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Mark Audio Alpair floorstander, pensil - horn or?

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I am interested in good plans on making a nice looking, compact floorstander for medium levels and mostly acoustic/americana/jazz and bluegrass music. Absolutely no techno/metal and the kind.

The Mark Audio Alpair range looks very nice but I have som questions:

- Is the Pensil and the Frugal Horn the only known and recommended floorstanders?
- How big a floorstander of this type would be required to fill a room of 6 x 4 meters. (24 sq mtrs) at low levels - sub 95 dB.
- I want a design that is fairly slim and pretty.

They will be playing on their own - no bass-assistance.

What plan would you recommend?
 
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Bob Brines has an ML-TL and there are the Woden Design horns. If you are mentioning the FH3 then the Alpair 7.3? Bob doesn't have an ML-TL for these, the Woden Design Horn is Mashowe (it is not compact thou).

dave


I haven't bought drivers - I want info on good plans that are fairly easy to put together for a normal person.

The FH3s seem to need a lot of space behind them?

I have looked at the "pensils" on the Mark Audio-website, but they look a bit... plain? On the other hand, they seem easy to build.
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
The FH3s seem to need a lot of space behind them?

FH3 was designed to use a corner or a wall behind to extend the mouth size.

I have looked at the "pensils" on the Mark Audio-website, but they look a bit... plain? On the other hand, they seem easy to build.

One of the design goals for the Pensil was simple. Note that the optional holey brace can be as much work as the entire rest of the box.

(Note: same designer for both of these -- Dr Scottmoose)

dave
 
edit: Dave beat me to it.

FH3 shouldn't need all that much space behind it (ditto for Maeshowe) since they use boundary loading. A bit, yes, but we're not talking yards by any means.

You can glitz up the cosmetics of the pensils if you feel they look boring. Or I could do you a one-off cabinet, depending on what it is you want. The criteria you mention above isn't too much of an issue, but aesthetics are of course a matter of individual taste, so some further detail wouldn't go amiss.
 
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frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
You can glitz up the cosmetics of the pensils

As here (with Mar-Ken)

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dave
 

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Thank you. Don't get me wrong - the pensils look very nice.

The FH3 is a bit above my current woodworking-level right now, but they look very cool - I am thinking gloss white and gold driver e.g. I see there is a shop selling from Netherland, but they would cost a bit when shipping and taxes are added.

Pensil 6, 7.3 and 10.2 look like good sizes, but are there any measurements to be seen? How much power would these require?

The 6 would look very cool in the room, but I am thinking they have trouble powering 24 sq mtrs with decent bass, or?

The second design here is interesting but the frequency plot on the right looks miserable? Alpair 6M | Markaudio
 
Yup, a single pair of A6 in any type of enclosure would have trouble filling a room that size

Of the Alpair drivers, I'd be included to suggest either the 7.3 pr 10P in Pensil / MLTL style enclosure - for simplicity of build- and as Dr Moose, who draws a lot more designs than he's able to build has noted ;), you can tart up the aesthetics as much as you like. . The 7.3 could still benefit from high-passing and woofers, the 10P I think would suffice without. Certainly does in the FHXL -FH3's big brother.
 
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why chose only one? :)


Note that the 10.2 has been out of production for a while now, although there may still be some in supply pipeline, or available used from builders who've either not used them or have moved on. This is pertinent because some designs are more tightly engineered to the driver's T/S parameters, and a direct drop-in of new model into older enclosure design (or the reverse) might not yield optimum results.

But seriously, it's probably safe to say the new 10s- particularly from my experience, the Ps - can deliver more "full"-ness than the 7.3s, if perhaps missing some of the smaller driver's intimate inner detail and depth of image in the vocal range. OK, the latter part is my own assessment - some folks seem to find "all metal drivers" intolerable in the long term, period - which is fine, as Mark's papers are excellent.
 
Ok. I think Pensils is the way to go for me.

The new Alpair 10 is 10.3?

Maybe the 7.3 is best bet. It is quite a bit smaller - just a bit hard to know what kind of bass to expect from a 4" driver.

The small paper drivers also are intriguing e.g. in a small bookshelf in nearfield.

Yes, would love to build many but:
- No time to do it.
- Not that many rooms to put them in.
 
The new Alpair 10 is 10.3?

Alpair 10.3 (metal) replaces 10.2. Alpair 10P (paper) is a new driver.

Maybe the 7.3 is best bet. It is quite a bit smaller - just a bit hard to know what kind of bass to expect from a 4" driver.

Surprisingly deep bass for a small driver, but SPL limited.

The small paper drivers also are intriguing e.g. in a small bookshelf in nearfield.

Alpair 6P is an excellent "desk-top" speaker.

jeff
 
jakja -- there are 2 new Alpair10 drivers - the metal version is 10.3, and first paper in this size by Mark, the 10P. Neither have quite the bass extension of the previous versions of metal, but both more so in "the right cabinet" than the 7.3s .

Certainly as Jeff says, neither not as SPL limited as the smaller driver.

I don't think you could go wrong the with the Pensils - they're not a difficult build, unless you get as carried away with intricate bracing as some folks tend to. ;)

Note that the father of this enclosure family (Scottmoose) has specified differences between his designs for each driver, based on their T/S parameters. While I'm sure I can sense his BP elevating whenever I say something like this - either driver would "work" in either enclosure, but perhaps not to their full potential, and quite possibly not to the discernment of many listeners.


edit: and Bob's M10A10 work very well too - I've built both, neither are tough builds, and both sound great, if not exactly the same.
 
Ok. I see there are new Pensil-plans for both 10.3 and 10P. The P is a fair bit smaller and I like both paper and metal drivers. Also 12P looks good.
I think I will read more about them - making a small TL-bookshelf with the Alpair 6 or similar also looks interesting.
 
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