Quick 'n' easy open baffles.

[alnewall]

Taking advantage of Fathers Day, I decided to do hardly any chores and build something instead.

Prompted by the realisation at Owfest, that my open backed speakers did not qualify as open baffles, and were considered a little boxy sounding by at least one person.
I set about trying to remove the boxiness, and came to the conclusion that the easiest way to achieve this was by removing the box.

Hence the new open baffles. These fold up to a room friendly 17"wide x 38"high x 10" deep when the wife's in tidy mode, and fold out to a 27"wide baffle when she's elsewhere.

Using spare Audio Nirvana drivers and Eminence 15" bass units. Just three bits of wood in each speaker so far, some piano hinge and around three hours work.
They will work when shoved against the wall for non critical background listening, (wife in the afternoon), but for real bass and depth just fold them out and bring them away from the walls.
These are "Work in progress" but already hint at what is possible from open baffles.

[Andrew]

What's the material used?

cheers,

-- Andrew

[john & Jake the dog]

Hi,
have you invented flat pack speakers?:p
cheers

[alnewall]

What's the material used?

I just used 18mm MDF, as it's plentiful in my garage.
If i arrive at a final design i may use some ply, but there's not much point if i'm going to paint it anyway. Somebody will no doubt tell me i that should have used birch ply for its sonic benefits.

have you invented flat pack speakers?

I doubt if i've invented anything. I'm sure someone, somewhere will have done it before.

[steve s]

Nice one Al..

those drivers sounded impressive on the backless cabs

cheers steve

[andrew ivimey]

yeah but, no but, yeah but ... Al, your speakers sounded 'boxy' at the 'do' largely because they were close to the wall and that acted as the back of the cabinet, ne'er mind.

I was at a concert on Saturday; classical / baroque music - Vivaldi, Bach and Tortellini(?) . This involved a haprsichord, four violas, two cellos, a double bass, eight violins and sort of lute thingie with too many strings.

It reminded me very much of a good pair of Lowther Horns ... rather like Steve's when sited right.

OBs sound great; lots of guts/welly and revealing but how realistic ?????
(ducks)

[Clive]

Originally Posted by andrew ivimey

OBs sound great; lots of guts/welly and revealing but how realistic ?????
(ducks)

Just as well you ducked. The OBs in my room make jazz (and other music) seem live. Totally realistic.

[alnewall]

No i think tortellini is a pasta dish.

But you are right. It probably takes a box to reproduce the resonance of a box.
Horns have a dynamic midrange.
I like open baffle bass.
Now, to combine the two.......

[Black Stuart]

Al,
very impressive and I'm glad I never got around to using Andrew's AMT ribbons with a boxed bass.

Out of curiosity, what Eminence 15" woofers are these. Two years ago I baulked at paying more for shipping than for the two 96.5dB /4 Ohm specials from PA and they all sold quickly.

Not to hijack this thread but it is difficult to find 12-15" woofers that are paper coned / high sensitivity / good voice coils and at a reasonable price and to this end, does anyone have info on - Max Fidelity?

They do a range of high SPL paper coned transducers that are distributed through Solen Canada about £60 a piece and upward. Like a lot of units nowadays they are made in China. Be nice if these were available in Europe.

[andrew ivimey]

Did you ever get around to using the AMTs at all Stuart?

They were NEVER intended to be in the box anyway, although ESS did one kind of bookshelf speaker with them. Heil Grandmasters are bi-polar and should be to be at their best and most wonderous.