Ok,
I was looking at full range for home theater but it looks like that wont really work out. So I have been looking more at just building a pair for my office that will be used for music and be paired with my PDR-8 subwoofer.
However, I am still not 100% convinced that they can handle the kind of output I need for classic rock, along with classical, country rock, and some old pop thrown in(Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc...)
I am sure part of this is just the fact that I cant get past the "old world" thinking about the bigger drivers being needed for lower frequenices with higher output.
At the same time though, I am very curious and it really isnt THAT expensive to try out at first if I build a pair of Pensils with the CHR-70.
So I am really tempted to go that route.
That said, the CHR-70 is lower in sensitivity and I am worried if it will play loud enough when I get either a tube amp or f5 built.(I am currently using a quickie preamp from my computer)
Anyone else have doubt about full range but wound up being VERY happy with the full range drivers? I know there are most likely some of you out there especially with Mark Audio drivers since they look like the best bang for the buck when I look at the frequency respons.
I was looking at full range for home theater but it looks like that wont really work out. So I have been looking more at just building a pair for my office that will be used for music and be paired with my PDR-8 subwoofer.
However, I am still not 100% convinced that they can handle the kind of output I need for classic rock, along with classical, country rock, and some old pop thrown in(Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc...)
I am sure part of this is just the fact that I cant get past the "old world" thinking about the bigger drivers being needed for lower frequenices with higher output.
At the same time though, I am very curious and it really isnt THAT expensive to try out at first if I build a pair of Pensils with the CHR-70.
So I am really tempted to go that route.
That said, the CHR-70 is lower in sensitivity and I am worried if it will play loud enough when I get either a tube amp or f5 built.(I am currently using a quickie preamp from my computer)
Anyone else have doubt about full range but wound up being VERY happy with the full range drivers? I know there are most likely some of you out there especially with Mark Audio drivers since they look like the best bang for the buck when I look at the frequency respons.
I have (or rather, my girlfriend has) a pair of CHR-70's in bookshelf cabinets (Dave's CHR-Ken), being driven off a teeny little Tripath that's maybe good for 5W a side before distortion, 15W flat out.
They're fine, really - the sensitivity is low, yes, but just how often do you listen at 90+dB anyway? When it comes to office/bedroom type applications, I suspect the answer is "not very often at all" - 90dB is really very loud.
I'd be wary of trying to power them using anything in the 1-5W range, but anything that can manage 10 clean watts per side ought to be satisfactory.
(and, of course, if you can cross them to a helper woofer/sub, their power handling at higher frequencies is more than adequate to go very loud indeed)
They're fine, really - the sensitivity is low, yes, but just how often do you listen at 90+dB anyway? When it comes to office/bedroom type applications, I suspect the answer is "not very often at all" - 90dB is really very loud.
I'd be wary of trying to power them using anything in the 1-5W range, but anything that can manage 10 clean watts per side ought to be satisfactory.
(and, of course, if you can cross them to a helper woofer/sub, their power handling at higher frequencies is more than adequate to go very loud indeed)
Yea, but they are so much more expensive when I want to just try something out when I dont know if I will like the sound from full range drivers or not.
However, it would be cool to use one as a tweeter/mid in a two way design for home theater. I have been told it is not the greatest idea to use them for HT use but if I only used it for the upper registers then it may work out really well. It would certainly provide a wide range of XO point to decide where I think it would be best to XO at to maybe try and smooth out the "shout" that many of these drivers supposedly suffer from.
I was absolutely shocked at the quality of the sound that came out of the MA drivers. I have not heard any of the Fostex or Lowther stuff, but i cannot say enough about his drivers. It is, without a doubt, a top quality entry into hifi. As for HT, I think they would be fine, but I would recommend a brick wall filter to make sure yo dont push them to hard. IN movies, you get frequencies that are rare in audio and can do damage. Add a sub and cross the Alpairs at about 100hZ or so, and you can shake the building and enjoy quality HiFi at the same time.
For home theatre, the Alpair 12P would work great. It's a 6.5" with a shallow cone profile and has the dispersion profile of most 5.25" drivers (yes I've measured). There is no shouting with the 12P like with Fostex drivers. You can either use a helper tweeter 1st order with no crossover on the 12P, or a full crossover at 2kHz. Both sounds great. But I do recommend a tweeter (others may get angry at me for recommending).
It can get very loud and the sound quality is very good. Even used as a typical midwoofer driver in a crossover, the sound is shockingly good. Keep in mind that if you use them away from the wall and have to add BSC, you'll end up with just average efficiency.
It can get very loud and the sound quality is very good. Even used as a typical midwoofer driver in a crossover, the sound is shockingly good. Keep in mind that if you use them away from the wall and have to add BSC, you'll end up with just average efficiency.
FWIW, I've taken the other approach with using FR for a small room (420ft sq) HT 5.1 system - Alpair 7s for the front row (which for my aged / shopworn hearing don't need tweeters), XO'd via the surround receiver's bass management at 110 & 120Hz to a pair of dual driver woofer enclosures in corners. I don't approach within 15dB of the THX reference level (hardly ever surpass 90dB SPL at the prime listening position) and am very happy with the results.
Would this system meet everyone's metric of "great idea" for a HT system? probably not - for some folks anything less than 12-15" coaxes is a toy. For a single driver system would 12Ps all around deliver more realism? maybe. Would they cost almost twice the 7.3 price tag and need much larger enclosures to do so? most definitely - sooner or later compromises or budgetary constraints enter the calculus
As ChrisB does, I have A7.3's in my HT and crossed to a sub at 160Hz -- that fills in a phasing problem. They will go louder than I can stand. I am working on a small BR for the A10.2. These will eventually go into the HT and be capable of being MUCH louder than I can stand. Then I can get the A7.3's back in my 2-channel where they belong. If you have never heard the A7.3, the A10.2 would do everything you might want. At reasonable SPL, the A7.3 does it better.
Bob
Bob
The bulk of the energy with explosions, etc is in the bottom end. Once you cross your mains at a reasonable frequency, you no longer have to worry about excursion. You only need to worry about RMS power levels. Broadband noise at 30W is very, very loud.
Bob
well that's a relief. I am still mainly considering them for my stereo system in my office. However, I can imagine it would be a really nice and dynamic system to have a smaller FR to cover the highs and upper mids and then cross it to a nice high sensitive 6" mid for a 2 way system. that was small and efficient for a small HT system.
I was looking mainly at the MTG-08 from diysoundgroup.com for my HT before as they measure really well and aren't too expensive to build.
It may be nice to try a FR in a small sealed box firing into a "compression chamber" that goes into a full horn for HT use as well. I know I have seen something similar to that somewhere but I never saw any measurements.
I was looking mainly at the MTG-08 from diysoundgroup.com for my HT before as they measure really well and aren't too expensive to build.
It may be nice to try a FR in a small sealed box firing into a "compression chamber" that goes into a full horn for HT use as well. I know I have seen something similar to that somewhere but I never saw any measurements.
Too many complicated ideas. Just stuff a 4" or 5" fullrange driver in a little box and be done with it. It will sound good. Or if you want to more frequency extension build a small 2-way. It will not be high efficiency, but neither do you need it. A 2W amplifier powering low efficiency speakers right in front of you on the desk gets painfully loud already.
haha, that is what I am going to do, but I am a think out loud kind of person and I just go on and on sometimes.
My apologies.
I will most like do something like a Onken type of enclosure or a pensil. I currently have a Adcom 6000 amp on loan (100w/ch) but I want to get a bottlehead amp built for my office. I already built a quickie and want to get a turntable to restore as well for in here.
My apologies.
I will most like do something like a Onken type of enclosure or a pensil. I currently have a Adcom 6000 amp on loan (100w/ch) but I want to get a bottlehead amp built for my office. I already built a quickie and want to get a turntable to restore as well for in here.
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