Seas Excel W22's in open baffle, need more midbass "oomph"

[Toaster]

Thanks again Derek- food for thought!

 

[sfdoddsy]

I've been experimenting with open baffle for quite some time now, first with two Seas Excel W22's mated with a Vifa XT25 tweeter per channel. Midrange was severely lacking so I added a Seas Excel W15CY per side to play 300hz-2250hz. Now it sounds incredible but I am seriously lacking in the midbass region. The W22's play 120hz-300hz while six Acoustic Elegance OB15's play everything below 120hz. I have experimented with going as high as 150hz with the AE 15's and may just try crossing over at 300hz to cut out the W22's all together. But I would like to avoid this, I have a soft spot for the W22's Is anyone boosting the lower end of the W22's with eq to compensate for the missing midbass?

I have read Linkwitz' Orion build documentation and I do not remember him doing anything special with the W22 low end, though it has been about a year since I've reviewed those notes. I was also thinking about sealing them to help with output. I have been playing around with REW and my MiniDSP but it does not really show any deficit in the W22's coverage, perhaps I need to look for more REW tutorials or my hearing is skewed. Would love to hear the ramblings of my fellow DIY'ers who have used W22 Excels in an open baffle. Thanks!

It sounds like you are not EQing the W22s at all. You should.

Linkwitz adds 26db of gain (although the xover reduces the total amount) and your thinner baffles would need even more.

I used a pair of W22s in my Phoenix-based speakers crossing at 120Hz and didn't notice any lack of mid-bass impact.

I still have them and plan to reuse them if I ever DIY again.

 

[architect7]

Thank you for all of the replies! I am on vacation (don't tell my wife that I am surfing the 'net but I plan to sit down and address everyone's feedback early next week. Thanks!!!

 

[Bob Richards]

I've been experimenting with open baffle for quite some time now... Is anyone boosting the lower end of the W22's with eq to compensate for the missing midbass?

I have read Linkwitz' Orion build documentation and I do not remember him doing anything special with the W22 low end, though it has been about a year since I've reviewed those notes. I was also thinking about sealing them to help with output. Would love to hear the ramblings of my fellow DIY'ers who have used W22 Excels in an open baffle. Thanks!

I didn't use the same drivers you used in my OB system, but I believe it's pretty universally true that any OB system will need an upward EQ of about 6dB per octave, starting below about 500HZ (Linkwitz does have this), depending on the baffle step acoustic response.

Since the off axis response rolls off as frequency goes down even after the standard OB EQ is applied to flatten the on-axis response, they still don't illuminate the room as well (as evenly) in the low end, so on top of the active OB EQ I also turn up the bass and lower mid tone controls on my preamp a little bit until it sounds the way I want it.

You can see my OB system, The Aurium Waveguide, at:
Bob's Website