I keep seeing different people commenting that they are wanting to try open baffle speakers. Is this the new trend, or is this the new CB radio?
The funny thing is that I'm playing my homemade OB's (nicknamed Angies) as I type this.
Am I some kind of trend setter? lol.
Truthfully, the sound coming out of these things is pretty doggone good, even more so no that they are getting a few hours on them.
This started just as a project to keep me occupied, but ended up changing my mind about "boxless" sound. There is some sort of inherent goodness to this sound.
Almost good enough for me to consider selling my MG944's, almost.
Anyway, trend or fad, I would at least recommend everyone to give a pair a listen.

While we are here, how much space around them do open baffles need?

That is weird.
must be Gremlins.
I just received some pure audio project tb-15 Neo's
and I am so happy I tried these, never even heard an open baffle and was skeptical.
They are so real and open and detailed and honest.
Everything is so tight and full and the sound stage is huge.
I am now going to try the Voxativ driver in place of the Tang Band.
No turning back from these, they have the sound I have been searching for.

I am currently using the SE34I.5 Rachael.
I have plenty of headroom on most all of my recordings.
If you like extreme volume levels than a pre-amp would probably give just enough gain to accomplish this with some lower recorded music.
It drives the speakers beautifully with a full rich sound.
I ordered a TORII Junior a few weeks back before I decided to get these.
I am anxious to here it with these speakers, more of a great thing I am sure.

Donnie/Pal...are either of you using diffusion on the front wall behind the OB's to diffuse the rear wave?  I think P McGowan stated that this improves SS depth significantly, but wondering what your experience has been.

I heard Randy's open baffles in his shop.   Beautiful, open sound.  And have been intrigued ever since.  I don't have a dedicated room, but luckily my spouse is tolerant of my speakers being about 48" from the front wall, so I think I could go the OB approach.  Some folks say rule of thirds for open baffle speakers (30% into the room), but I can't do that in my current space.

I have always been a fan of Magnepans at moderate volumes.  Unfortunately they don't do low volume well (at least in my experience) and that's how I listen these days.  Needing a monster amp isn't ideal either ; )

No treatment required when pulled out 5 1/2 ft or more.
IME too much treatment takes away some of the benefit of OB.

I have a really small room 9 x 12.  I have my OB's 30 inches from the back wall with defuser's.  The defuser's make a big difference for me.  Without them I get to much back wall reflection and this affects how the OB's image.  With them I get a big sound stage with very good imaging.

Thanks Lin,  I have not herd of LCS.  Would you please explain it to me and tell me how I might implement it.  If you want to see pictures of my room I posted some in the Members system picture gallery under My Zen room.

LOL...if it pleases you, that's all that matters.  Mark.

Rich,
I looked at your pictures, if you like the sound no reason to change.

Late ceiling splash basically uses 2 pairs of box speakers, one set up as normal and another pair on the floor behind firing up. Depending upon the speakers and amp, you can run both pair parallel off the main amp or use a chip amp or whatever for the "splash" speakers. The path length from floor to ceiling to listening position is over 11' so our ears/brain perceive it as a positive reverberant field. Early reflections have a negative impact on listening because they are confusing to the ears/brain.
Google it for more information.

Aren't the surround sound guys shooting sound up too?
I could take my rear baffle and aim it upward..... Hmmmm?

Donnie wrote on 06/08/16 at 01:40:26:


Yes, Dolby Atmos enabled speaker shoot in an upward position ... I'm not sure if that's geared more towards movies, music or both though.

ProggRob wrote on 06/08/16 at 02:37:20:


Thanks for bringing these up Rob (I was trying to think of them earlier).  The concept of this design seems a bit better than the Omega (though to be fair the Omega's are trying to be Omni directional rather than dealing with LCS).  But the Audio Kinesis puts the second set of drivers near the floor to create a delay to the ceiling ~ which goes back to Lin's remark of placing a set on the floor firing up ... as somebody could do it on their own to similar effect.

Haven't heard a Spatial Audio speaker... but I am 100% smitten by open baffle sound after 40+ years of seeking the audio holy grail.  
My custom OB's go one step further than the Spatial's, which use compression drivers and crossovers, where I'm crossover-less with full-range drivers for mid/highs, augmented with OB bass drivers low-passed with a electronic xover (so are the Spatials).  
If you have a table saw, a router and a little spare time - you can build a Spatial Audio "Lumina" type speaker for approximately $3k, excluding xover for bass drivers, and amp/s for bass drivers.  
Will they sound like, as good, better, worse than the $24.5k Lumina - who knows... but worth a try if you're into DIY.

After a couple of months of my OB's playing every day I can say that I really like them.
Today I'm going to plug my MG944's back into place to compare and contrast.
I am thinking that I have at least one pair of speakers too many (4 pair). But the idea of loaning out my MG's to friends so that they can hear what a great pair of speakers sound like is running through my head.
If someone catches me in a good mood, I might even give them away.

I posted a mini review of the Spatials in the Axpona 2016 thread (on 2nd page in the general discussion forum).  Reply #20.

Beowolf,

 I am probably on your side of the fence when it comes to pairing drivers. But of course, there are those exceptions to be had. My experience with co-axial drivers hasn't been so good, and it would seem to me to be the opposite. As it turns out, one set of drivers that I tried isn't been manufactured any longer, maybe due to this fact. Presently, I am playing with a set of Audio Nirvana 8" full range drivers. As much as I like them, it surprising to me how much better that the FRX2 drivers sound. Then again, the ZOB was designed for these drivers. I guess that I can't just 'plug in' just any driver and expect the same results. FWIW, the AN drivers are not broken in yet, and I am far from experimenting with them.

4krow wrote on 07/13/16 at 23:30:25:


I've been following your FRX/AN thread in the ZOB forum and I've also seen you post about the FRX2 before a few times so I know you really like them.  That's one speaker driver that's on my list to hear one of these days!  I've never heard the Audio Nirvana either, but it looks as if it doesn't have a whizzer ... I'm just wondering if there is any beaming with that size driver and no whizzer?

Afraid I'm on the merry go round.  Because of the return policy for the Spatial's (60 days and you have to keep them 45 before you can return them.)  I'm gonna give the M3 Turbo S a try.   I've got a pair of Cornwall's that I've tweaked and worked on where they sound pretty sweet where they are.  Actually, placement and getting them 1/4 inch off the floor has really made a great improvement.   In truth, I'm almost afraid.  Four pair of speakers might doom my wife's patience with this hobby.  But, as said, I've been drawn to the open baffle concept since I was a kid of 12 just playing around. Didn't know there was a term for my attempts until a few years ago.  And, because what I envisioned and the components I wanted to use for my version of the Trio 15 would be more than $2,000.00, I figure why not give them a listen.  I'll post back in a few weeks after I get them and give them a few weeks burn in.  Thanks for your thoughts.

OBs look tempting but everything I look at the specs all I can think is dang, I'll need a subwoofer.

Audio Nirvana has 3 "series" of full-rangers.  the SCF (super cast frame) series, which have whizzers, the newer "Classic" series, which do not have whizzers and also a newer model he calls the "horn series".

I have three different pairs of the SCF series.  I have one pair of Alnico SCF's and two pairs of the Ferrite SCF model.  I purposely bought the Alnico model and installed them in a DIY 5.6 cu.ft. bass-reflex box of Dicks' recommendation/design.  These were a revelation for me and set my feet on the path of enlightenment to crossover-less wide-banders and Decware amplification.

Later, after exposure to RandyInCaintuck, my path was altered again slightly to running wide-banders in open baffles.  Here I have remained for going on 3 years now.  I haven't heard anything better.

Audio Nirvana/CommonSenseAudio is located in my state - MO.  Dicks claims the new Classic series AN drivers are the best overall, and he claims the 15" Alnico model is the best of them all.  
I have the 15" SCF ferrite model in my OB's.  I came by these drivers by accident, when a local guy lost patience with dialing/tuning them for a bass-reflex implementation.  I replaced the 15" coaxial drivers in a pair of Hawthorne Trio's I have, with the 15" AN's as a "try it and see", as I could never get the stock coaxial drivers to "come to life" like the crossover-less wide-banders. Once again, I was very impressed with the sound.  I still have the 12" SCF Alnico's in a box, but the OB's with the 15" AN full-rangers have become my reference.  I need to take the 12" Alnico's out of the reflex box and put them in my OB's and see how they sound compared to the 15" ferrite's - so much tinkering to do - so little time... someday....

It's on my list to travel over to CommonSenseAudio and check out the Classic series drivers.  I chose the 12" Alnico SCF AN drivers I first bought, unheard, by studying the response graphs.  The 12 "measures" smoother in the upper half of the frequency band than the 15" that Dicks claimed was the best at the time.  I have been happy with these 12" Alnicos in the bass-reflex box I built for them.  But like all, or nearly all wide-banders, they have a rising response that starts in the upper mids.  And the top measures pretty jagged - but they do not "sound" this way to the human ear - only to a microphone.  This is where the Decware Torii, made for wide-banders, comes into play and allows one to dial in the sound and compensate for their rising response.  In my room, driven by my Torii, a calibrated microphone and RTA software can't find much wrong with the frequency response I'm getting at the listening position - my ears can't find much to complain about either...!

Again, studying published response graphs for the AN drivers, the new Classic series AN drivers measure considerably smoother, and have significantly less rise in the mid/high frequency region than darn near all wide-banders.  So I probably need to travel over to CommonSenseAudio and give these new Classic series drivers a listen... which will probably lead to another upgrade - argh!...  :)

Yes, the merry go round is a lot of fun.  But sometimes I get dizzy.   The return policy on the Spatial's is 60 days, but you can't get an RMA until you've had them 45 days.  I was told it is because a lot of people purchase gear, listen for thirty minutes and throw in the towel.  I read on one of the magazine reviews where the idea was to give them time to burn in, loosen up, etc. before making the decision to send them back.   I've chatted with several owners who bet me that if I give them a decent chance, I'll not be sending them back.  We shall see.  

I should explain. The photo that you are seeing is just another experiment using the FRX2 as the main driver with the AN 8" covering the rear port hole ( to load it's cone), and using an electronic crossover and bass amp. Interesting experiment, but I am still trying dial in the lower half.