We have seen a lot more requests recently for ideas around multi-way speakers and the use of a ‘full range’ driver in one or more of the positions. This could be as a mid-woofer in a 2 way that crosses to a super tweeter, as a ‘tweeter’ that crosses much lower than usual to a larger woofer or even as a mid range, covering much of the frequency range with just the extremes being covered by more traditional form factor drivers. Customer Malcolm built a 3 way using the Alapir 7 MS. There follows a short description my Malcolm about his speakers and also some photos of both his speakers and those of his friend Gregor Szymczyk (Veracity audio).
‘The speaker is built around a folded 2.5m quarter wave (Voight-type) horn, calculated for an 8” driver; in this case the Vifa/scanspeak.We tried the Alpair 12p, but the cone area is too small for this cabinet. It would be good in a smaller horn. The tweeter Is Scanspeak revelator & is soooo good that the clarity of the CHP 70 was not up to it, so I went for the Alpair 7ms. All crossover points are 1st order, so inductors & caps are crazy money!
A lot of time has been put into the xover by Gregor Szymczyk (Veracity audio); we used the 10p in his reference monsters.
Both the 10p & the 7 work in their own sealed compartments as midrange drivers, calculated from the mark audio specifications, well damped with carded sheep wool . If you zoom in on the photos you should see that they are mounted in neoprene isolation & the screws decouple with grommets. This is an old B&W technique seen on their top end stuff. They can be ‘voiced’ in this condition to blend into the overall design with wonderful clarity, and they work well within their power capacity if carefully crossed & used with higher powered amps at sensible volume. The smaller 3-way qwt horn shown would be overall (estimated) 90 – 92dB; about the same efficiency as my audio note an-e builds.‘
