Speaker suggestions - emphasize sound quality.

The poor little Mark Audio Alpair 7 MS is just far and away, too small to do the job..MA own website describes these drivers as "Operating range to 30K hertz-very linear response"
Very linear?...when the response bobs up & down 10 Db constantly thru-out the AUDIBLE range, 30K abilities not withstanding, this is not linear.

A FR driver that I believe is much better in all regards, is the Tang Band eight inch version, the W8-2145.
 

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Thank you waxx, I haven’t paid attention to the pencils, but maybe I should. Wide range of driver applications, depending on finishing, could be attractive. In addition, better suited for a larger room.

Ssportclay,
Haha, you have to keep some romance in life. Waxx mentioned the same speaker series, potentially the “super pensil” would be a good choice. The pictures look nice, need to read up a bit.
Any thoughts on how some of these compare musically, i.e. fh xl vs. the super pensil, vs. other?
 
Richard, very interesting. The tangband driver appears to truly cover the entire spectrum. What I find most intriguing is the measurement post cabinet interference/improvement/etc. I’m not technical enough to evaluate anything but the graphical measurements, well I’m not that bad.
Thank you for your help, I believe the cabinet may dictate the driver; I’m not a craftsman so a custom cabinet is not an option.
 
The poor little Mark Audio Alpair 7 MS is just far and away, too small to do the job..MA own website describes these drivers as "Operating range to 30K hertz-very linear response"
Very linear?...when the response bobs up & down 10 Db constantly thru-out the AUDIBLE range, 30K abilities not withstanding, this is not linear.

A FR driver that I believe is much better in all regards, is the Tang Band eight inch version, the W8-2145.

Tang Band spec sheets graphs are notorious for not being precise (very smoothed), Mark Audio graphs are way less smoothed, that is why the graph is more ragged.

But the W8-2145 is a great driver if you like the Tang Band sound. It's slightly coloured and i do like it, but not as much i like the sound and detail that a Mark Audio driver gives you.

I agree the OP better use a bigger driver for his room and space. The Alpair 10 or the 11MS would be what i suggest. The 12P could be an option also.
 
The wife likes the Pensil so I may be in for it. How are they from a sound perspective, that’s my primary interest.

I have not heard a Pensil myself, but scottmoose,(woden design) designed them along with the big romantic double horns and frugel-horns along with many other highly respected designs. People who have built them on this forum seem to universally love them. The plans are free. It should be sort of an honor to actually build a pair of Pensils. The better the drivers, the better the results. I have little doubt that if you choose an 11ms or 7ms that you will be very happy. Full range drivers have never been better than they are right now.
 
Once you choose the driver, the differences are largely (but not completely), in bass extension, quantity, and how it loads your room.

dave

And mark audio drivers in general give a very detailed sound, with a good dispertion for a fullrange and no very nasty peaks in the higher end (like many other fullrange drivers do), the metal cones are brighter, and i tend to tame them a little bit with a LRC filter, but without they are still very good sounding, noth harsh and ear piercing. The paper cones are darker sounding. The bass for the bigger drivers in the right alignments are very good. No heavy bass like a real subwoofer, but a nice solid bass, better than many 2way bookshelfs give.

And it's true, the Pensils are universally praised. It's one of the more popular designs of Scott, not only on this forum but all around in the diy world. They are a kind of MLTL's, so quarter wave designs with a good bass extention.

I did help to build one for a friend a few years ago with the (now out of production) Alpair 7.3 and that very fast replaced a Sonus Faber Olympica II's in his appartment. They were ment for his office, but he sold the Sonus and we had to build an other pair of Pensils for him for his office as the first set stayed in his appartment after testing there next to the Sonus. This guy is a jazzfreak and uses a Manley Stingray (integrated PP tube amp) as amplifier in his appartment and a vintage 197x Marantz receiver (don't remember the model) in his office.
 
Excellent, thank you so much.
Dave I understand, and it makes perfect sense. The driver is the function, and the cabinet is the form-ish, given the users environmental factors, including WAF.

Driver selection should be relatively easy assuming the cabinet was based off of a specific unit. Lucky for me that Mark Audio is highly recommended, the gold driver is beautiful ��.

Where could I get a set of plans, including the inner braces, for the “super pensil”?