With good reason. mark was Ted’s apprentice for 5 years. He took what he learned and added his own expertise to extend the tech.
dave
The Omega driver sare in the sam esort of class as the Mark Audio & Jordan drivers.
Too general a question. What is important is the output impedance of the tube amp, as it goes up more then more of the impedance bumps in the speaker start impinging themselves on the FR. Tube amps vary greatly in output impedance, depending on design, typically PP amps have relativiely low output impedance (there are exceptions, like the new CARY),and Single ended triodes are typically at the high end (there are exceptions, often, but not always using pentodes).
Any FR with eddy countrol (ie typically a copper covered polepiece) will not have a rise in impedance at the top so the only place you have to worry is in the bass. Pensils & Frugel-Horns are intended to have variable damping so that the speaker can be tuned to this (and other stuff too), the nearer aperiodic loading of the miniOnkens make them less immune to this, but a typical BR needs to be sized for the suitable amplifier output impedance. Here is an example with Mark Audio Pluvia 11 (6” metal cone driver).
http://wodendesign.com/downloads/King-of-Swingers.pdf
dave
Really a 2 -way now with a mechanical XO. Getting it right is quite hard, but when achieved can work very well.
dave
Madisound is the North American source. They are well versed in shipping to Canada. (excuse the plug, but the question was asked) I sell EnABLed versions of some of the drivers, the base units all come from Madisound. email if you’d like to find out more.
dave
No import duties on drivers. If they are caught at the border you will have to pay GST/PST or HST. Historically the price from them have been less than when Solen sold them (but at that time Bob @ CSS was bringing the MA drivers across the border an ddistributing them to Canadians.
Generally if they come by post their is a much better chance of avoiding GST/PST, but since USPS discontinued ground shipping outside the US, you have to be careful about the cost.
dave
probably about 10 litres. There is also a Big Baby Lab coming for it.
MA’s website has not been updated and is a bit of a mess.
I have had some of thise thru here. I greatly prefer the smaller A10p They are more coloured than the A10p, do not go much lower (if any), but will play louder (they do not measure near as efficient as they are rated at).
If you want bass potential, the Puvia 7 is the MA with the lowest potential other than the A12pw, but it is a bass-wide (althou used by some as FR), intended for bass duties, and needs a much bigger box.
dave
i have had my ps180 s playing for a couple of days in an similar sized ~13L TL cabinet inspired by the BabyLabs designs. I’m liking what I hear particularly in the lighter jazz and percussion and cymbals but is the only fullrange i have heard since the 80s when some of my friends had fr speakers in huge boxes. seems to go well with both my approx 6wpc 6sn7/300b amp and pioneer class d with loads of power. i intend to use it with the valve/tube amp mostly though once broken in. I have used quite heavy filling with poly fill in the first chamber and reducing density in the subsequent chambers as recommended. i initially tried without fill but thought it needed some. will experiment further removing a little from the first chamber.
I don't have anything right now. I would like to buy a simple tube amp, like the Decware SE84UFO or the Wolf Ear Audio Kitoki v2 (though I am not adverse to the ACA). Do these have a high enough output impedance? I don't see it in their literature.
When you say the FE103 is different that the FE126, what exactly do you mean?
I am looking for a basic system, that will give a decent highs and lows, but I don't expect perfection in either. I just want something that is middle of the road and play most music well. I don't need it loud. I want something that is pleasant and is not fatiguing to listen to.
Others have suggested Markaudio instead of Fostex, so maybe I should start there.
Tx. for your input.
OK. I didn't know Madisound was the source in North America. It just does not feel right for example, to buy 2 Markaudio 7p drivers for $118 and pay $41 for shipping, almost the cost of another driver.
I would stay away from the Decware. Besides the Wolf’s Ear is an EL84 SE ampbuilt be a fellow in Ontario. It looks good, but has a lower impedance (for the Fostex FExx6) of 1Ω.
There are also versions of the El-kit amps at the diyAudio store (quite a few) or Victor in Vancouver.
And a small SE tube amp is not that hard to build if you are so inclined.
ACA has an output imedance of about 2.5Ω, double that if bridged, half if paralleled. A stero one is right in the middle of the typical SE tube amp range.
The nature of the kinds of boxes thay work in, the FExx6 tend to be forward and do have some resonances that some cannot ive with, the FExx3 are much more laid back.
A10p has been mentioned more than once. It gives up some efficiency so can do bass in a reasonably sized box, has a smooth fatigue-free topend, and still efficient enuf fto consider a 2-5 watt amp, tubes or otherwise.
dave
Be wary. The A7p does not have the character as the A6p/10p/12p. It has some ringyness like the FExx6.
dave
Did not expect such heavy words to describe the difference; what about Fe103 vs Fostex FE208EZ ? The question is more like - is it a question of size or how good the driver is? (mid/top) I presume the Sigma series has more to offer.
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1) Don’t overlook small class D amps such as Topping, SMSL, etc. These are quite good these days, and in the low to mid power range e.g. up to 25 watts, many cost less than the sales tax on something like the Decware or Bottlehead offerings.
I’ve built/owned/borrowed more than a few tube amps over the past 20yrs or so - including some of the aforementioned - and while that’s in the past for me now, I guess it’s fair to say that every aspiring DIYer owes themself the opportunity to taste the Kool-Aid at least once. The DIY Audio store’s Elekit 8200R looks like a good option.
If you can live with the low power, the ACA Kit is a great sounding amp, and while currently out of stock, if you can wait til April, you could do far worse for the money.
2) There are relatively few Canadian resellers of DIY / budget friendly audio components that would allow one-stop shopping for all you might want to incorporate into such a system. The first that comes to mind is Solen - in addition to “if you have to ask, you couldn’t afford it” level of exotica, it looks like they carry some of the Dayton Audio products (Parts Express’ house brand that gets some good reviews herein), as well as Fostex, and the Topping I mentioned above. It doesn’t appear that there any Canadian resellers of Mark Audio other than Dave, so while I personally prefer them to the numerous Fostex I’ve owned over the years*, unless you can find a “gently used” pair domestically, you’d be looking at importing from Madisound.
*I’ve not heard the most recent models, but would not hesitate to recommend the Pluvia7 in one of the small Planet10 bookshelf sized enclosures - in fact that’s what I’m running for front height surrounds in my small 7.1HT rig.
If you are happy with a bit more diying there are many doing boards. TonyT in Taiwan for example. N=Maybe even hit ebay by now.
A search turns up a few: pCBs, even assembled boards. And a few interesting tube amps (hard to make a bad sounding EL84 amp).
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=ACA+kits+PCBs
As an aside i should say that i have gone from using tubes to mostly Pass SS amps. They sound good and give less problems.My excellent EL84 Class A triod PP has even less power than the small ACA, my really good EL34 PP has an ocilation issue that is eating one of the tubes, an SE 6B4G that someone went to far on and screwed up (PS too close to the OPTs), and an SE EL84 Scade amp that gives superb performance for little cost.
And a big pricey EL34 PP that isn’t as good, but decent and big and shiny.
dave
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