New Pipette Build

[benzxc]

Here is a photo of my Pipette build.

It was a a lot of fun; about two to three hours of assembly time.  The only minor issue that I encountered was the connector between the drivers and the binding posts.  The connector did not fit very well with them and I am constantly worried about them falling off the spades of the binding posts or off the drivers.  I may need to use pliers or something to get them to fit better.

Very fun project and they look fantastic.  I am driving them with Stereomour at 8ohms; remember reading somewhere that Doc recommends using the 4ohms.  May do that down the road but I am enjoying what is coming out right now.

[benzxc]

https://imgur.com/a/QwcxUpK

For some reason I am having difficulty uploading photos.

[AllenS]

Nice job! How do you like the sound?

[benzxc]

I like the sound very much.  They sound very clean and tight but the lack of bass is noticeable.  I have them sitting on the floor and notice I like the sound a great deal more when I sit on the floor and the drivers are ear level.

I had a pair of Orcas and they have very similar sound signature but I prefer the Pipettes a bit more (not sure if this is because I assembled the Pipettes myself but...).  But Orcas are probably easier to get to ear level, which is a bit trickier with Pipettes unless you are installing them on the wall?

I added in one of my open baffle bass drivers into the mix (see photo) and the sound is fantastic now.  I am just sitting on the floor about one meter away from the speakers and listening to music.  The drivers have about 8 hours on them right now so apparently they are not broken in yet, but they are making music right now. 

Driving them with the Stereomour II and get decent volume when I sit very near (1 meter).  I have no desire to change the transformer from current 8ohm to 4ohm.  Great fun and great sound.

https://imgur.com/a/AP1SfR0

[Doc B.]

They look great! The Mark Audio terminals are a little odd size-wise. You can indeed crimp the quick disconnect connectors on the speaker wiring just a wee bit to get them to fit the terminals on the drivers more snugly.  You may find that the felt diffraction rings help a little with the desire to get the sound more like it is coming from ear level. I'm still experimenting with them myself. Thinner and thicker felts have been tried with the current thickness seeming to sound best. I will be trying a ring the same thickness that covers more of the front baffle around the tweeter when I find the time to make them. If they pan out we will offer them as a retrofit.

Tweaking these guys has been an interesting process. I've found that some tweaks that should work on paper - like a zobel - go totally the wrong way. The amount that the diffraction felt thickness changes the sound has been much greater than anticipated too. Theory only gets you so far and then you have to smoke it and see. Room placement has been interesting as well. Even little guys like these can give very different bass response curves as you move them around the room. The cool part is that they are super easy to move!

[benzxc]

So after a few days of listening I decided that my OB bass driver was not a good match with the Pipettes (the bass driver being 15") and it was hard to integrate them.  I took the bass driver out of the system and soon realized that I did not really miss the lack of bass on the Pipettes, they sound quite nice by themselves. Perhaps they have been broken in?

Obviously with certain types of music, I notice the lack of bass a bit more than others, so I ordered a Subette and the Sublime. Cannot wait until they ship and arrive. Hopefully they integrate with the Pipettes better than my OB bass driver.

I don't have the Orcas anymore (sold them years ago) so I am going on memory, but the more I listen to the Pipettes, the less I find them similar with the Orcas. I am terrible at describing sound and how I hear sound but Pipettes have more delicate high frequencies and, just by themselves, I think the Pipettes have better bass... Again, this is all from memory but I can quite confidently say I like the Pipettes much more than the Orcas, which I sold. I have no intention of selling the Pipettes.