Speaker cabinet build

[reubensm]

i have fallen in love.....with the cabs, fantastic job

 

[square_wave]

Lovely build.

 

[Berlyassocial]

Thank you everyone

 

[Berlyassocial]

Update on the impressions of alpair 11ms

Now well past 10 hours the treble is more clear and bass has increased aswell.

The treble is not overly bright and is very natural and has a good amount of sparkle to it.

One thing that didn't really standout is the negative camber dispersion benefits which was advertised by mark audio. Even with negative camber cone you have to be sitting reasonably center to obtain a good sound stage.

The bass is way more than you expect from this size of a driver. Well defined deep bass. If you have these speakers on frugal horn xl placed in a room with around 16ft length and 14 ft width with reasonable amount of fabric based furniture and speaker placed for corner loading then you have no need for a subwoofer. To hear the deep bass from the frugal horns your listening spot should be around 12 to 14 feet away from the speakers.

These speakers do not seem to be very easy to drive for low powered amps. Because the 3 way I had before fhxl had more spl at similar watts. It might be due to some other factors of the cabinet which I might not be informative enough to understand.

Overall this is a fantastic marriage between fhxl and alpair 11ms. These pair easily outperform brand produced loudspeakers which are 3 to 4 times the price interms of Soundstage, detailing, listening fatigue and even bass performance I would say. Atleast to what I've heard which includes Qacoustics bookshelf and tower, B&W bookshelf, vintage 3 ways, canton bookshelf, acoustic energy tower

But again these brand produced speakers I mentioned before beat alpair on power handling.

So if you are okay with 30 to 35 watts listening and ready to dedicate ample amount of time and thought process in building the cabinet then do go for these because all those efforts will be worth it when you listen to these at last. These have a talent to put a smile on your face.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Very nice. Looking forward to listening to it after covid situation

 

[Berlyassocial]

Very nice. Looking forward to listening to it after covid situation

Sure. It would be my pleasure to have you at my place

 

[RaaR]

Update on the impressions of alpair 11ms

Now well past 10 hours the treble is more clear and bass has increased aswell.

The treble is not overly bright and is very natural and has a good amount of sparkle to it.

One thing that didn't really standout is the negative camber dispersion benefits which was advertised by mark audio. Even with negative camber cone you have to be sitting reasonably center to obtain a good sound stage.

The bass is way more than you expect from this size of a driver. Well defined deep bass. If you have these speakers on frugal horn xl placed in a room with around 16ft length and 14 ft width with reasonable amount of fabric based furniture and speaker placed for corner loading then you have no need for a subwoofer. To hear the deep bass from the frugal horns your listening spot should be around 12 to 14 feet away from the speakers.

These speakers do not seem to be very easy to drive for low powered amps. Because the 3 way I had before fhxl had more spl at similar watts. It might be due to some other factors of the cabinet which I might not be informative enough to understand.

Overall this is a fantastic marriage between fhxl and alpair 11ms. These pair easily outperform brand produced loudspeakers which are 3 to 4 times the price interms of Soundstage, detailing, listening fatigue and even bass performance I would say. Atleast to what I've heard which includes Qacoustics bookshelf and tower, B&W bookshelf, vintage 3 ways, canton bookshelf, acoustic energy tower

But again these brand produced speakers I mentioned before beat alpair on power handling.

So if you are okay with 30 to 35 watts listening and ready to dedicate ample amount of time and thought process in building the cabinet then do go for these because all those efforts will be worth it when you listen to these at last. These have a talent to put a smile on your face.

I was in lookout of a post as this all along and stumpled upon only now.

Very eager to listen to this speaker pair

 

[drlowmu]

I don't think the binding posts in my build accept spades. I'mView attachment 49645 using banana plugs

the binding posts were purchased from India from http://www.theaudiocrafts.com/
if I remember correctly this was the last pair they had when suji purchased it 1 month back. maybe they have replenished the stock afterward.

It is a better practice, to use a good spade lug, torqued firmly, versus a banana plug, to connect a speaker cable to a speaker, or to an amplifier.

It is never ever a good idea to use plastic anywhere near speaker wires, as it is a large degrade of energy, and is a detriment aurally.

Your speaker post photo seem to use what looks to be plastic . If this is so, you really should totally eliminate them.

The most neutral sounding and best speaker posts I am aware of are CARDAS brand CCGRs, in either S / short for use with a metal amplifier chassis or L / long for use into wood, such a through a speaker cabinet. Subjectively, virtually "no" degrade.

From the looks of the speaker posts you have shown us, I see no reason why they would not accept a large spade lug. But then, if that speaker post has any plastic content, that is near the speaker leads, it should not ever be used. Be aware of this !!!

There is a very decent write up , regarding wire and plastic, by Mr. Pierre Sprey, on his Mapleshade Audio web site, entitled " Wire Management ". I hope it helps some of the F.M.s !

Wire Management Tools

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Off topic :

I really like your point source speakers, with little or no crossovers used. Yours is very nice looking, well done. When I was younger, I used to run vintage Phillips single point source drivers ( 9710M as I recall ) with whizzer cones.

As I got older, I came to the conclusion, I must use a two-way simple speaker, with a 15 inch sized woofer, to satisfy my tastes. I also concluded I must have a front- loaded horn, on both drivers. This precise loudspeaker combination is actually available , at a 104 dB sensitivity, and .........as a true single point source !

I now only use a speaker that needs no more than 2 Watts, when driven from a single amp, full range. There are certain SE tube amps, two Watts or less, which are the best sounding of all audio amps IMHO. This calls for 101 dB. sensitive speakers, ..... as a minimum. I call this " starting off on the right foot ", in audio.

What I post is strictly IMHO, IME, YMMV. I hope I have not offended anyone here, this was not the intent !!

Have fun !!

drlowmu

On topic :

One other thing, your "missing" highs. Your speaker will play better if you use a speaker wire where the two polarities do not touch each other at all, and are suspended in air. As a start, you can pull apart that "dual" molded cable to get that.

However, if the speaker lead is made 100% of copper, your highs will suffer. Copper needs some silver, to get a wide band high frequency response. Pure silver is costly and impractical. Stranded copper, that is silver plated, in a teflon jacket is a decent , cost effective alternative for you. It can play the highs !!

Specifically, as a minimum, just a single run of 12 AWG, for each polarity, " no touch ", is a decent start, m22759/11. ( available easily from Apex Junior, Surplus Electronics, CA./USA ) . My favorite speaker lead combination is a triple : 12+12+14 AWG, of this same wire, in precise 9.52 feet lengths.

 

[Berlyassocial]

Hey drlowmu

Hope you are doing well.
Very interesting write up.
But i would have to disagree with you alot.
Im not a veteran Audiophile by any means but i always engage in this hobby based on scientifically proven facts.
I have myself a calibrated measurement mic with me called umik-1 which is professionally used by speaker designers to test their speakers.

I do room acoustics as a partime here in dubai and abu dabhi

I pair this mic with REW software and do alot of measurements on frequency response, noise floor, decay, distortion, spectrum and alot more.

Ive measured and compared many cables which range from 500 INR to which even costs 50000 INR (silver or gold plated) and the measurements showed no consistent differences.

So as long as audible differences are concerned they absolutely made no difference.
The only general rule which i follow is that the cable should be decent quality and the resistance should be in check.

Now if you are talking about RF interference or antenna effect of speaker cables then I'm not equipped with the measurement gear to test those properties. But a gentleman named AMIR who runs a website called audio science review does exactly that and he has measured these RF interference of speaker cables using an Audio analyzer which costs tens of thousands of dollars and is accurate to the level any human ear can never come close enough. And the conclusions were none of these fancy cables makes any audible difference to the music you listen to.

Links to his tests.

Audio cable comparison

Rf interference in speaker cables

Electromagnetic interference in speaker cables

Usb cables comparison

I respect that we both follow different schools of thoughts. But hey thats how the world is. People are different. The most important thing is that you enjoy music.

Happy listening.

 

[drlowmu]

We covered all of this maybe 40 and more years ago.

So you rely upon scientifically proven facts. I rely upon my ears.

My first audio Mentor, in 1978, used to say this:

" Scientists don't pursue the truth, it pursues them . "

You are very obviously measuring the wrong things. I know what I hear with wire, and it has been that way....... for decades now.

" Scientists don't pursue the truth, it pursues them . "

My first Mentor used to also say,

" one inch of bad wire can ruin the musical experience ".

Of course, he was absolutely correct.

With respect,

drlowmu

 

[Berlyassocial]

No worries

Happy listening