Anyone been to open baffle and come back?

[paulspencer]

I have, but I'm having withdrawal symptoms!

I made a thread about a test of converting my conventional hifi speakers into OB - 2 way TLs + sub converted into 2 way OB + H frame dipole woofer. I compensated for dipole effects with ultracurve, although I didn't really need much compensation at all.

FYI here is the thread:
Strange OB dipole behaviour ...

I put my drivers back in their boxes because I couldn't live with the size of the OB panels. Narrow speakers look right for the room, wide open baffles don't. Now what I have found is the soundstage is small. I'm missing the ambience, the transparency as if the sound were filling the room - now it sounds like I'm back to sound coming from the speakers.

The bass from the dipole woofers was beyond what I thought my drivers were capable of - very tight and accurate.

There were a few problems apart from size. The main panels started rolling off around 200 Hz, so the mains had to run lower than ideal and the subs had to run higher than I'd like. Hence the lower midrange was not quite right. Given the overall improvement, I didn't notice this at first, but after a number of weeks of listening it became annoying.

I'm curious - has anyone tried open baffle and been able to say it wasn't your preference? Forget aesthetics and size - I'm talking about performance?

For me, I think OB will most likely be my ultimate, and I expect I will return later to design my ultimate music and HT system with a sub bass horn, midbass dipole woofers and 2 way open baffle dipole.

[planet10]

Originally posted by paulspencer
....I couldn't live with the size of the OB panels....
I'm curious - has anyone tried open baffle and been able to say it wasn't your preference? Forget aesthetics and size - I'm talking about performance?

I couldn't live with the size... but i can say that overall i prefer my RonHorn A126. In the end it comes down to the superior mids of the Fostex....

But like you there is a 3-way active project in the background... JX150 LF, Fostex FE108eS open baffle as wide range as possible & a ribbon T. One of the keys to making that work is getting an XO that doesn't get in the way....

dave

[el`Ol]

Hello Paul!
I have tried OB and I have converted to radial. In my opinion this is a clear plus in imaging, but I prefer the OB bass compared to TQWT. If I would be going to try a multi-way OB I would be using the Ciare CW250 and BG Neo8 with 800Hz x-over.
(both 4 Ohm, no dispersion bottleneck at the x-over point, matching sensitivity).
Greets, Oliver

[slowmotion]

I'm using open baffles from 300Hz and down at the moment.
I don't think I could go back to boxes....

cheers

[paulspencer]

Oliver, what do you mean by radial?

[el`Ol]

In a radial setup the drivers are facing the floor or the ceiling, usually combined with a reflector cone:
http://www.cd-konzert.de
but this is not essential:
http://www.bolzano-villetri.com

I am using the Ciare HX201 fullrange driver, which is kind of a low-Qts version of the Visaton B200, resulting in an even more extreme rise in the treble, making it unsuitable on axis without correction. The wooden ceiling in my listening room is the reflector. Maybe I am lucky this worked in my room.
I haven`t read a really convincing explanation what is the point about radials, yet. My personal belief is that the radius of a wavefront is perceived by interaural time delay and so it is essential to have the same acoustic center over the whole frequency range.

[noodle_snacks]

no comment at this point in time in terms of front speakers, but i build a dual 15in, push pull H-Frame and equalised it with my BFD. I ultimately prefered the equalised response of my horns. The OB sub was more transparent sounding, and the freedom from room modes was pleasent however it had limited power handling, poor efficiency and seemed to do worse in the harmonic distortion stakes. Ultimately the smoother frequency resposne that could be gained was pointless, i listen alone and equalise things flat anyway.

[barfind]

I started my OB journey with these


But after 12 baffles and 2 years I am now to this


All I can say is if you are commited to getting the best out of your drivers, you can achieve amazing results. I will never go back to boxs.

Nigel

[mashaffer]

Just a thought but if size was a problem maybe you should try some drivers for the mains that have a higher Q so that you can use smaller baffles. What was the Q of the woofers for your mains? If they were in a box originally they probably aren't optimal for OB.

Lets say you could get woofers with Q over 1.0 in a small baffle that could get you down to 40 or 50Hz then you could use a box sub (read smaller) below that or build something into a piece of furniture so that it is unobtrusive. That way you get most of the musical advantage of OB with compromise where needed for lifestyle integration.

mike

[paulspencer]

I see now - you mean omnidirectional speakers. Linkwitz talks about this on his site with respect to his pluto speakers. He considers this to be the next best thing to OB, if the room is fairly neutral.

JJ, the issues with output can be handled with more drivers and higher excursion, but apart from this did you like the sound better and find them more accurate?

Barfind, what drivers?

Mashaffer, drivers are mid Qts. Where the rolloff begins at 200 hz due to baffle size, not sure how I'm going to get any better with higher Qts.

I could think about transparent extensions to the baffle ... hmmmm