Ultimate Open Baffle Gallery

No, with a good headphone : easy ! Perhaps with a good loudspeaker.

The horn is far better, the cello is more realistic. The OB misses bass, and the cello sounds like a violin.

It is playing cello suite of Bach.
Bach - Cello Suite No.1 i-Prelude - YouTube

Same piece, different artist/interpretation. Tempo, bowing technique, instrument, room, etc. - all different.

To me it's something of a "toss-up" when adjusting (as best as I can) for level differences. The dipole is clearly wrong as far as freq. balance (..the rinigng around 1.5-2.5 kHz is very annoying and it's obviously lower in output below 150 Hz).. but it's quite a bit better with overall clarity and decay. By contrast the horn at lower mids and below has both the initial transient and decay "blunted" by comparison.

Just my opinion.. :)
 
Open Baffle Speakers vs Back Loaded Horn - YouTube

I've built and enjoyed both types of speakers. They each have their pros and cons. The Fostex on the OB is not really the right type of driver for an OB. I'd add bass (and maybe even treble) support for an incredibly open sound. The BH is using the right driver for its implementation.

I love the sound of OB but you need to get the bass right for a balanced sound.

Thanks for posting... fun stuff!
 
Ooooohhh, i bet that sounds goooood! Nothing's perfect but your setup should produce some great sound. I wonder how the slimming baffle top changes the sound compared to a wider one? I also wonder how much better the bass is by doubling up the Alphas... I bet two make even more of an impact than one. If i had the room i'd stack two H-frames. So many great options out there now that we have software to sim before building. I can't stop thinking about my OBs... love the sounds they make.

I'd rather have your setup than just about any commercial product out there regardless of price.
 
Beautiful NaO Note being built.

Note.jpg
 
Ooooohhh, i bet that sounds goooood! Nothing's perfect but your setup should produce some great sound. I wonder how the slimming baffle top changes the sound compared to a wider one? I also wonder how much better the bass is by doubling up the Alphas... I bet two make even more of an impact than one. If i had the room i'd stack two H-frames. So many great options out there now that we have software to sim before building. I can't stop thinking about my OBs... love the sounds they make.

I'd rather have your setup than just about any commercial product out there regardless of price.

Thanks :)

Slimmed tops give probably better perspective and less baffle step peak. Now i cross at 300hz with 24dB Linkw.R.

Two Alpha sounds 40-50% better than one. More precise, a little bit deeper and they can handle more power.

Double H-frames has been on my mind for a while. I have the new Fostex Fe203en-s ltd edition and daydreams about alternative consepts.

They sounds like Tom Petty: In To The "GREAT WIDE OPEN" (i am playing it right now)

I am struggling with a little to dull freq. curve. But thats the game with active xovers isnt it?
 
Nice NaOs, although the panels seem to be attached to some big H-frames rather than the NaO U-frame. Are you building these gainphile? I really should buy a set of ER18s and get mine done.

No, they are not mine. I wish :)

Btw. the kit price at Meniscus is $1k -something. Is that right? Even the 4 woofers themselves would cost about that much!
 
Yes, the NaO DW Mark III. I have posted about it before but now I am using the miniDSP 2x8 with great success. This is the antithesis of my NaO Note in that no attention what so ever is paid to directionality. Yet it images very well and has the dynamics and SPL capability to sound live. It sounds BIG.
 
It sounds BIG.

Congratulations! It's nice when a rational design can be made to look good.

I would be curious as to the effect of a slim strut from just under the top rear to the floor/wall interface point perpendicular to the baffle. The visible strut to the plinth extension to the rear would have almost no effect when the speaker is on carpet, I imagine.

Also, the comment on sounding BIG caught my eye. This is one of my favorite characteristics - too many systems sound LOUD when you turn them up. I really like the very few I've heard that simply sound bigger. I guess I am not alone in discovering the importance of generous headroom in the bass/lower mid area as an important factor in "fidelity".