Pipette Speaker Build Thread

[Doc B.]

I have not tried the Orcas on 4 ohms. But I agree the speakers sound different. I find the Orcas have that Fostex/Lowther high quality pulp cone presentation of a prominent sense of presence that adds some excitement to the original tonal balance of a song and can indeed emphasize frequencies in the vocal range. It's likely that a 4 ohm setting might emphasize this a bit more, but you just have to smoke it and see. To my ear the Pipettes are oriented to a more laid back, perhaps more wideband presentation more typical of metal cone drivers. They can get a little full in the upper bass on 8 ohms and the 4 ohm secondary can help eliminate this.

[oguinn]

I went ahead and made the change last night. Two things jumped out: 1) I agree with your assessment. The mid-bass is less prominent in a way I appreciate. 2) it turns out I was listening to a remaster of Speaking In Tongues and so the bad things I was afraid of when listening yesterday are 100% attributable to a crappy remix.

Liking these speakers!

[mjabloner]

I checked the driver position relative to the front- does it sit proud or recess? It sits, when using the gasket that comes with the driver, flush to a little proud.

I changed the manual and put some guidance on how to tell when you got the driver installed secure.  Not too tight or too loose. 

[oguinn]

I sent an email last night, but I didn’t include the gaskets since the manual said they were optional (and because I missed the first one so I decided to skip the second). If the recommendation is to have the gaskets on I can add them.

[Doc B.]

Being as it is a pipe speaker and hence it is not quite so critical in terms of being air tight as other cabinet types you can leave the gaskets out and probably be just fine. My handwaving theory is that along with sealing the flange the gaskets might create a bit of a squishy/lossy layer between the driver frame and the cabinet that could help to limit the energy transfer between the driver and the box. So I used them on my pair.

[soundsliketubes]

How do you think these would work with a 1 watt amplifier, like a Linear Tube Audio MicroZOTL (Berning design) headphone amp that has a 1-watt speaker set up?  The 85db efficiency makes me wonder if they will get loud enough with 1 watt?  Or maybe I got that 85db efficiency number wrong.

[Doc B.]

Yes they will play up to 85dB with 1 watt. It's really, really hard to know if that will be loud enough for your taste if you are not familiar with how loud a given dB level sounds, but 82dB is the average listening level in a mastering studio. Peaks may go way louder than that for an instant.

I don't have any experience with the 1W amp you mention with headphones or speakers. The last Berning amp I heard was about 20 yeas ago and I think it was 10W. Sounded great by the way. If you have tried the 1W amp with 87 or 89 dB speakers and liked it I think it will work fine for you with the Pipettes. I have used them with a 2 watt S.E.X. amp and it works just fine. If you have tried the 1W amp with 104dB horns and liked it it's really difficult to say if it will drive the Pipettes loud enough for your taste. These are intended to be near field/small room/apartment/desktop speakers. Though I will say they are doing a pretty nice job in my 20'x25' room with a small subwoofer.

[4krowme]

  I got the Bottlehead update for this speaker in my email and am a great fan of Mark Audio drivers. The one question that I have is about which model driver is being used.

[Doc B.]

They are the Alpair 5 gen 3