I wouldn’t take his opinion of Wharfedale as an indicator of what his products are like. In the full range arena, he does an excellent job. And he also just states opinions on what he "knows". He may not have access to or know the labs from vendors such as Focal, B&W, Wilson, etc.
There are a multitude of youtube videos with Mark Audio speakers. However, there’s only one with the 12P and it uses a very mild recording from a turntable. Not really the best to showcase this speaker.
I used the 12P and made a center channel speaker. Being a full range paper cone, it was slightly soft in the very high frequencies. Using Cardas rhodium binding posts and Furutech rhodium disconnect clips helped tremendously with the high frequency extension (also removing those connection extenders on the MarkAudio speaker). The result is a very excellent, accurate and revealing speaker. I also recommend using a solid-core type of speaker cable for internal, such as Audioquest Rocket 44/88.
I did go on to engineer and build a replacement set of speakers because the Mark Audio was slightly soft in the highs (this was before I switched to rhodium binding/clips -- I originally had gold-plated connectors and binding posts). I used a variation of the Seas Thor speaker. Used 7" Seas Excel magnesium cone woofers and the Seas soft dome tweeter. It did do very well in the high frequencies, but the magnesium drivers have a bright breakup at around 5khz that needs to be handled with a notch filter.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge Seas fan. They make excellent drivers. However, I have heard a lot of full range drivers and wizzer cones. While some may like them and they do full range well, the wizzer cones all come with compromises and problems. Additionally, a woofer designed to play well down low will always have problems in the upper frequencies (such as above 2khz). Look at any Scanspeak woofer and you will see a really bad response above 1-2khz. However, they are awsome between 50 and 900 hz.
In the end, I would rather listen to the Mark Audio 12P instead of a higher priced over engineered driver such as the Seas. I think the Mark Audio is just going to sound more natural and "real" than the breakup and wizzer cones of the Seas.
There are a multitude of youtube videos with Mark Audio speakers. However, there’s only one with the 12P and it uses a very mild recording from a turntable. Not really the best to showcase this speaker.
I used the 12P and made a center channel speaker. Being a full range paper cone, it was slightly soft in the very high frequencies. Using Cardas rhodium binding posts and Furutech rhodium disconnect clips helped tremendously with the high frequency extension (also removing those connection extenders on the MarkAudio speaker). The result is a very excellent, accurate and revealing speaker. I also recommend using a solid-core type of speaker cable for internal, such as Audioquest Rocket 44/88.
I did go on to engineer and build a replacement set of speakers because the Mark Audio was slightly soft in the highs (this was before I switched to rhodium binding/clips -- I originally had gold-plated connectors and binding posts). I used a variation of the Seas Thor speaker. Used 7" Seas Excel magnesium cone woofers and the Seas soft dome tweeter. It did do very well in the high frequencies, but the magnesium drivers have a bright breakup at around 5khz that needs to be handled with a notch filter.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge Seas fan. They make excellent drivers. However, I have heard a lot of full range drivers and wizzer cones. While some may like them and they do full range well, the wizzer cones all come with compromises and problems. Additionally, a woofer designed to play well down low will always have problems in the upper frequencies (such as above 2khz). Look at any Scanspeak woofer and you will see a really bad response above 1-2khz. However, they are awsome between 50 and 900 hz.
In the end, I would rather listen to the Mark Audio 12P instead of a higher priced over engineered driver such as the Seas. I think the Mark Audio is just going to sound more natural and "real" than the breakup and wizzer cones of the Seas.