Pluvia 11 – Soft Chrome/Vintage Gold (single driver)

Description

The Full Range audio driver that produces more bass

These drivers are packaged individually in separate boxes, for a pair please add 2 to your cart.

• Datasheet

These new drivers are frankly amazing, not only are they an astounding full range driver but you can use the in a mid bass application as well where they will allow you to use simple and shallow filters. These drivers will work fine the the Frugel Horn XL ans the Pensil 11 Kit. We like both and do a kit for both. Dr Scott Lindgren is the designer of both alignments and is responsible for many speaker boxes that can be found at the frugal-phile site listed below.

• Our Pensil 11 Kit
• Our Frugel horn XL kit
• Planet 10 and Frugal-phile website construction pages

The Pluvia 11 is a completely new driver design. It is the first “full range” driver that can handle bass loads typically delivered by 5.5 inch to 6.5 inch mid-bass units used in most 2 way systems. The Pluvia 11 cone is an entirely new design from Mark Fenlon. It uses a new super-strength aerospace grade alloy designed to cope with high bending stress loads. The material thickness is increased be 50% over previous Markaudio designs, yet the profile remains shallow to increase dispersion. Two more processes have been added to the Multiform cone production sequence to increase Pluvia 11’s operational low frequency load capacity. The all-new front suspension has a variable thickness geometry, increasing oscillatory stability by 30% over previous designs. The rear suspension (spider) has an operational surface area 25% larger than the Alpair 10 to cope with load demands of typical mid-bass units. However, the Pluvia 11’s high range has not been sacrificed. It outperforms the smaller Alpair 10 by reaching slightly higher frequencies with an improved spread on the high-range lift above 10kHz. Other design advances include the new “easy install” frame. This new-technology one-piece moulding utilises a GF30 glass fibre and resin mix. Pluvia 11’s frame is more rigid than previous designs, with a mounting depth of only 4.5mm, making both
recessed and surface-mounting simple. Two new cone colours add visual interest. Along with the Pluvia 7, this new family of drivers will serve custom builders well into the future. For the first time in the history of traditional full-range driver design, users now have a genuine choice to go full-range without sacrificing bass handling, or use it as a wide-range mid-bass driver that allows simple filtering. The new Pluvia Eleven is an excellent high-end and multi-purpose driver. Its also suitable for many computer, Home Theatre, TV, and commercial A/V applications.

Dr. Scott has worked out several potential designs for these drivers to suit different tastes and skill levels. Of course we can make any of these for you. These designs aren;t completely documented but below are some outline plans and a few words from Scott.

The King of the Swingers (I like the ape) set of BR boxes.

These were quick design studies; I tend to work up a few for new drivers out of interest, fixing the vent dimensions & altering the volume & tuning to reflect any change in output impedance / series R in the circuit. They weren’t originally done for the purpose of creating finished designs, but they should work fine, so I’ve cobbled a file together with 3 of about a dozen variations I had on the HDD, with some internal HxWxD dimensions. Since vented boxes assume Helmholtz conditions, these can be adjusted as preferred, so long as one is not stretched significantly relative to the others (which would increase the potential for standing waves to affect behaviour somewhat) and you don’t make them a cube (don’t even think about it).

Smallest box assumes a voltage source amplifier with an EBS[ish] alignment; should do quite nicely near boundaries. You can also use it on the end of a SET amp with an output impedance of up to about 2.5ohms. The alignment will change (see images), but remain quite usable, although it may require a bit more ‘breathing room’.

The mid-sized box was generated specifically assuming amps with an output impedance of ~2.5ohms – 3ohms or so. Moderately damped alignment; should be quite flexible & get a little lower than the smaller enclosure.

The largest of the boxes was done assuming amps with an output impedance of about 3ohms – 4ohms. Again, quite a nice moderately damped alignment, and a little more LF extension again.

The plots show a reduction in SPL, as they were done quickly & I was fudging it by adding series R. The response profile should be fairly representative though, notwithstanding room effects. I like a damped alignment in practice, although I usually do boxes on the forum that are flatter on the assumption that people will adjust tuning to suit their requirements. YMMV as always.

 

The Thin End of the Wedge (thank you, Yes Minister).

Voigt style ML-horn. A bit of fun, although it should actually be quite a decent performer, so I’ve stuffed the dimensions + a sketch into an image file. Yes, it is 7ft tall. And if anybody thinks that’s excessive, of course it is. Horns & their variations are big. Live with it.

As a design, it’s closer to some of the Voigt pipes that were doing the rounds a few years back; it’s mass-loaded but not heavily so compared to a lot, as I was targeting a higher efficiency load over a slightly wider gain BW, accepting a little more ripple in the response (mainly null associated with F3) as the trade-off. In practice you’re likely to get more variation from room effects than the minor dip the box possesses. The plinth dimensions can be altered as preferred of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also worked up a few alignments for this driver in addition to Scott’s which I have posted over over at this page.