Open Baffle Experience

I have built two sets for friends using Focal drivers at a time when they were still available. Both of them were coupled to sealed subwoofers. The baffles were a Corian sandwich with MDF in the middle. They were two way with a very straight forward 12 dB/oct crossover. The baffles were hung from the ceiling using decorative chains and the subs were just underneath. They were in essence open baffle LS3 5As. They sound much larger than they are. The owners are very happy with the results. 

Building an open baffle system is much easier than trying to build a non resonant box and the open midbass/midrange driver makes the speaker sound three times as large as it really is. Open baffle subwoofers is a patently silly proposition. I have tried it and the results are poor.  

@goose  You sir, make a good point, and have credibility.

@mijostyn - Your projects sound very interesting, but I have to disagree on the notion of OB subs.

My open baffle subwoofers work exceptionally well and integrate seamlessly with the open baffle speakers. Each subwoofer uses three 12" servo controlled woofers in an H-frame enclosure. They deliver powerful bass down to 20Hz with lots of detail.

They don't pressurize the room like sealed or ported box subs which reduces the room mode problems and the amount of bass that escapes the room. 

Granted, you need more drivers to keep cone displacement reasonable, but they sound very natural. 

OP.

As I sit here listening to my recently acquired Spatial M3TM's. I will tell you that they are different. I can see where they might be a completely wrong choice for some. In my space, with my rig they are magic! I will comment on two major impressions, in my space.

First thing I noticed was what I perceived as a lack of bass. What Ive come to realize is I am hearing a whole different kind of bass. Or maybe I should say now I am actually hearing all of the bass and not the box. The speed and definition in the bass is really satisfying to me.

Second thing I noticed was the absence of the room. They really do blend into a room much better than box speakers do. The boomy bass is gone that classic hole in the 80hz zone doesn't exist anymore... 

Running them with Innuos zen mini and power supply, Pontus II, Aric Audio pre amp and Aric Audio super KT88/150 amp, all helix design diy cabling. Have had monitor audio silver 500's, Cornwall IV's and Focal 948's.

Ill stay with Spatial at this point!

Not sure if there was any value there but would strongly encourage you to try and experience OB's if you have interest. I find them simply amazing for the investment.

J.F.

Hi Erik, I would think that you have the experience to do this well. I’ve built a few and they can be very enjoyable.

In general, for bass, the larger woofers work better... I used a 15 at one time and 2 12’s once and 2 10’s another....

Try to keep your QTS between .5 and .8, My experience says look for a .6 and keep it under .8 if you can. VAS and XMax matters. It all depends on the room, stay mindful of response curves, remember that you are now firing from the rear also and room boundaries come into play more easily. If you use a mid, still look at QTS. It is less critical as you move up in frequency, but I would still try to find .5 to .6 QTS.

If you get them built, pull them out in the room listen and slowly move them back toward the walls little by little until you find the boundry reinforcement that fits your taste. Initially, you may find that you don’t have much taste. If you like, don’t hesitate to add another woofer, even a 15, air movement is the key to get bass moving, but stay aware of your room and boundaries that you may have to deal with. I have no doubt that you can pull this off. Use your experience and your ears, you’ll be fine.