BIB vs OB

[Godzilla]

Has anyone compared a BIB to an Open Baffle design. I am curious how a BIB using a 6 or 8 inch full range driver would differ from an OB using the same 6 or 8 inch full range driver plus one or two 12 or 15 inch woofers. Both designs take up space but which is better? Which provides fuller bass? Or are they both effective solutions?

Godzilla

[fergs1]

Yes Godzilla come over to the dark side But be warned its a one way journey

peace and goodwill fergs

[Scottmoose]

I never did like the word 'better.'

Both are good; they're just different. Although the BIB does have an almost dipole-like presentation in the LF. Don't ask me why because the physics are the exact reverse, but that's what it sounds like.

Personally, I tend to favour the horns. But the baffles come close. We're back to personal preference again.

[cuibono]

I've recently built a BOFU BIB, and an open baffle using visaton B200/Alpha 15, but not used in the same room...

I prefer OB for its more natural presentation of space. I think flattening an OB frequency response would be easier too- the bass in the BIB was very plentiful, but somewhat uneven, and ultimately less life-like. Both have peculiarities when it comes to room placement...

[Vix]

Hi Jeff!

Nice to read your posts again. I hope that you have fully recovered, and can go back to speaker building again.

It seems that you could be the one to build an OB speaker, and compare it to the BiB. Then let us know which one you like

Martin's OB: http://www.quarter-wave.com/OBs/OB_Design.pdf

It's pretty good, and it seems to be that some folks who enjoyed horns before, are now happy with those OB's.

(If I am not mistaken, Ronc is using these OB's at the moment)

Regards,

Vix

[FlorianO]

I've been looking like crazy for an OB setup that could be good for large scale music with macrodynamics (i.e. no go for: Silver Iris/B200/Supravox/Lowther/Supravox/insert_your_fav_WB, BLHs, etc) and .... enventually ended up looking at ... yes, don't laugh -- iBIBs. Like this one for example.

So the 1000$ question is: Any midrange smear do to horn loading or not ?

Florian

[Scottmoose]

Bass horns shouldn't be operating in the midrange.

[FlorianO]

Originally posted by Scottmoose
Bass horns shouldn't be operating in the midrange.

Errm... Not sure I get you there: Horn loading occurs only under a given frequency, that much I understand. Moreover, the woofers in that design are low passed. Also, given the T/S params of Troels mid it has a F3 of 268 Hz (low Qts i.e. 0.22), so the horn loading for that driver would be much smaller, comparatively (again, if I understand it correctly)

My worry was if the back radiation on the two woof's would modulate the mid.

So, again, I can't really read what you mean...

[Kensai]

Yeah, Zilla, you should be doing the comparison. Take those TB Bamboos you've got kicking about, and build an OB fullranger+woofer a la MJK. They're lower efficiency than Fostex stuff, so you should be able to us some much cheaper Goldwood 12" or 15" drivers for bass instead of the Eminence (and get deeper bass to boot).

Kensai

[lousymusician]

Originally posted by FlorianO
I've been looking like crazy for an OB setup that could be good for large scale music with macrodynamics (i.e. no go for: Silver Iris/B200/Supravox/Lowther/Supravox/insert_your_fav_WB, BLHs, etc) and .... enventually ended up looking at ... yes, don't laugh -- iBIBs. Like this one for example.

So the 1000$ question is: Any midrange smear do to horn loading or not ?

Florian

I'm not sure I'd dismiss the Silver Iris on the basis of macrodynamics. That's something they do pretty well! After all, you're talking about a horn-loaded compression driver and a 15" woofer derived from a pro-sound driver. Some may not find them to have the suavest tweeter around, but dynamics they've got, and they are purpose built for OB duty.

Bill