking speaker. Thinking of trying something like this, but with a different woofer.

jeff

[planet10]

Noce to see another A6.2P project.

Originally Posted by LXB

The noses/paper plugs (how do you say in english?) of both speakers were not glued correctly to the center of the cone

Dust cap.

(changed the color of the 6P cone to black)

Alex,

How did you do that?

dave

[LXB]

hello dave,

thanks for the word "dust cap".

I colored the 6P with a water resistant pen called "edding"

[ultrakaz]

I hate to ask, but did the sound of the 6P change at all after you colored it? I'm not familiar with "edding." Does it make the cone water resistant with a coating? Thanks.

[planet10]

I suspect you could do the same with a black Sharpie. As part of my treatment the paper gets a thin coat of puzzlekoat, attampting to get purple i ended up with a lovely marroon and then Chris made a set of matching boxes... the triangular prisms in the background are stealthWoofers



dave

[LXB]

hello ultrakaz,

no sound change at all. the edding pen is a german brand I believe. it is a marker (?) & people use it mostly in offices. its color is very black & it gets soaked up immediately by the paper cone. it is immediately dry & there is no coating over the structure of the cone material and so it does not make the cone water resistant, I guess.

[LXB]

hello dave,

your treatment looks great, like little footsteps.
guess its effect is to "tame" some nasty frequencies...
what is this substance made of?

has anyone from bavaria bought a pair?
i'd like to listen to it...