Anyone using baffless speaker with a full range?


I am intrigued with some esoteric drivers, especially the PHY...paired with baffless design. What should I expect sound wise? I have a pair of Fostex Sigmas, nowhere near as interesting as these French drivers. What is the signature of a baffless design? Is there enough low end or does it need to be supplement somehow? Some of the amps that I might use these speakers with are the following:

9 Watt 300B amplifier
10 Watt SS battery/tube powered power supply
20 watt SS integrated (Opamp.)

Any experience would be appreciated!
bemopti123

Showing 1 response by gregm

You probably mean open baffle (OB), not "baffle-less"? For a comprehensive intro to OB try S Linkwitz' site as well as Melhuish's. Generally speaking OB will sound very "airy" (a bit like a stator with dynamics). To make a long story shorter, the low end starts rolling off (@~6db/octave) at a frequency determined by the width of the baffle. You'll need a woofer/subwoofer (that can be OB, too -- preferably) and proper equalisation, preferably before the amp (passive or active).

Your amps can easily drive the upper range (say from 150-200Hz and up) in a multiamp configuration. You'll need a bigger amp for the low end

Quite a few people are using wide-range drivers in OB; for a simple implementation look up the supravox site, & check out discussions over at diyaudio.

Finally, Mr Olsher's "Basszilla" speaker is a Fostex OR Lowther OB design. I strongly recommend you look it up at Blackdahlia.

OB is well worth it!