Hi Steffen,

Mounting the drivers in baffles will definitely increase the bass output.
The combination of the baffle surface and coupling to the floor will make a BIG difference.

As to the addition of the ISO Acoustic Gaias, I can't address that.
Some of my customers use cones, spikes, etc. under their baffles and are happy with the results.

Your mileage may vary ..... so please share your findings .....

Best wishes,
Randy

Time to write about my experience with the Lii Audio 12 inch drivers in an open baffle shape similar to the Open Betsy design but a litte bit bigger + angled.

My setup on beforehand has been book shelf speakers on stands near the wall so that my kids cannot accidentally knock them down. But the problem is that the speakers have been very far away and so close to the wall that the sound wasn’t great.

So I thought about adding some Klipsch Heresys in the room as they cannot be kicked around so easily around (+ they are not so high and slightly tilted towards the listener) but the price just hold me back. Although I was quite intrigued to have high efficiency speaker in my home.

After stumbling over open baffle designs and full-range drivers the combination between easy-to-build, no-crossover to build and low to the floor + inexpensive I was all in!
By the way: Thanks to Darren and Duncan from thehifipodcast.net to pointing me to this great forum!

After building the baffle design back in December and letting the driver brought in I was really floored by the great soundstage and holographic experience. For the first time I get the idea about imaging and how a voice can be center-imaging in the room! So great. Something which would not been the case if I pulled the speakers not into the room. But the low profile design simply allow this + I do not have problems with my wife by doing so :-D

The only thing which was missing was low base. After adding a REL T/7x the design was complete! And I am so happy by the results.

I also decoupled the baffles by using 3 ISO Acoustic ISO-Pucks per speaker. With this it seems that sound is a little bit clearer.

So to sum up: I can’t recommend the Betsy Baffle design from caintuckaudio.com enough! There are this great! I would easily recommend those baffles to my buddies here in Germany but I guess shipping them to Europe would be a problem for Randy.

BTW: Randy: Do you offer a donation service for the things you doing here for the community?

Best,
Steffen

Hi Steffen,

Absolutely beautiful ..... nice work .....

No contributions needed ..... I am more than happy to share my experience and design with the DIY music loving community.

I have shipped speakers and baffles to Germany and a dozen other international locations, but the shipping cost and VAT make it very expensive ..... so I usually recommend the DIY option or having a local craftsman build the baffles.

Happy listening,
Randy

Hi Gino,
I also thought about to protect the drivers but I will keep them as they are. My youngest son is now very carefully with them (he says watched me from inside as I am building these beauties in our garden) and may he is now so impressed that he is afraid to damage them :-D.
Best, Steffen