I had a set of the first gen Alpair-5 single-suspension speakers sitting around here for a while and decided it was time to do something with them!
I was originally going to build a 2-way with a 12PW but found the Woden Design Giraffe ML-TL enclosure plan so decided to give that a try.
The results are incredible! Detail and transparency is excellent and on par with the other small Markaudio drivers but the amount of bass is shocking for such a small cone area! I'm guessing it is attributed to the lack of a rear suspension allowing more excursion?
Either way, these were slated for bedroom duty but now may end up in my main music room as yet another speaker selection! 😀
Video: YouTube
I was originally going to build a 2-way with a 12PW but found the Woden Design Giraffe ML-TL enclosure plan so decided to give that a try.
The results are incredible! Detail and transparency is excellent and on par with the other small Markaudio drivers but the amount of bass is shocking for such a small cone area! I'm guessing it is attributed to the lack of a rear suspension allowing more excursion?
Either way, these were slated for bedroom duty but now may end up in my main music room as yet another speaker selection! 😀
Video: YouTube
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Craig - if you think they're surprising in the Giraffe, try the FH-Lite.
Yah, watching them dance around the limit of their excursion is a bit disconcerting - particularly if source is a less than dead flat piece of vinyl.
edit; these little guys are just begging to be used in a SAW/FAST/2-way - hmm, do we know anyone with a surplus of eligible drivers, and more time on their hands than they know what to do with?
Yah, watching them dance around the limit of their excursion is a bit disconcerting - particularly if source is a less than dead flat piece of vinyl.
edit; these little guys are just begging to be used in a SAW/FAST/2-way - hmm, do we know anyone with a surplus of eligible drivers, and more time on their hands than they know what to do with?
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yah, sumpin like that - scottj is currently on a campaign to rid the term FAST from our lexicon, and since I've frequently mentioned my dislike for the term, I should probably support that ? 🙂
Jon Bochani & particularily ScottJoplin are playing with alternatives to the FAST acronym. Wideband with Woofer (WWW) or Woofer Assisted Wideband (WAW) are my favourites. SAW (subwoofer assisted wideband) does not really suit as most good FASTs/WAWs will not use subwoofer (ie atmosphere generators). I think a couple other acronyms also got bandied about.
The Mark Audio Alpair 5.2 in Frugel-Horn Lites is really a shocker. We were dropping a few jaws at the last diyFEST some 3-weeks ago with how much (apparent*) bass and levels these were producing. Scott (Woden/Scottmoose) tells me a simialr story of the FH-Lites with A5.2 they were demoing at a hifi show in Chershire — people coming back to listen to them again because they didn’t believe the bass.
Our Girrafes sit neglected downstairs due to the high performance of the FH-Lites, but as with Scott’s Pensils i have no doubt the bass they can produce. The tiny footprint of the giraffe can certainly be seen as a big selling point.
BTW, the new A5.2 is a worthy upgrade, the new driver notably better than the 1st gen (ie an opportunity to build FH-Ls?).
*(i say apparent as they are actually just doing a superb job of producing the 1st harmonic of the really low stuff which tricks the brain into believeing the low notes are there, something that really only becomes clear when you switch in a set of speakers (ie FHXL or big Pensils) that can reproduce the fundemental)
dave
The Mark Audio Alpair 5.2 in Frugel-Horn Lites is really a shocker. We were dropping a few jaws at the last diyFEST some 3-weeks ago with how much (apparent*) bass and levels these were producing. Scott (Woden/Scottmoose) tells me a simialr story of the FH-Lites with A5.2 they were demoing at a hifi show in Chershire — people coming back to listen to them again because they didn’t believe the bass.
Our Girrafes sit neglected downstairs due to the high performance of the FH-Lites, but as with Scott’s Pensils i have no doubt the bass they can produce. The tiny footprint of the giraffe can certainly be seen as a big selling point.
BTW, the new A5.2 is a worthy upgrade, the new driver notably better than the 1st gen (ie an opportunity to build FH-Ls?).
*(i say apparent as they are actually just doing a superb job of producing the 1st harmonic of the really low stuff which tricks the brain into believeing the low notes are there, something that really only becomes clear when you switch in a set of speakers (ie FHXL or big Pensils) that can reproduce the fundemental)
dave
The 1st gen A5 had no spider but did use ferro-fluid to centre the voice coil. The legislation in Europe about ferro-fluid caused the large delay to the Alpair 5.2 as the engineering challenges to do the same thing without ferrofluid were developed.
I don’t know how well it will go, but Mark has expressed a desire to try and migrate this tech to ever larger drivers.
dave
I don’t know how well it will go, but Mark has expressed a desire to try and migrate this tech to ever larger drivers.
dave
Do they have a dimple in the centre of the dustcap”. If yes then you do have A5.2, copper is an exceedingly rare colour in North America, existing only as pre-production prototype-types.
dave
No dimple ... these are the pre-production protos. Is the Gen 2 significantly better? You have me tempted on the 5.2's in a FH-Lite! 😛
Answering my own question, the Gen 1 dustcap was like the 1st gen CHR so quite different than what is seen in the picture posted. Here the 1st gen for comparison.
dave
As far as i know same as the others, put a 100 hours of gentle on them before slowly ramping up the wick.
No dimple, with the new dustcap is indicative of a set of Gen 2 prototypes i guess (maybe i’ll know when i get the set of coppers i scored). The pre-procuction silver ones Mark sent us had dimples. The CHS-70 (which shipped only to the UK AFAIK) was a Pluvia 7 sans dimple. We have a couple sets of those. The dimple was 1st seen in the Alpair 10p and helps control HFs.
dave
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how about '2-way'
Out of curiosity, if Mark was able and did in fact port the spyderless technology to the A7, would it be a fundamental change of such magnitude that new boxes would be required or do the laws of physics give him the option of designing it as an upgrade to the A7 compatible with existing A7 enclosures ?
WAW are a 2-wa, but the term differentiates them from the usual cone + dome and the XO 2-5 kHz (typical)
Hard to say. They are so many other parameters that i would not want to hazard a guess.
dave
I wouldn't imagine that backward compatibility will be a really high priority for such a seemingly radical change of design to the A7, but then again it depends on what they want to get out of their DIY/raw driver product profile.
By the way I had a listen to the 5.2 prepro some time back in Japan, unfortunately they weren't released for quite a period after I did and I have been meaning to open the opportunity to finally pounce on them - they were indeed really nice.
By the way I had a listen to the 5.2 prepro some time back in Japan, unfortunately they weren't released for quite a period after I did and I have been meaning to open the opportunity to finally pounce on them - they were indeed really nice.
With regards to the driver being currently used, may I ask what advantage(s) does a spiderless driver such as Alpair 5 have over a driver w/ spider (ex. Alpair 7)?
A question best answered by Mark, it has been far too long since i heard his comments on this. No Spider does mean 1 less source of non-linearities in the suspension.
dave
dave
There almost certainly being other changes between the old 5 and this one - while one could probably compare the T/S parameters between the two and surmise which differences are strictly due to the elimination of spider and voice coil, etc., exactly how any found changes would explain difference in sonic performance is another matter.
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