I've been working on my open baffle speakers for about 6 months (because it's fun and I keep coming up with improvements) and this video has confirmed all my experiments with wings and such, even though I have my setup really sorted out, I keep getting inspired to try out new ideas, and it's totally fun making sound changes refinements via the shape of some wood... great video, so many great bits of info.
I have been Hi Fi guy for 30 yrs, love DIY and done loads of it. However these videos have been extremely educational, thank you for taking the time and effort as I know it does not " just happen" without loads of prep etc. keep em coming. I'm a long way away in Ireland but would hope to get the open baffle kit sometime.
Thank you Danny, I always appreciate your pragmatic approach to mastering audio. It seems to me many of the heavy hitter speaker companies could benefit a great deal from your counsel.
Took me six years to figure out what this guy (Danny Richie, Richie Danny....which is it?! ) so eloquently explained in 10 minutes. Damn you Sir !!!! ;)
eloquence comes from experience i think and Danny is really opening my understanding because not many people can describe sound so easily. Good and thanks Danny!
Another great Tech Talk. I haven't made the move to open baffle yet but it just got bumped a little higher toward the top of my hifi to do list. Thanks for this video.
Had a pair of Hawthorne drivers in my own baffle, they were very nice! The only issue was the compression tweeter/midrange driver.My room was fairly hard so they were quite bright and listener fatigue set in after about 30 minutes.I see that more open baffle designers are getting away from the compression drivers going to an air motion driver for the high end much better.Love open baffle design once you have heard a good pair you nay never go back to a box speaker.
Best informative video on audio. Danny, can you explain positive and negative differences in sound between planar speakers vs OB vs line array either by post or future video. Thanks for your sharing your craft with us.
Hey Ron & Danny, really digging this video series! I have a few questions about something you mentioned a few videos ago...up-firing tweeters for ambience. 1) Is it optimal to be more than 90 degrees off axis to the tweeter when seated (i.e. you can’t see it when sitting down). 2) How loud -relative to the fullrange driver- should said tweeter be (assuming a standard flat 8’ ceiling for example). 3) How would you go about determining a good starting point for finding the crossover frequency and slope? Please keep these vids coming and thanks to both of you guys for your time, hard fricken work and loudspeaker eye/ear candy!
1. Yes, be 90 degrees off axis to the tweeter and you will hear no direct response from it if its low end is restricted. 2. Output level can vary depending on your room and how far away you are from the speakers. Swap in an inline resistor to set the level to taste. Keep in mind that you are not changing the on axis response or having to match the SPL level at the speaker. It really depends on how much your room sucks up. And limit how low it plays. Typically a cap value no larger than a 2uF is used. Even a 1uF cap might be optimal. It depends on the tweeter impedance too. 3. There really isn't a crossover point when adding a super tweeter that way. Think of it just as a filter for the tweeter. And a single cap value will be fine.
I have a question: Is it possible to construct a speaker system that can display the advantages of the open baffle design, but can be placed close to walls? Thanks in advance.
Really great explanation and video! I am wondering about planer drivers like the NEO10, in an closed box are they recommended at least 3 inches space from the driver to the cabinet back wall. Therefore do I think, if 3 inch is fine in a closed cabinet, would maybe 10 inches from the house wall in an open baffle not be fine?
Great topic! Eager to know more about the cons and pros of SUB frames H / V/ S/ flat/... Please let me know If you already covered this in another video.
Overall a good explanation , but I would have liked an explanation of "dipole distance" because that is actually what matters most in designing a good sounding OB speaker . It determines the max upper frequency where you have to crossover to a driver with a much lower dipole distance , otherwise your figure of 8 dispersion will blow up and distort from the perfect 8 . Dipole distance also determines how much SPL at every frequency you can achieve within X-max excursion . Dipole distance also dictates the need for a narrowing baflle (or lower dipole distance) the higher you go up in frequency . If you truly want a constant directivity OB dipole speaker , you will realize fairly rapidly that a 3 way system is a minimum , and mids and highs need to come from a mininimal or no baffle at all . My design has an H-frame for 2 12 inch woofers (12 mm X-max) in an H-frame with 480 mm dipole distance , good for 105 db SPL at 40 Hz and barely 87 at 20 Hz (18 db/octave roll off for all dipoles) . The woofers are crossed over at 320 Hz to 2 d'Appolito 5 inch midranges that are 138 mm wide and mounted in an invisible steel frame (drivers are just a wide and fully cover the frame . 138 mm width forces me to x-over to a narrower dipole tweeter (also mounted in an invisible frame) at a max of 1800 Hz , otherwise my constant directivity gets hurt . The result is a speaker that measures exactly the same response curve (not the same SPL) under every off-axis angle : true constant directivity . The tonality of the indirect sound completely matching that of the direct sound . This is the magic sauce for a great sounding speaker . Search for "naked dipole speakers' on the DIY Audio forum and you will see completely baffleless speaker design (mid and high) with drivers hung from strings ! If you really want to get to the nuts and bolts (physics and math) of open baffle speakers , I highly recommend down loading "How open baffles work - from point sources to small drivers in big baffles to big drivers in small baffles (version 12.08.2010):" here : www.dipolplus.de/thema11.php
Nice informative Video What would u suggest as sub fir a 15-25 ft room dual 10” w or H Frane. Currently I am using dual 10” peerless XLS sealed awesome bass. I tried the LXMini sub single 10” C frame per side was not getting pressure
Where can I find more info about the downside of a large baffle, and how to mitigate it. Asking because Im thinking of building OB speaker into a symmetrical partition (basically an 8" wide wall across the middle of a large room with a doorway/archway down the centre. Thinking of putting a speaker near each wall, reinforcing for more stiffness, or even filling with sand if need be.
Danny would speaker grill material make a difference being used to make a false enclosure. Like false sides and rear to give a shape. Plus keep dust and whatever from building up on the backside. Thanks man I appreciate what you give us.
Thank you for the great videos you always provide. Really helpful due to the technical detail. One question: If I only have 2 inches to the front wall can I still have good results from OB if I threat the back wall near the speakers with absorption? Or will I be better with omnidirectional speakers or closed baffle? Thank you.
2" off the wall won't cut it. For an open baffle design you really need to move them out from the wall. And it still helps a lot to add absorption and diffusion of the front wall.
Check out the measured responses in the links found in this post. It will tell you a lot about the effects of the wing lengths. www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=160242.msg1709644#msg1709644
@Danny Richie I just read that post and wanted to thank you for going into such detail about baffles. I felt like I almost needed a NDA to read it. Very well written and easy to understand. Thanks once again, Danny! 🎶🔊🙂
@@dannyrichie9743 There is no such thing as a free lunch, how did you measure the other attributes? The more you make it like a box the more it takes on the attributes of a box. I run my mids baffless.
I have a pair of NX Oticas on order, and have a few questions for best set-up. What is the minium spacing from the side walls ?? Do you toe the speakers in towards the listening position. or fire straight forward ?? I usually shoot for as wide a spacing as possible between the two speakers, and still maintain center image. Do the OB's work well with wide spacing ?? Thanks for the great videos and information you share so freely !!!!!!
I just completed drilling and painting your crossover boards. I am now about to assemble your crossovers. I'd still wouldn't want to put them any closer than two feet from a side wall. And I would treat the first reflection point on the wall. But that is the same with any speaker and not just an open baffle design. From about 1kHz and down they will have less side wall issue than a boxed design. Toe in or out will vary depending on your room and the distance that you are from them. The same goes for how far they are apart. To far apart and you lose image focus. To close and the center will be more constrained and not as wide. Towing them in will minimize side wall interaction and can give more focus. Towing them out will open up the sound stage and make things a little bigger. All of that depends on the room. Move them around ans listen.
@@dannyrichie9743 My room : 16' X 24' I normally space them 3' from side walls, and @ 6' from the front wall. My normal toe-in has the speakers pointed to meet about 2' behind my head, as I sit in the listening position. I treat the first side wall reflections with an 8' tall X 8' long section of vertical blinds (with 5" wide blades) on each side wall. I open them up at a 45 degree angle, so the sound enters the blinds.........then travels down the wall. I tend to like this better then using absorbtion material, as it tends to muffle the dynamics of the music. Thanks for the update on the crossovers. Can't wait to get them fired up !!
@@jerrylambert5053 hey Jerry, how do you like the speakers? Do have any photos? What other speakers have you had and how do these compare? Shoot me an email daveshear at gmail.com Thanks so much for any help you can give me on making a decision.
Awesome video thanks. One question do you lose sensivity with open baffle speakers compared to the exact same drivers being in an enclosure? I made some open baffle audio nirvana speakers and then put those same drivers in a bass reflex enclosure and got alot more spl out of them for the same wattage.
In an open baffle design the lower end will roll off considerably sooner. So a bass reflex design will give you a lot more output down low. Above 200 to 300Hz or so they will be the same.
I hate to tell you but you really need the room for a dipole type speaker. As you point out, the room always seem's to be a real problem to overcome. Good luck to you.
For an OB design , will padding at the back of the baffle with eg felt layer help against reverberating wall reflections . Or would you alternatively suggest a sponge layer . Thanks .
@@dannyrichie9743 You have cleared the occluded part ( of my knowledge ) . I have never noticed anyone to add materials to the back of the baffle to target this issue . I have now got the concepts clear with your reply . Thanks a lot . Greetings .
Great information, I plan to implement a couple of things at least. I do have a question about your choice of tweeter on the samples in the video. Are they open back tweeters? I only ask because of the comments that were made regarding the void in the side baffle next to the tweeter alignment. Because of my newness to open baffle, I'm probably making a bad assumption that we wouldn't see much of an impact on the openness of the sound unless the tweeter was open back. Please fill in the blanks, I would really love to apply some of the principles here. Thanks again for the great content. Very simple to understand so far!
If you want to use a tweeter that isn't open backed then you can use two tweeters per speaker, one front firing and one rear firing to give a similar effect to an open baffle tweeter.
Thank you. I inherited an unfinished 4 way baffle-less kit...the one sold by Madisound. The kit is built well, but did not come with a crossover. I just bought a mini dsp with microphone and a 8 channel power amp. I have not fired it up yet. My plan was to use the mini dsp as a crossover, but I’m over my head. I was also just thinking of buying a decent adjustable 4 way passive crossover and jam it in there to see how close I can get for cheap. Any constructive criticism is welcomed. Note that I only paid $300 for the assembled kit minus the dsp. I do have the flash drive to load the speaker profile developed by the kit designer into the dsp John...the audiophile pragmatist
So if you need the speakers 3 feet off the wall for an open baffle setup, what would be the recommended (smallest) size room that you would set them up in? In what ways would an open baffle setup be effected by room size? Also would you put sound treatment behind the speakers or are you counting on the reflection from the front wall for the sound effect that an open baffle speaker gives? Thanks.
Open baffle speakers can and often are used in small rooms. The distance from the front wall is the only limitation. And adding absorbing or diffusion material to the front wall can help a lot.
“Room boom!” My new favorite term. Thanks so much for this video, Danny. This was probably my favorite one yet. Man, do I love those NX Oticas! If I had the room, I would absolutely buy and build a pair. They seem like the “perfect” speaker, if that even exists. What are your thoughts about them if you just don’t have the room? FWIW, I’m using a pair of Pendragons right now, and they sound fantastic even at 1-3’ from the wall. Also, do you believe I could get a lot more out of my spkrs by changing the parts in the crossover (which is pretty basic) to Sonicaps, Mills, etc? What about putting NoRez in them? Would it be worth the effort, and how would it change the sound? Would they still sound like the same spkr that I love in the first place? Again, I thank you very much, Danny. You make me smarter. lol
Actually if you have the room for those Tekton's then you have the room for the NX-Otica's. The NX-Otica's are more room friendly in a lot of ways. You just have to be able to get them at least three feet out into the room. I haven't heard that model, but I do know about them and have been into other (similar) models. Yes they can be improved quite a bit from an upgrade to the crossover parts. It won't change the voicing or tonal balance of the speaker. It will reduce smearing, improve clarity and detail levels, and give you more clear space between notes. Also, that big box is very lightly braced. Lining them with No Rez will tighten up the bass response and do away with the resonances that color the bass. It will also clean up the lower vocal region.
Thank you very much for that info, Danny. It’s very good to know I can upgrade (and how to do it) the sound of my Tektons without messing with their tonality, timbe, and overall voicing of the speakers. Besides that, I want to thank you for all of the information you’ve shared on the tech Tuesday vids. I’ve learned more about spkrs in the past few months than I’d ever known. I assume business at GR has probably gone up too due to people being educated about quality speaker design. I am sincerely very thankful and appreciative of your efforts.
Great info Danny, quick question ? In a non symmetrical room , as my kitchen is open to my living room with a countertop . The left side would be unable to have the same reflection points as right side which is a wall with a fireplace... Is this scenario able to work w/ OB ? Subwoofers are a given and will definitely be included.. Just curious. Thanks in advance, Trey. Great video. Thanks guy's.✌️
@@dannyrichie9743 Thank you sir, was my interpretation as well. .. After the holidays we will get together, I'd be more that happy to compensate you for your time and wisdom once I finalize my room layout and materials ie. Flooring and such.. Thank you for responding.. Have a great rest of your week. Sincerely, Trey Horn.. ✌️
Your absolutely correct, a woofer doesn't collect air from one side of it and place on the other side. It merely transfers at a speed called hertz. Ex:that shake exercise thing that looks like a jerk off, it ends up placing back and forth shake on the whole body. With a woofer, the frot and back is separated by a wall so it doesn't just loop over canceling itself
I've been working on my open baffle speakers for about 6 months (because it's fun and I keep coming up with improvements) and this video has confirmed all my experiments with wings and such, even though I have my setup really sorted out, I keep getting inspired to try out new ideas, and it's totally fun making sound changes refinements via the shape of some wood... great video, so many great bits of info.
I have been Hi Fi guy for 30 yrs, love DIY and done loads of it. However these videos have been extremely educational, thank you for taking the time and effort as I know it does not " just happen" without loads of prep etc. keep em coming. I'm a long way away in Ireland but would hope to get the open baffle kit sometime.
pro tip : watch series at flixzone. I've been using them for watching a lot of movies during the lockdown.
@Lane Reuben yea, I've been using Flixzone} for years myself :D
This is the most interesting and easy to digest information I've come across for the noob, or entry level enthusiast - please keep this coming.
Thank you Danny, I always appreciate your pragmatic approach to mastering audio. It seems to me many of the heavy hitter speaker companies could benefit a great deal from your counsel.
I've been DIY'ing and transitioning from Boxes to Open Baffles... Without hardly trying, the Definition is amazing.
Took me six years to figure out what this guy (Danny Richie, Richie Danny....which is it?! ) so eloquently explained in 10 minutes. Damn you Sir !!!! ;)
eloquence comes from experience i think and Danny is really opening my understanding because not many people can describe sound so easily. Good and thanks Danny!
Another great Tech Talk. I haven't made the move to open baffle yet but it just got bumped a little higher toward the top of my hifi to do list. Thanks for this video.
Another great video, I learned a lot from your explanations, you make it real easy . Thank you .
Im looking to build an open baffle setup. This video just helped me a great deal Thank you very much
Danny you are very intelligent man I appreciate all your videos you put out there very intuitive
My head is spinning. In a good way. This is awesome, thanks for the info Danny.
Had a pair of Hawthorne drivers in my own baffle, they were very nice! The only issue was the compression tweeter/midrange driver.My room was fairly hard so they were quite bright and listener fatigue set in after about 30 minutes.I see that more open baffle designers are getting away from the compression drivers going to an air motion driver for the high end much better.Love open baffle design once you have heard a good pair you nay never go back to a box speaker.
great talk, was a treat to listen to :)
Another great video, I learned a lot from your explanations,
Outstanding!
And very informative...
they just sound so good!!!
Great vid. Thanks for explaining.
Thanks Danny for the fine video.
Best informative video on audio.
Danny, can you explain positive and negative differences in sound between planar speakers vs OB vs line array either by post or future video.
Thanks for your sharing your craft with us.
Planar speakers are, in a way, open baffle. Line array simply depends upon how it's build and with which drivers.
Another greatly informative video
Very interesting. Thank you.
Hey Ron & Danny, really digging this video series! I have a few questions about something you mentioned a few videos ago...up-firing tweeters for ambience. 1) Is it optimal to be more than 90 degrees off axis to the tweeter when seated (i.e. you can’t see it when sitting down). 2) How loud -relative to the fullrange driver- should said tweeter be (assuming a standard flat 8’ ceiling for example). 3) How would you go about determining a good starting point for finding the crossover frequency and slope? Please keep these vids coming and thanks to both of you guys for your time, hard fricken work and loudspeaker eye/ear candy!
1. Yes, be 90 degrees off axis to the tweeter and you will hear no direct response from it if its low end is restricted.
2. Output level can vary depending on your room and how far away you are from the speakers. Swap in an inline resistor to set the level to taste. Keep in mind that you are not changing the on axis response or having to match the SPL level at the speaker. It really depends on how much your room sucks up. And limit how low it plays. Typically a cap value no larger than a 2uF is used. Even a 1uF cap might be optimal. It depends on the tweeter impedance too.
3. There really isn't a crossover point when adding a super tweeter that way. Think of it just as a filter for the tweeter. And a single cap value will be fine.
Thanks so much Danny, very helpful! 🙏🏻
Thanks for this wealth of information video.
I have a question: Is it possible to construct a speaker system that can display the advantages of the open baffle design, but can be placed close to walls? Thanks in advance.
Really great explanation and video! I am wondering about planer drivers like the NEO10, in an closed box are they recommended at least 3 inches space from the driver to the cabinet back wall. Therefore do I think, if 3 inch is fine in a closed cabinet, would maybe 10 inches from the house wall in an open baffle not be fine?
Great topic! Eager to know more about the cons and pros of SUB frames H / V/ S/ flat/... Please let me know If you already covered this in another video.
Ive had my Alon model 1 open baffles for 5 years... the only time i ponder upgrading is the Alons higher up the line
Overall a good explanation , but I would have liked an explanation of "dipole distance" because that is actually what matters most in designing a good sounding OB speaker . It determines the max upper frequency where you have to crossover to a driver with a much lower dipole distance , otherwise your figure of 8 dispersion will blow up and distort from the perfect 8 . Dipole distance also determines how much SPL at every frequency you can achieve within X-max excursion . Dipole distance also dictates the need for a narrowing baflle (or lower dipole distance) the higher you go up in frequency . If you truly want a constant directivity OB dipole speaker , you will realize fairly rapidly that a 3 way system is a minimum , and mids and highs need to come from a mininimal or no baffle at all . My design has an H-frame for 2 12 inch woofers (12 mm X-max) in an H-frame with 480 mm dipole distance , good for 105 db SPL at 40 Hz and barely 87 at 20 Hz (18 db/octave roll off for all dipoles) . The woofers are crossed over at 320 Hz to 2 d'Appolito 5 inch midranges that are 138 mm wide and mounted in an invisible steel frame (drivers are just a wide and fully cover the frame . 138 mm width forces me to x-over to a narrower dipole tweeter (also mounted in an invisible frame) at a max of 1800 Hz , otherwise my constant directivity gets hurt . The result is a speaker that measures exactly the same response curve (not the same SPL) under every off-axis angle : true constant directivity . The tonality of the indirect sound completely matching that of the direct sound . This is the magic sauce for a great sounding speaker . Search for "naked dipole speakers' on the DIY Audio forum and you will see completely baffleless speaker design (mid and high) with drivers hung from strings ! If you really want to get to the nuts and bolts (physics and math) of open baffle speakers , I highly recommend down loading "How open baffles work - from point sources to small drivers in big baffles to big drivers in small baffles (version 12.08.2010):" here : www.dipolplus.de/thema11.php
Nice informative Video
What would u suggest as sub fir a 15-25 ft room dual 10” w or H Frane. Currently I am using dual 10” peerless XLS sealed awesome bass.
I tried the LXMini sub single 10” C frame per side was not getting pressure
Wondering how these compare with the Logan electrostatic, which is open baffle with boxed bass. Thanks Danny, brilliant information.
I like your no nonsense way off explaining things
What can we do to incorporate 6.5 servos plus a passive radiator to move it close to wall?
Where can I find more info about the downside of a large baffle, and how to mitigate it. Asking because Im thinking of building OB speaker into a symmetrical partition (basically an 8" wide wall across the middle of a large room with a doorway/archway down the centre. Thinking of putting a speaker near each wall, reinforcing for more stiffness, or even filling with sand if need be.
Danny would speaker grill material make a difference being used to make a false enclosure. Like false sides and rear to give a shape. Plus keep dust and whatever from building up on the backside. Thanks man I appreciate what you give us.
Hahha love old Danny pics.
Interesting, thanks
Thank you for the great videos you always provide. Really helpful due to the technical detail. One question: If I only have 2 inches to the front wall can I still have good results from OB if I threat the back wall near the speakers with absorption? Or will I be better with omnidirectional speakers or closed baffle? Thank you.
2" off the wall won't cut it. For an open baffle design you really need to move them out from the wall. And it still helps a lot to add absorption and diffusion of the front wall.
Danny Richie thank you!
You're selling me on looking into picking up some open baffle speakers. Don't know how well that's going to go over with the wife.
Wow, best tech tuesday ever!!! B t w, I´m an open baffle diy’er 🤓 I would love to know more about the calculations of the L shaped wings 😋
Check out the measured responses in the links found in this post. It will tell you a lot about the effects of the wing lengths. www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=160242.msg1709644#msg1709644
@Danny Richie
I just read that post and wanted to thank you for going into such detail about baffles. I felt like I almost needed a NDA to read it. Very well written and easy to understand. Thanks once again, Danny! 🎶🔊🙂
@@NickP333 Yeah, I am kind of giving away the farm on some of that research that I've done.
@@dannyrichie9743 There is no such thing as a free lunch, how did you measure the other attributes? The more you make it like a box the more it takes on the attributes of a box. I run my mids baffless.
@@DodgyBrothersEngineering You mean like transparency, sound stage layering, imaging....?
And that’s why I play with magnepan ... lots of similarities aside from magnepans being line source ...
I am was planning to build a new two way set this weekend. I think will be open baffle after watching this. Worst case, I wasted some wood.
I have a pair of NX Oticas on order, and have a few questions for best set-up. What is the minium spacing from the side walls ?? Do you toe the speakers in towards the listening position. or fire straight forward ?? I usually shoot for as wide a spacing as possible between the two speakers, and still maintain center image. Do the OB's work well with wide spacing ?? Thanks for the great videos and information you share so freely !!!!!!
Congrats on your purchase! What’s your room dimensions?
I just completed drilling and painting your crossover boards. I am now about to assemble your crossovers. I'd still wouldn't want to put them any closer than two feet from a side wall. And I would treat the first reflection point on the wall. But that is the same with any speaker and not just an open baffle design. From about 1kHz and down they will have less side wall issue than a boxed design. Toe in or out will vary depending on your room and the distance that you are from them. The same goes for how far they are apart. To far apart and you lose image focus. To close and the center will be more constrained and not as wide. Towing them in will minimize side wall interaction and can give more focus. Towing them out will open up the sound stage and make things a little bigger. All of that depends on the room. Move them around ans listen.
@@dannyrichie9743 My room : 16' X 24' I normally space them 3' from side walls, and @ 6' from the front wall. My normal toe-in has the speakers pointed to meet about 2' behind my head, as I sit in the listening position. I treat the first side wall reflections with an 8' tall X 8' long section of vertical blinds (with 5" wide blades) on each side wall. I open them up at a 45 degree angle, so the sound enters the blinds.........then travels down the wall. I tend to like this better then using absorbtion material, as it tends to muffle the dynamics of the music.
Thanks for the update on the crossovers. Can't wait to get them fired up !!
@@jerrylambert5053 hey Jerry, how do you like the speakers? Do have any photos? What other speakers have you had and how do these compare? Shoot me an email daveshear at gmail.com Thanks so much for any help you can give me on making a decision.
Never heard of an "L" shape. What's the advantage over no wings?
Awesome video thanks. One question do you lose sensivity with open baffle speakers compared to the exact same drivers being in an enclosure? I made some open baffle audio nirvana speakers and then put those same drivers in a bass reflex enclosure and got alot more spl out of them for the same wattage.
In an open baffle design the lower end will roll off considerably sooner. So a bass reflex design will give you a lot more output down low. Above 200 to 300Hz or so they will be the same.
But there are well designed open baffle speakers out there that will play flat to 20Hz. We offer some.
How about trying the Tekton OB Sigma loudspeakers. Eric complains that they aren't selling, but there are no current reviews. Especially on line.
If that back wall has some acoustic treatment can you maybe get the towers a little closer to the wall? We don't all have enough room size.
I hate to tell you but you really need the room for a dipole type speaker. As you point out, the room always seem's to be a real problem to overcome. Good luck to you.
Can you use circular baffles? How much bigger than the diameter of the woofer would need to be? Is there a percentage? What about midranges?
Surface area around the drivers is actually something we try to avoid.
For an OB design , will padding at the back of the baffle with eg felt layer help against reverberating wall reflections . Or would you alternatively suggest a sponge layer .
Thanks .
I’ll let danny chime in but I have had good results using diffusion behind my open baffle speakers.
The back of the baffle that the drivers are mounted on? The way to minimize wall reflections is to use a combination of absorption and diffusion.
@@dannyrichie9743
You have cleared the occluded part ( of my knowledge ) . I have never noticed anyone to add materials to the back of the baffle to target this issue .
I have now got the concepts clear with your reply .
Thanks a lot . Greetings .
When referring to the "Q" of the driver in this case is that the Qts, Qms, Qes?
qts
Great information, I plan to implement a couple of things at least. I do have a question about your choice of tweeter on the samples in the video. Are they open back tweeters? I only ask because of the comments that were made regarding the void in the side baffle next to the tweeter alignment. Because of my newness to open baffle, I'm probably making a bad assumption that we wouldn't see much of an impact on the openness of the sound unless the tweeter was open back. Please fill in the blanks, I would really love to apply some of the principles here.
Thanks again for the great content. Very simple to understand so far!
The tweeter is our GR Neo 3, and yes it is full open baffle.
If you want to use a tweeter that isn't open backed then you can use two tweeters per speaker, one front firing and one rear firing to give a similar effect to an open baffle tweeter.
Hey Danny ... Is someone out there that builds a DIY flat pack ? I would like to buy your Speaker Crossover kit ...
If you're in the usa I know someone who is wanting to expand his business and work on new builds. Interested?
Are dipole open baffle subs in phase or out of phase?
LOL the mullet!!!
Thank you. I inherited an unfinished 4 way baffle-less kit...the one sold by Madisound. The kit is built well, but did not come with a crossover. I just bought a mini dsp with microphone and a 8 channel power amp. I have not fired it up yet. My plan was to use the mini dsp as a crossover, but I’m over my head. I was also just thinking of buying a decent adjustable 4 way passive crossover and jam it in there to see how close I can get for cheap. Any constructive criticism is welcomed. Note that I only paid $300 for the assembled kit minus the dsp. I do have the flash drive to load the speaker profile developed by the kit designer into the dsp
John...the audiophile pragmatist
So if you need the speakers 3 feet off the wall for an open baffle setup, what would be the recommended (smallest) size room that you would set them up in? In what ways would an open baffle setup be effected by room size? Also would you put sound treatment behind the speakers or are you counting on the reflection from the front wall for the sound effect that an open baffle speaker gives? Thanks.
Open baffle speakers can and often are used in small rooms. The distance from the front wall is the only limitation. And adding absorbing or diffusion material to the front wall can help a lot.
Do line arrays need to be out from the wall too?
What about curved baffles?
I presume Danny has spent many hours testing baffles and side wings for his kits. He's got it worked out I'm sure.
“Room boom!” My new favorite term.
Thanks so much for this video, Danny. This was probably my favorite one yet. Man, do I love those NX Oticas! If I had the room, I would absolutely buy and build a pair. They seem like the “perfect” speaker, if that even exists. What are your thoughts about them if you just don’t have the room?
FWIW, I’m using a pair of Pendragons right now, and they sound fantastic even at 1-3’ from the wall.
Also, do you believe I could get a lot more out of my spkrs by changing the parts in the crossover (which is pretty basic) to Sonicaps, Mills, etc? What about putting NoRez in them? Would it be worth the effort, and how would it change the sound? Would they still sound like the same spkr that I love in the first place?
Again, I thank you very much, Danny. You make me smarter. lol
Actually if you have the room for those Tekton's then you have the room for the NX-Otica's. The NX-Otica's are more room friendly in a lot of ways. You just have to be able to get them at least three feet out into the room.
I haven't heard that model, but I do know about them and have been into other (similar) models. Yes they can be improved quite a bit from an upgrade to the crossover parts. It won't change the voicing or tonal balance of the speaker. It will reduce smearing, improve clarity and detail levels, and give you more clear space between notes.
Also, that big box is very lightly braced. Lining them with No Rez will tighten up the bass response and do away with the resonances that color the bass. It will also clean up the lower vocal region.
Thank you very much for that info, Danny. It’s very good to know I can upgrade (and how to do it) the sound of my Tektons without messing with their tonality, timbe, and overall voicing of the speakers.
Besides that, I want to thank you for all of the information you’ve shared on the tech Tuesday vids. I’ve learned more about spkrs in the past few months than I’d ever known. I assume business at GR has probably gone up too due to people being educated about quality speaker design.
I am sincerely very thankful and appreciative of your efforts.
There used to be a club called the "Boom-Boom Room" ..:)
Great info Danny, quick question ? In a non symmetrical room , as my kitchen is open to my living room with a countertop . The left side would be unable to have the same reflection points as right side which is a wall with a fireplace... Is this scenario able to work w/ OB ? Subwoofers are a given and will definitely be included.. Just curious. Thanks in advance, Trey. Great video. Thanks guy's.✌️
Not a problem.
@@dannyrichie9743 Thank you sir, was my interpretation as well. .. After the holidays we will get together, I'd be more that happy to compensate you for your time and wisdom once I finalize my room layout and materials ie. Flooring and such.. Thank you for responding.. Have a great rest of your week. Sincerely, Trey Horn.. ✌️
Wow 3 feet from the wall. There goes my OB idea.
3 feet is the minimum!
Wouldn't the best of both worlds ( open and boxed cabs ), be biiiiiig cabs? I don't mind, i have the space for it.
Next video post step by step with outline ….
Love open baffle speakers but i dont have room for them , they dont have room to breath
GR?
Quite the homage to the almighty mullet.
Open baffle is nothing new, it was used in car audio many years ago.
Cars never used true open baffle, more accurate to say sealed or infinite baffle.
Open Baffle is a terrible idea! Cancellations, Lake of bass, limited placement, you name it...
Lack of bass? You have not heard Open Baffle speakers I gather.
“Your getting output from the front, your getting output from the rear”.... yup, that’s what she said!
Well that is dependent on your driver going backwards and forwards, if you driver only goes forward, you'll only get sound from the front :O)
Air doesnt move accros the room, it simply compresses and expands - a speaker is not a fan :-)
Your absolutely correct, a woofer doesn't collect air from one side of it and place on the other side. It merely transfers at a speed called hertz. Ex:that shake exercise thing that looks like a jerk off, it ends up placing back and forth shake on the whole body. With a woofer, the frot and back is separated by a wall so it doesn't just loop over canceling itself
room boom lol ... please less DYI terminology, otherwise ok