Audio Nirvana Classic 8 Ferrite vs. Mark Audio Alpair 12P

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frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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After a significant amount of tweaking and twiddling, it doesn't look like the AN 8" Classic will work...

A short summary of the AN Classic 10 i treated. While it might well make a decent midbass, it has some crap up top, that when excited makes my teeth grate, so i could not live with as a FR. It was a releif to go back to the A10PeN.

The Dayton PS220 on the other hand was a very pleasant surprise. I’d put it right up with the SEAS F22 as worthy 8” drivers.

dave
 
A short summary of the AN Classic 10 i treated. While it might well make a decent midbass, it has some crap up top, that when excited makes my teeth grate, so i could not live with as a FR. It was a releif to go back to the A10PeN.

The Dayton PS220 on the other hand was a very pleasant surprise. I’d put it right up with the SEAS F22 as worthy 8” drivers.

dave

Dave or anyone.....how would you compare these dayton drivers to middle road lowthers?

mostly interested in compareing transit response

Thank you

Lawrence
 
I haven’t heard any Lowther’s since 1975 and then we had them in real crappy particle board enclosure and driven by one of the worst SS amps ever… so my opinion is only second hand (ie next to worthless).

dave

Thank you Sir,

have you or anyone measured the acutal sensitivity of the dayton driver? I am having a hard time believing 96.5db ....lowthers can get there but there magnetics are stupid strong......
 
The pair i had measured at just over 94dB.

The neo magnet on these is no shrinking violet… caused me plenty of frustration with my metal desk and tools.

dave

Alright Thank you soo much

now would you say the dayton is tops in the lower priced range FR drivers or?

your opinion is very welcome.

I have a very special enclosure i would like to try it was patented in the middle 80's essentially lower the FS of the driver by a factor of 2!

Lawrence
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
now would you say the dayton is tops in the lower priced range FR drivers or?

I’d really need to have more listening, but at the moment the moment the Dayton and SEAS FA22 would be my top candidates for an 8” driver. In general i prefer the performance of smaller drivers and would choose Alpair 10PeN over either. If you need the efficiency, use 2.

dave
 
I’d really need to have more listening, but at the moment the moment the Dayton and SEAS FA22 would be my top candidates for an 8” driver. In general i prefer the performance of smaller drivers and would choose Alpair 10PeN over either. If you need the efficiency, use 2.

dave

Yeah I get that....the entire idea is to find a real good single driver speaker that my little tube amps will be ok with...that means higher efficiency....


so you like smaller driver.....and its because?
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
How big are your “little” amps?

I am currently using 5w/channel SE (SS) amps in my big room on the A10PeN with no real issues with loudness capability. And have had many a pleasent listening session with even less efficient speakers when my buddy brought over his 2A3 SE. I have found that how much power is recommended is often over the top.

dave
 
How big are your “little” amps?

I am currently using 5w/channel SE (SS) amps in my big room on the A10PeN with no real issues with loudness capability. And have had many a pleasent listening session with even less efficient speakers when my buddy brought over his 2A3 SE. I have found that how much power is recommended is often over the top.

dave

well 20 -25watters idea being using a very small part of the power will keep distortion at bay
 
Hey Silverhairbp, how's things been developing the past weeks, are you happy with the results ?


Ughhh.... That was an ugly ordeal.

Short version: Read Dave's post on his results.

Long version:

I have to eventually give up on the AN8. My original intention was to use is as an extended midrange to overcome the need for a tweeter. But I could not tame the range from the upper midrange up. Even if I just used the driver for higher frequencies and raised the crossover point, the high freqs were not clean.

It might be a good driver in the lower mids, but one would need a VERY steep LP filter around 2K (guessing) to make it work. With the small Xmax, the working range for me would be ~ 800hz to 1.6k or so (1st order). Lots of drivers do much better and are easier to integrate.

BTW, I did try them full range. Great dynamics and imaging, but the tweeter frequency range left my ears ringing even at low levels. My teeth probably have a different resonant frequency than Dave's or I might have ended up loosing a few fillings.

So I went back to the driver I was using for the midrange in the current system, a Satori 6" midwoofer. As long as that driver is crossed LP below 3K (1st order), it is most adequate. My working range on that driver is ~ 600hz to 2600hz or so 1st order. Then I cross into a SEAS H1189 tweeter at ~ 2600. I use Vishay Dale resistors in series and adjust the cap and choke values accordingly to adjust driver levels.

(Don't think for a minute that all caps, chokes and resistors sound the same. Even resistors have their own sonic signature. YMMV.)

HTH,

Bill
 
wow, that's a lot of work - but a lot learned along the way too.

I see most of the AN drivers have rising treble and other nasties, you really gotta pick the right ones out of that and the only 8" in their collection with a decent FR in my opinion is simply way over-priced.

I've never heard the Satori driver, good to know you've found it suitable.
 
I'm just an old retired guy. Plenty of time to experiment. Always looking for improvements.

The Satoris I've used are clean, transparent and dynamic, very low coloration drivers. The treble rises but not hard and brittle. Controllable but best to use them in a frequency range that requires no particular "management techniques."

The 6" midrange is a manageable druver, could even work as a mid/tweeter above a Peerless 830669 or two. But so could a less expensive Alpair 10P (still haven't heard one) if the higher efficiency of the Satori isn't required.

The latest design needed a driver with a sufficient Xmax that there was no worry about a low 1st order crossover point. That's why the 6" midwoofer was selected.

I don't get to Waterloo like I used to back in the 90s. Hope to get up there as part of some research into Quantum Computing.
 
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