Forums - Hardwood open baffles

Randy in Caintuck

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Hardwood open baffles
05/15/15 at 21:10:44

I will be retiring from the IT "gristmill" at the end of this year and plan to keep myself busy with a small hobby / business among other activities .....

If everything works out, there will be a quaint little storefront close to my home where I can showcase some of my open baffle loudspeaker creations as well as a few other audio related items ..... including a Decware amplifier or three. It will be evening hours only to accommodate music lovers on the prowl .....

The enterprise will not be about making money ..... just something to make me happy and something that I have wanted to do for a long time. Even if it's a money losing venture, I am prepared to finance it for a couple of years to get the "bug" out of my system .....

In the meantime, I went ahead and got my little business started and have been selling a few completed speakers and "flat pack" baffle kits locally and via my website.

I brought a pair of my open baffle prototypes to the recent Zen Fest and they were well received ..... working well with a variety of Decware amplifiers. I have been fine tuning them since then and have gotten them to sound even better ..... quite a bit better actually.

In addition to the red oak plywood baffles that I have been making, I have had requests for baffles in nice solid hardwoods. I have found a couple of suppliers who are able to provide boards in 18" widths ..... just right for the stuff I'm doing.

I just wanted to share some photos of my recent work with the forum members ..... enjoy

A basic red oak plywood baffle stained walnut

The rest are solid hardwood .....

Cherry

Soft maple

Walnut

Red oak

Tigerwood

Curly hard maple

Wenge

Curly red oak

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Zen Fest 2015 .....

Happy listening,

Randy

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Caintuck Audio Betsy Open Baffles
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Caintuck Audio Lii W-15 Magnum Open Bass Baffle

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Doorman Seasoned Member "pouring from the empty into the void" Posts: 450	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #1 - 05/15/15 at 23:26:51 Best of luck with your endeavour, your speakers are simple, elegant, and surely sound great. Many offerings started out in a similar fashion, but quickly forgot their real market, to go "upscale". Those look like they will make many music lovers very happy ! Don
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Palomino Seasoned Member Posts: 2507	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #2 - 05/15/15 at 23:30:16 Great looking baffles Randy!
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Lon Seasoned Member "Love without guts is worthless!" Philip K. Dick Posts: 25768	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #3 - 05/15/15 at 23:42:33 Those look great Randy! I especially like the Wenge. . .I have two guitars with Wenge necks and it's a great tone wood for instruments.
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Lonely Raven Seasoned Member Jack of all Trades, Master of None Posts: 3567	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #4 - 05/15/15 at 23:48:49 Awesome to hear, Randy!
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Randy in Caintuck

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Re: Hardwood open baffles
Reply #5 - 05/29/15 at 17:55:49

Howdy guys,

Thanks for the kind words .....

I recently finished another project that will probably end up being the "flagship" of my speaker line.

It uses a 10" midbass driver and a nice dipole AMT high frequency driver crossed over at 1800 HZ. One capacitor, one inductor and 94 db efficient ..... so it works very nicely with low powered amplifiers unless "head banging" SPLs are required .....

I call it the "Tombstone AMT" .....

Additional low end can be added (if needed) with a plate amp powered Hawthorne Audio Augie (as pictured) or an Eminence Alpha 15.

216 days and counting .....

Happy listening,

Randy

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Caintuck Audio Lii W-15 Magnum Open Bass Baffle

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Ace-Tone Seasoned Member 8+ years with Decware gear and Loving it!!! Posts: 775	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #6 - 05/29/15 at 18:45:25 Hey Randy, nice tombstones...good luck on the endeavour and retirement. I plan to retire July 2016' counting the days as well...what is your web site link ?
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Lonely Raven Seasoned Member Jack of all Trades, Master of None Posts: 3567	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #7 - 05/29/15 at 21:34:22 How many days is 18 years and 12 days to retirement? I have a ways to go... I just keep stuffing funds into the ol' 401k.
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Randy in Caintuck Seasoned Member Tube be ... or not tube be ... it's a no-brainer. Posts: 981	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #8 - 05/29/15 at 21:54:32 Hi Acetone, www.CaintuckAudio.com Best wishes, Randy
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Randy in Caintuck

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Tube be ... or not
tube be ... it's a
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Posts: 981

Re: Hardwood open baffles
Reply #9 - 06/01/15 at 00:13:43

I recently updated the Caintuck Audio website home page to include a link to the Decware Zen amplifiers and a hearty recommendation .....

At the 2014 Zen Fest, I was able to audition my "test mules" with the Rachel and the SuperZen (current version at that time). Both sounded very good to my ears. I was hoping to also hear them with the Torii and Mini Torii, but time did not allow.

I have always been a huge fan of the SV83 based Decware amplifiers and was more than happy to hear the current version "light up" my speakers .....

As previously mentioned, when I get my little audio boutique set up in 2016, I will have at least one model of Decware amplifier on hand for demo purposes ..... eventually a couple more as the market dictates.

Randy

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Cambridge Audio Azur 851N DAC / Streamer
Schiit Audio Saga+ preamplifier
Decware SE84UFO amplifier
Caintuck Audio Betsy Open Baffles
Caintuck Audio Lii Silver-10 Magnum Open Baffles
Caintuck Audio Lii W-15 Magnum Open Bass Baffle

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Palomino Seasoned Member Posts: 2507	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #10 - 06/01/15 at 18:35:51 Hey Randy, I got an email today from PureAudio which announces the successor to the Eminence 15A: http://www.pureaudioproject.com/product/15inch-open-baffle-bass-woofers/ You can buy these individually.
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Randy in Caintuck

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Posts: 981

Re: Hardwood open baffles
Reply #11 - 06/08/15 at 16:08:36

Very interesting .....

I might just have to order a couple of these drivers to see how they compare ..... but, I must say that they better be pretty good for the increase in price (especially since I buy the Alpha drivers at dealer cost).

The current drivers sound pretty good to my ears ..... plus I have the option of a 10", 12" or 15" version. Each of them has a slightly different sound and I have sold some of each to my customers.
The 10" drivers are especially good with acoustic instruments and vocals. The addition of a third baffle with a plate amp powered Hawthorne Augie or 15" Alpha makes for a very decent sounding "full range" system.

Happy listening,

Randy

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Cambridge Audio Azur 851N DAC / Streamer
Schiit Audio Saga+ preamplifier
Decware SE84UFO amplifier
Caintuck Audio Betsy Open Baffles
Caintuck Audio Lii Silver-10 Magnum Open Baffles
Caintuck Audio Lii W-15 Magnum Open Bass Baffle

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Steve Deckert Administrator If the 1st watt sucks why continue? Posts: 6397	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #12 - 06/20/15 at 04:31:47 It might be kind of cool if you made the baffle 4 inches thick, painted it with limestone colored texture paint, and engraved "Listen in Peace" on the front.
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darrwood Senior Member Posts: 63	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #13 - 10/10/15 at 23:41:31 Hay Randy I have fostex 6.5s in a BIB enclosure, I was looking at your ob's and wondered if the tweeters you use could be added to mine if it would help or possibly the ob subs to add low end what are their characteristics?
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Randy in Caintuck

Seasoned Member

Tube be ... or not
tube be ... it's a
no-brainer.

Posts: 981

Re: Hardwood open baffles
Reply #14 - 10/12/15 at 17:42:43

Hi darrwood,

I use several different tweeters in the various baffles I am building.
I would imagine that you are just looking to supplement the top end of your Fostex drivers ..... essentially a "super tweeter".

Parts Express carries all of the tweeters I am currently using.
The driver in the "Tombstone" baffle is the Dayton AMT.
The domes are Vifa / Tymphany.

You might want to get some of the Dayton Audio 250V Precision Audio Capacitors in a few different values and use some wires with alligator clips to dial in the crossover point for the high frequency drivers.

A good calculator to give you a starting crossover point can be found here.

After you find the crossover point that sounds best in your system, you can get some "boutique caps" in that value, but the Dayton caps are not too shabby ..... especially considering the price.

Open baffle bass is "different" than boxed bass and I happen to like it very much. Hawthorne Audio sells the Augie drivers in 10" and 15" versions and you can power them with a plate amp or one of the very fine sounding Crown power amps that don't cost an arm and a leg .....

A system with a Decware power amplifier, my open baffles and a plate amp powered Augie went over very well at the recent Capital Audio Fest.

Best wishes,

Randy

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Cambridge Audio Azur 851N DAC / Streamer
Schiit Audio Saga+ preamplifier
Decware SE84UFO amplifier
Caintuck Audio Betsy Open Baffles
Caintuck Audio Lii Silver-10 Magnum Open Baffles
Caintuck Audio Lii W-15 Magnum Open Bass Baffle

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darrwood Senior Member Posts: 63	Re: Hardwood open baffles Reply #15 - 10/13/15 at 03:59:35 Thanks Randy
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