Battle of the Open Baffles

I have been making speakers and modding them since the 1970s.  The information I share is based on listening tests and reading and talking to others about their EXPERIENCE.  There are lots of things to consider....including the phase of the speakers as measured in pulse tests....like Stereophile does.  Does your tweeter sound best set back that far?  Have you experimented to infinity?  All speakers that I mention in my "expanding the possibilities"  lectures are great speakers stock.  However, 90% of what I say can be applied to most speakers with sonic benefits.  Horn throat distortion can be measured.  Do you really think you can send a sonic wave down a tube and not have a coloration?  Does this make sense to you?  Do you really think that having no diffraction control right on the edges of the speaker cone does not affect the sound?  You cannot trust that because someone made something (and even if they have a great reputation)...that they really know all there is to know.  It takes a village.....no it takes an entire world.  The knowledge of Audio is infinite.  This is why there are so many choices.  NO ONE......including me knows jack diddiy squat.......I am a master tweaker (relatively speaking).....but I am NOT a master.  There is NO MASTER.  Have you looked at Dragsters....they all look the same and do the 1000 feet in exactly the same time and speed.....That is because there is common knowledge in what makes a car go fast....you have horsepower, traction, drag, gearing and weight.....that is all there is.  In Audio you have infinite possiblilites.  Every single piece of wire has its own sound.....every connection.....every cap....every resistor....every diaphram....every thing matters.  Do you have your cables off the floor?  It matters.  Have you removed all your binding posts and speaker wire connectors and LEDs....and run your whole system off a super inverter system?  Do you have a super ground rod and filtered ground system for your stereo?  It works.....the game never ends....there is always more to learn and to discover.....which makes the audio game like life itself.....ever expanding joy, love and discovery.  I wish you feel better and better about yourself and everyone.....forever.

Ever expanding light, love, knowledge and Joy.....that is who we are.

I heard two sets of spatial audio a few years ago and thought the bass was excellent at first but then it became fatiguing as if peaking on one frequency.  

Since there is usually bass boost in the crossover to compensate for frequencies lost behind the baffle i attribute the peaky sound to it.  

Anyone else hear obs that way? 

Once I build something as a test bed for what I want to achieve, get it working, etc then I do many things like directly wired drivers, quality wire, quality xover parts as needed and work on time alignment. I plan to use high grade materials for the baffles, etc... and proper construction methods.

I will take a good look at the different OB designs and likely build more than a couple, it will be great fun to do so and see what I can come up with that fits our very particular needs, which might not be OB unfortunately.

Not sure which I like better, OB or horns which I love done right and not at all done wrong.

I do have shielded dedicated lines to feed the system and moved the RV power connection to be away from it as well. I am looking into grounding solutions though I have metal skirting all around with at least twenty four one foot long spikes into the ground, all tied into the chassis of the RV thus breaker box, etc.

My computers are on a separate circuit and not tied to the audio system in any way.

I only run a wired ethernet setup, CAT6 cables for now, considering higher grade next phase of our remodel. 

Acoustical treatments are critical and will do all I can in the confines of what we have to work with, I am very experienced in sound deadening of all sorts, from world class car audio competition systems to planning and implementing a very critical military installation.

Whatever speakers I end up running will be very well treated in all aspects to make them the best I can and all will be quite affordable:)

Rick

@ricevs What's your website?  I want to check out the open baffle build you have been working on.  I have been watching more and more people build speakers and may want to dabble myself at some point. Thanks!

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