Open Baffle Experience

I’ll pile on for GR Research.  I’ve had the NX Oticas and the dual 12” servo subs for about a year and couldn’t be happier.  Incredible soundstage width, depth and height.

Another advantage of OB is efficiency, which allows you to use low wattage tube amps.

But I do have mine about 5’ from the front wall.

 I used to have a full Gryphon system-still have all the cables-and I’d have to say it was mainly better in certain ways, not better overall.

I’ve heard the spatial speakers last Axpona, I think they were not matching the gear they used. They did not sound right. Too bright for my taste. One of the member here got rid of his Tekton Speakers and bought the spatial.I believe they are good speakers because (Sbank) Spencer have them and think they are better than his Tekton.

I often think that at the shows, what we think is "overly bright" is in fact "overly loud" for the room/treatments...and compared to how we will position and listen at home.

@jayctoy I also heard their speakers at AXPONA 2022 and they also sounded off to me. They were using LTA electronics so I'm unsure of what the problem was. Another speaker company I was interested in was Pure Audio Project. Has anyone heard these?

My open-baffle experience (after building many ’box’ speakers) goes like this...

I was enjoying my truck stereo one Spring day, and warming weather allowed me to roll the driver & passenger window down. What just happened!?... suddenly, despite the additional wind and road noise - the system suddenly sounded amazingly better. I’ve been missing something - but what? I also have a curiosity for unique speaker designs. My first speaker build (in high-school) was my attempt to recreate Ohm/Walsh omni-directional design (early 80’s) with drivers from Radio Shack that I put on my Christmas list (along with a jigsaw - which I used to build the speakers in my bedroom) - townhome living with no garage. As an adult, armed with new-found open-back curiosity, I found Martin Logan e-stats. I liked the sound, but despite the panel curvature, they have an unacceptably narrow sweet-spot. Digging further, I found Linkwitz. Not convinced, I ordered the inexpensive Madisound kit including flat-pack to test the waters.

Also note another influence. I saw the writing on the wall decades ago... due to technical innovation, audio systems (like everything else) will become more consolidated, condensed, smaller, all-inclusive, ’lifestyle’. Also, cable believers and nay-sayers alike can agree on one thing... the fewer cables the better (especially analog).

So with Linkwitz LXmini, there is potential for these two factors to coincide. I built the LXmini, and was rewarded mightily, inexpensive, beautiful, natural, enveloping sound. This is compared to the other speakers in the stable at that time (ML estats, ML motion-series, GoldenEar Triton, Tekton DI-upgrad, B&W, Elac, SVS Ultra, Buchardt). Only problem was the ported sub I had did not keep up with the LXmini’s... they need an open-baffle sub to match their accuracy. Back to the genius Linkwitz for a solution in the Phoenix[alt] sub. I built a pair with the recommended Peerless XLS drivers and could not be happier with the result. So, how does this coincide with ’lifestyle’?

My current normal listening rig consists of Node N130, a pair of Hypex FA123 (each mounted into the Phoenix[alt] OB-subs powering everything) and LXmini speakers. This is a ’lifestyle’ system - just one piece of gear and it’s half the size of a ream of paper. Cables are minimized down to one digital coax to Hypex FA-123(master), and one digital coax cable going from the master to the other Hypex FA-123(slave) - two cables total, and they are carrying digital signals (not analog).

What do I think of the Hypex FA-series + LXmini + Phoenix[alt] combo? It sounds like being on the stage listening to a performance first-person, as opposed to sitting in the audience listening through mic/mixer/amp/speakers. Rather than bore wax-poetic, let’s review the truths about this and potentially similar systems:

• These are the least room-dependent speakers I’ve ever heard. Why? Because they have omni-directional midbass and cardioid mid/treble, so there is very little side dispersion to reflect off walls/ceiling/floor.
• These speakers are no further in the room than any other speaker would need to be to sound good - mine are 30" from the front wall.
• Open-baffle bass doesn’t pressurize the room, so your house doesn’t become a giant vibrating box. Also, someone said, "Magico and KEF... balanced-force...". Take a look at Linkwitz Phoenix OB-sub design to see a simple example of cancelling cone inertia - there is no cabinet vibration in this configuration.
• No analog cables (caveat here, I do use balanced XLRs with NAD C658, when using that as source/pre). Node doesn’t have phono input or the suite of HDMI In/Out that the C658 has with MDCmodule.
• And finally, the #1 best reason for a system like this. The sound is fully controllable, at-will, on the fly, while listening/measuring - because it uses DSP crossovers and filtering within the Hypex FA-series DSP/amps. Let’s say you suddenly think the highs are too bright - adjust the filters (2minutes = done). Or, you want more bass (2minutes = done). Maybe you want a different adjustment for night-time or party-time listening, dial it in as you wish and save it as a preset (2minutes = done). Try doing that with most mega-buck monkey coffins. With these, you have the freedom to make them sound however you want, whenever you want. This benefit alone is worth the cost of admission, and why I can’t imagine making another speaker system without this capability. Note, Hypex FA-series amps are not the only way, as I started with the miniDSP2x4HD, to the nanoDIGI 2x8 (and 4 stand-alone Topping DACs), 4x10HD, DDRC-88A/BM (its been a journey of passion) - they all worked very well, but the FA-123 (also have new pair of FA-251 sitting idle) is the most ’lifestyle’ solution.

So, there you have it @erik_squires go out and get some open-baffle goodness. And I’ll leave you with this

And for those that doubt the bass...