ALPAIR 10 FR Focus on Listening experience

[kristleifur]

The combo is powerful, deeply detailed and extremely musical. I cannot imagine a female, most of whom are more interested in the beauty and majesty of music, wanting anything more. Even the 7's running without the bottom octave and a half are superb.

Women do seem to know what listening is about. I'm sometimes reluctant to say so, but it's a good thing: They listen differently, and hear better - in the active sense of the word 'hear'. This one in particular is a rather highly trained classical musician. Disassembling the sound is so easy for her. I'm of course very smitten with her and everything she does is great but it was particularly enlightening when she so effortlessly noticed and pointed out that a bass drum had "fallen out of the soundstage".

It looks like she'll have a very unique and interesting system. We're currently evaluating an AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 valve-output CD player for purchase. It has been very musical so far. It's feeding a custom-built 41H Amp15 amp - which is also incredibly musical, I must say - every few tracks, it just reaches into the listener and twists or tugs on something delicate. It's almost uncomfortable how strongly emotional it is. And you never hear how it's doing it.

All of this is playing through a $50 pair of Cyburgs Needles, just to give her a feel for fullrange sound so she can decide if she likes it. So far so good.

I'm REALLY looking forward to getting a high-quality pair of fulllranges up in this system!

 

[markaudio]

Mark,
i'm driving the alpairs 10 with a t-amp which will make something like 10watts per channel, still with some pop compressed music like say amy winehouse i can see the drivers travelling hard.

the question is: should i fear to damage the drivers even if i'm well within the power ratings? or will the driver just clip and distort but preserve itself from damage when within the power rating stopping its travel?

Hi H,
Good to hear from you. Should be OK..........iiiiiish. But with 10 watts, there might a risk of amp clipping which can also do some damage to the driver. Have a listen to some orchestral or contemporary music with high range. Turn the volume up and listen for overly sharp scratchy sounding high range. That's a possible indication of distortion as the amp reaches its limit. Clipping could do damage to most low mass full rangers if driven in this state regularly.

Re the Alpair 10 Gen. 1, ideally, listening at comfortable dB levels with the drivers fitted in a well matched cabinet, the power-train should move to a max of 4-mm 1 way on a peak signal. For example, big clash of symbols, or the thump of a drum. Usually, expect to get a nice descent bass response from around 3-mm X 1 way. You'll be pushing allot of with 3-mm due to the Alp10's wide compliance.

Cheers

Mark.

 

[markaudio]

hi mark,

when the alpair10 gen 2 due date? i m planning to go back to china next month, if the time is right, i hope can stop by at ur place in hongkong. or should i go to DONGGUAN ?

cheers
Henry

Hi Henry,
Good to hear from you. Yep, some drivers are here in the HK warehouse but most have already gone to Japan. Also shipping to Madisound (USA) next week.
Let me know when you're coming cos I'm back to Tokyo on 5th. Nov to guest present and meet OEM's at the next audio show.

Cheers

Mark.

 

[chrisb]

Currently listening to a pair of Alpair 7's in appropriately sized Fonken cabinets, matched with a pair of Planet 10 Fonken woofer cabinets, driven by a pair of plate amps. Cross over at 80 Hz as a line level to the Alpairs, just 6 db, driven by a 40 watt AudioPrism amp.

The combo is powerful, deeply detailed and extremely musical. I cannot imagine a female, most of whom are more interested in the beauty and majesty of music, wanting anything more. Even the 7's running without the bottom octave and a half are superb.

Bud

got some pictures of this latest combo? ( I guess some pride could be taken in their survival, and bemusement at the success of the unintentional sacrificial design features of the shipping crate)

yes, IIRC (it has been a long time) most distaff listeners would claim to be satisfied with 7

oh, that was cm?

 

[elac310]

@mark:

Don't worry! I'm not feeding the 500W continuously into the Alpair to kill your babies! It's just that I hate hearing amps getting into saturation, bearing in mind that in practice the music signal can vary by 10x or more on peak levels.

@all:

Yes, I've seen the 12, and the Gen2, heard there would even be a basic version + SE version... I'm just happy with what I have for now, as long as the A10 hasn't reached any programmed "best before" limit, or my amps stop working and tell me I need version 9 of the Alpair... I will first explore the full potential of what I have, which is still not burnt in properly.

Still no news on equ componentry values? anybody?

Chris.

 

[elac310]

Well, in fact...I might buy a couple of the 3 inch alpairs to mount on the JBL 3" entry horns...Just for the fun of the experiment, "HeHeHe" (I know they won't be able to handle properly the air mass in those large horns but I'm sure I'll get some sound out of this funny combo)...

 

[CLS]

Might? Do it!

That'll be very interesting!

I once tried Oris 150 (150Hz tractrix horn designed for Lowther 8"er) with Jordan Watt Flagon (a 6"er on a crockery vase). I put the assembly on the floor, so the 150Hz horn got very much support on the low end, made it almost fullrange. I also sat on the floor and listened to them nearfield - like a pair of giant headphones.

By common sense, that's faaaaaarrrr from ideal, but it's so much fun. The dynamics, details, energy, impacts of the sound were just amazing, and the range was not any narrower than the Jordan Watt itself, instead I felt the low end extanded some more and very powerful. Totally unbelievable. I fell in love with horn since then.

Alpair is said to be similar and better than Jordan. I think the sophisticated metal cone is good for horn loading. I'd bet horn loading would amplify its strengths in detail and dynamics even further.