Blueprints... now you're talking. Have to deliver them by carrier pigeon of course.
Either way, these are really nice little units. If you want to reproduce Orff's Carmina Burana at ~'live' SPLs and dynamic range (i.e. minimum of 90dB at the listening position & the ability to handle 120dB LF dynamic peaks), then a 5in widebander isn't likely to be the first choice of transducer, but with less extreme demands, they're excellent. It's a nice unit for simply listening to some music. Which is the point, after all.
O, I've been Fortuna te enough to hear a very special recording of this on a system of Gary Pimm's a few years back that is so far a benchmark against which any attempts at reproduction of a "live" performance need be tested
and yes, more than a single pair of 5" cones were involved
maybe when you're finished playing with the A10 MAOPs, we could make some "arrangements" - need a change of scenery, do you now?
AFAIK, all the A10 MAOP units to date have been based on the 10.2 series driver. They come as matched pairs, as I think I mentioned elsewhere, with anechoic sweeps and T/S specs. of the specific drivers, which is close enough to the stock units for a quality enclosure not to be significantly affected. Aside from the cost of the cones & the fact that they are hand-assembled by Mark, Evan or Taniguchi-San (my own are pair 0001A & 0001B built by Taniguchi-san), this is why they cost rather more than the standard units. Chamber time costs, especially for individual drivers.
See my remarks above.
Of the stock metal cone Alpair 10s (the 10P being irrelevant in comparative terms given that it is an entirely different unit), my favourite was the first, which was pretty much flat to 20KHz, or as flat as a wideband driver is likely to get. I liked the 10.2, like the 10.3 more, the MAOP model has most of the enhancements of the 2nd generation model with more HF damping. It's an interesting unit for me inasmuch as it appears, within the context of wideband drivers, to have little in the way of obvious character, since the oxidised cone has greater self-damping. Some will like that, others won't. I admire what they do well, since what they do, they do very well indeed, and I wouldn't part with mine.
Of the stock metal cone Alpair 10s (the 10P being irrelevant in comparative terms given that it is an entirely different unit), my favourite was the first, which was pretty much flat to 20KHz, or as flat as a wideband driver is likely to get. I liked the 10.2, like the 10.3 more, the MAOP model has most of the enhancements of the 2nd generation model with more HF damping. It's an interesting unit for me inasmuch as it appears, within the context of wideband drivers, to have little in the way of obvious character, since the oxidised cone has greater self-damping. Some will like that, others won't. I admire what they do well, since what they do, they do very well indeed, and I wouldn't part with mine.
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Might also be expressed as very neutral. We had this same "issue" (ie took some time to realize how good they were) with an A7.3eN/SDX7 FAST we are just completing the finish on now.
dave
I have a pair of MAOP7s as well as a trio of (EnABLed) A7.2s in my home system, and on initial listening found the MAOPs to be "neutral" for sure. Of course as they arrived direct to me from Mark, and even now have less playing time than any of those Dave puts through his break-in procedure before treatment and final pair matching, I shouldn't be surprised that they might sound like they've not fully "opened up" yet.
As Scott notes - the MAOP drivers are special enough that anyone lucky enough to acquire a pair will not likely do anything drastic like get rid of, or modify them.
As Scott notes - the MAOP drivers are special enough that anyone lucky enough to acquire a pair will not likely do anything drastic like get rid of, or modify them.
All true. I now have Chris’ MAOPs. They are still in the box. CHris was very protective of these drivers and i only was able to hear them a few times. He liked them better than A7.3eN, i thot it was really close. Certainly a step up from the stock driver. I am still waiting to get a rejected MAOP cone to experiemnt on before EnABLing them.
And the white cones are gorgeous.
dave
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