• Disclaimer: This Vendor's Forum is a paid-for commercial area. Unlike the rest of diyAudio, the Vendor has complete control of what may or may not be posted in this forum. If you wish to discuss technical matters outside the bounds of what is permitted by the Vendor, please use the non-commercial areas of diyAudio to do so.

Mark Audio Alpair floorstander, pensil - horn or?

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Concerning Mass-loading, is it important to "block" the air so that there is noe direct path through the speaker except having the air pass through polyfill?

Mass-loading is supplied by the restricted terminus (vent of lower cross-section then the cross0section of the cabinet). Has nothing to do with the stuffing.

dave
 
Holy crap! (pun intended) Very nice job, but that's a lot of work. How do you ensure the braces fit snugly (and are glued tightly) along their holey length?

Basically built from the inside out - in the case of the Tannoys, the interlocking space frame was built first, then the exterior panels (1" MDF at the client's request - so just guess the total weight :eek:) were dadoed and wrapped around that.

The Fostex boxes weren't quite as as laborious - start with back, top and one side assembly, use spacers the same width as lateral braces to ensure long brace is square, and clamp / cold press. Then repeat with the second side, and bottoms.


I find it pretty hard to slow down enough to take many photos during the assembly process
 
Does all the Pensils require such extensive bracing?

Well mine are pretty decent sounding, with slightly less bracing.

jeff
 

Attachments

  • A12.2p SP open back small.jpg
    A12.2p SP open back small.jpg
    166 KB · Views: 332
Hi all,

I'm in planning stage for my Pensil A10-3 cabin.
If using internal bracing do I need to add the bracers volume to cab?
And if so do I add it in width, depth, height or all three dimensions?

(It does seem like the bracing is much more complicated them the rest of the cab)

Also, just to be sure, do I line the inside of the panels with absorbing material only in the upper half of the cab?

Thanks,
IK
 
I had got 2 pairs of Alpair 7.3 drivers for making a pair of speakers each for me and a friend. I've finished making Frugel Horns for him but am undecided on what to make the second pair with. I was researching and stumbled upon this thread. I had expected that I would get some subjective analyses of Frugel/ some other Horn vs Pensils but couldn't get much on that account. I'd be glad to know how they compare from subjective point of view.
 
I thought this was something about which I'd posted before - having built numerous pairs of FH3 with various drivers, and several Pensils, I'll offer my own observations.

The Pensil is probably a simpler build for most folks - all rectangular panels with 90dg butt joints - dadoes etc you're inclined, and it has a substantially smaller footprint than the FrugelHorn, which in combination with the small front facing vent, give it much more placement flexibility and perhaps WAF than the horn.

However, if you have sufficient floor and clear wall space either side of each enclosure, the FH3 will deliver a more spacious soundstage than the Pensil, and in my case with either an EL84 Pentode amp or Onkyo 5.1 receiver, a greater sense of bass "weight" / "slam" - pick your favorite subjective term.

And, no, I've not taken any in room measurements, other than SPL - which on music is generally under 95dB on peaks.
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.