Mark Audio Alpair 5.2 enclosures

[planet10]

Mark has brought out a new Alpair 5.2 3" driver.

We had a set of prototypes and have done up 5 boxes they can be used in:

• Frugel-Horn Lite
• Woden Giraffe ML-TL
• Woden Baby Labs
• Planet_10 uMar-Ken5.2SET (picture below, part of a paid Planset -- contact me about beta builds)
• Planet_10 uMar-Ken5.2 (direct link, will be on the frugal-phile.com Mark Audio plans)

Scott has also specified a simple BR, which has yet to be drawn or built.

dave

 

[chrisb]

Having tried a pre-production prototype pair of drivers in all 5 enclosures listed above, imagine my surprise when I liked them most in the FH-Lite horn, followed closely by the Giraffe MLTL.

Happened to have a scrap of birds-eye maple left from a commissioned job just large enough to wrap the little trapezoids. One the nice things about birds-eye is you don't need to worry so much about aligning / matching of grain figuring - oh, and yah, and it looks gorgeous in the flesh.

 

[a3cervo]

Thanks for sharing Dave!

@ Chris - beautiful veneer on the uMark-Ken enclosure, great work as always.

Btw, does the Alpair 5.2 produce any bass on these desktop enclosures (Baby Labs/uMark-Ken)?

 

[planet10]

A bit more bass than the FF85wk, a surprising amount.

Scott estimates 60 Hz in the ML-TL. Probably similar in FH-Lite.

dave

 

[a3cervo]

That's good to know Dave. Another question; how does the Alpair 5.2 compare to the 7.3 performance wise?

Thanks,
Anton

 

[brookhart995]

Does anyone know when the Alpair 5.2 drivers will be available? These look like pretty interesting speakers.

 

[zman01]

Does anyone know when the Alpair 5.2 drivers will be available? These look like pretty interesting speakers.

Maybe drop Madisound (US Distributor) an e-mail?

 

[planet10]

We have not directly compared the A5.2 vrs the A7.3 yet. A7.3 will provide greater bass & play louder, but use as midtweeters would be interesting.

dave

 

[planet10]

Does anyone know when the Alpair 5.2 drivers will be available? These look like pretty interesting speakers.

Available now in Japan & Hong Kong (maybe elsewhere). Madisound should have samples by now, i would suggest poking them to encourage a stocking order sooner rather than later.

It should be noted that these drivers have been in development for quite a few years, the Japanese were clamouring after it.

dave

 

[brookhart995]

I emailed Madisound earlier today and they said they just received samples, but it could be the first of the year until they have stock.

 

[mondogenerator]

How do the A5.2 compare to the A5 ( which I have gone 'off' since listening )?

 

[planet10]

The new driver is WAY better.

dave