Open Baffle Driver Recomendations Please

[Albert]

I am really wanting to get into open baffle speakers and wondered if anyone has any experience with the Eminence Beta 15CX coaxial speakers in open baffle or in any kind of enclosure. Would anyone have any other suggestions on a high QTS 15" full range driver or coax that would work in an open baffle?

Thanks,

Albert

 

[Pan]

Almost any driver will work in open baffle mounting.

The issue is how loud you can play in the low range with a specific driver as you have cancelation on the open baffle that you do not have in a box.

So in the end you need good x-max and/or high Sd of the cone/cones.

/Peter

 

[hurdy_gurdyman]

>Almost any driver will work in open baffle mounting<

Any speaker might play in an open baffle, but a low Q driver will have a very thin sounding bass without using eq (unless you use a lot of them). It's generally recomended to use drivers of .5 Qts or higher to get decent bass without eq.
High x-max is a good plus if you plan on playing loud.
Dave

 

[Pan]

Since EQ "must" be used anyway it does not matter much to me.

I use Q 0.35 with good result. "Dr Dipole" aka Mr Linkwitz uses almost exclucively relatively low Q drivers and he seem to get it right Lots of EQ though.

I think that chosing a high Q driver like some people talk about is a poor solution for a dipole. The reason for dipoles is IMO tight bass and for that low Q is needed.

/Peter

 

[hurdy_gurdyman]

I don't know, I'm using a pair of old console speakers from the sixties in open baffles. These don't go real deep (80Hz), but have very tight bass, and plenty of it without eq. Rather small AlNiCo magnet and stiff suspension. Cleanest mid-upper bass I've ever heard from an affordable speaker. I use a sub for lower bass. Midrange is to die for. :^)
Dave

 

[Pan]

Yea, the mid/upper bass and low mids from a dipole is really something special

In the lowest bass I´m thinking of going "boxed" though, it´s so extreme to get serious with dipole subbass.
A tact room correction on the sub would be nice

/Peter

 

[hurdy_gurdyman]

In my situation, I'm using a low powered tube amp on the main drivers, which are around 98dB sensitivity. Dynamics are really cool, and lack of boxiness is incredible! My subs, at this time, is my old TQWP's with 10" driver's with Fs of 32Hz, but only about 92dB sensitivity. I use a HK Citation 16 to drive this. Have to eq a bit and boost the signal some, but the results are good. My wife says too many big ugly things, so I'm going to try to find a way get matching bass with a smaller box. Should be interesting.
With a small tube amp on the main speaker, using eq to boost bass would overdrive the amp. I might try some bass drivers mounted on the same baffle board (2.5' x 3') and drive them with the HK amp and boost and eq to see what happens. Should have enough bass power to do that.
Any suggestions?
Dave:^)

 

[Brookeville]

Open Baffle Drivers

Hi, Albert! I 've recently re-entered the wonderful world of speaker-building about a year ago , with my first bookshelf project which is TOTALLY amazing as it favorably compares to some $1400 B & Ws. W O W !
Anyway, in my quest for newly found musical and audio nirvana, I came across a great set of articles by Sigfried Linkwitz of Linkwitz Labs related to his open baffle PHOENIX. Sieg, a former HP Test Equip engineer, is truly into audio and designed an interesting set of open baffle speakers called the PHOENIX. As a part of his quest for the best drivers, he tested several different drivers from several manufacturers both foreign and domestic. He lists several of his results with the set of articles. Linkwitz seems to believe that the open baffle design really calls for drivers which produce low levels of "NON-linear distortions" If you haven't already read Sig's article, you can find the link at;
http://www.linkwitzlab.com/builtown.htm.

GOOD LUCK! Let me know what you decide & discover, as i think I will want to try this design soon!
Stan