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Re: Open baffle and front horn, sound differences

Well this is my first post on this forum, I hope it helps.

I have played quite a bit with OBs and have found the sound can be quite amazing, but in my opinion most people go about it the wrong way. I have tried large and small drivers, with and without subs.

The real magic to my ears lies in using efficient 4-5 inch drivers plus a pair of subs with rear firing super tweeters. I reason you are never going to get real bass from open baffles (unless the room is really large) and drivers beyond 6 1/2 inches or so just don't stick to a waveform the way the smaller ones do.

Most larger drivers sound pretty honky and beam in this arrangement. yet don't go really high, but smaller drivers sound very live and have a much extended high end so the crossover to the rear firing tweeter works really well, providing a wonderful sense of ambience. If the main drivers can be made to go from about 80/100hz to say 10,000 cleanly the result is very coherent. And a good 4 inch driver with bass equalization can certainly do this and 10,000hz is a walk in the park.

As for efficiency, you get more volume for open baffles compared to regular boxes but not as much as horns.

Here is a little idea to try just to get a taste, find some reasonable quality 2 way car speakers in around the 5 inch size, go for something with high efficiency and just mount them on a couple of bits of MDF say 1m by 800mm and a little of centre. This won't be the last word in OBs by a long shot but its a cheap way to see if it has promise for you. Way better when used with a sub too.

To me the sound of OBs is very much like a real performance, it has none of that boxiness/hi fi sound that most come to accept as the sound of high quality audio these days. Overall I feel all audio nuts should try OBs at least once, you might just be sold on the idea, despite the apparent simplicity.

The room does have a strong effect on the sound but that also means it can be used very effectively to tune the sound as well. I don,t think OBs are really right for very live rooms, it could become pretty congested.

Zero One



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