The Alpair 12P would likely fail in bass response given a conventional cabinet, i.e. ported, bass reflex, sealed box. I was actually expecting that sort of performance from them regardless of the fact that they were being mounted in a folded horn. If I had no experience with folded horns in the past, I would come to the same conclusion as you. FWIW, I owned a pair of JBL 4343, you know, the ones with 15" woofers? Never could get decent bass performance from them. Owned them in 3 separate houses, with different amplification too. Yah, I wouldn't have believed it either.
There's a lot more bass in a 6.5" driver than most of you think
One topic of discussion I often see new audiophiles touch on is whether to get larger speakers for more bass.
I usually suggest they tune the room first, then re-evaluate. This is based on listening and measurement in several apartments I’ve lived in. Bigger speakers can be nothing but trouble if the room is not ready.
In particular, I often claim that the right room treatment can make smaller speakers behave much larger. So, to back up my claims I’d like to submit to you my recent blog post here:
https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-snr-1-room-response-and-roon.html
Look at the bass response from those little drivers! :)
I admit for a lot of listeners these speakers won’t seem as punchy as you might like, but for an apartment dweller who does 50/50 music and theater they are ideal for me. If you’d like punchy, talk to Fritz who aligns his drivers with more oomf in the bass.
I usually suggest they tune the room first, then re-evaluate. This is based on listening and measurement in several apartments I’ve lived in. Bigger speakers can be nothing but trouble if the room is not ready.
In particular, I often claim that the right room treatment can make smaller speakers behave much larger. So, to back up my claims I’d like to submit to you my recent blog post here:
https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-snr-1-room-response-and-roon.html
Look at the bass response from those little drivers! :)
I admit for a lot of listeners these speakers won’t seem as punchy as you might like, but for an apartment dweller who does 50/50 music and theater they are ideal for me. If you’d like punchy, talk to Fritz who aligns his drivers with more oomf in the bass.