Open Baffle Experience

I’ve read some things in this thread that don’t jibe with my experience. I’ve had great box speakers that didn’t sound boxy. I now have Spatial Audio M3 Sapphires that are not forward and not harsh. I’ve driven them with a class d 2Cherry, an Orchard Audio GaN class d Stereo Ultra and a Wells class a/ b biased to 15 Watts class a… the speakers completely disappear with all 3 amps. 

 

Im pretty sure there is no “better” in term of hearing… there is just preference…at any rate, open baffles are not inherently better or worse but it is absolutely possible to get very musical sound from them. 
 

 

"i agree for 100% , the open baffle desigh is made for folk who is looking for something unsual , The speaker bulders using old idea like new , Nothing magic . Depend of baffle size , sound wave from front cone meet wave from back and kill each other, The best open baffle is infinity size baffle. For size 20-25" you did not get  low base, If you dont care about listen as is, If not --get sub , NO BENEFIT

Placebo effect"  

This shows a mis understandng of open baffle.   If drivers were facing each other and fired toward each other, we clearly have cancellation.  An open baffle fires forward Sound waves and they move forward.  When the rear waves fire out of the rear, they are not directly battling the front wave causing cancellation.  Ralph had the right idea.  The rear waves take time to bounce off of rear or side walls and end up coming forward firing in the same direction and reinforcing the front wave, the front and rear waves do not meet head to head causing cancelation.  What you get is a delayed effect for much of the frequency causing a spatial effect, which I assume is why a certain speaker company chose that name.  The real challenge is moving enough air at low frequencies to produce satisfying bass.which can be done.  

Check out www.Linkwitzlabs.com

Hre are my LX521.4 active crossover with two 5 channel amps with 360 watts per channel or driver with the two tweeters on each speaker sharing a channel each.

 

The OB may be out of polarity, but who cares in the upper freq ranges?
You used the term “not in time”.

A lot of folks do care. Magico, Kef, B&W, Wilson Audio, Focal, Genelec, Revel.

Ok @kenjit you seem hung up on the back wave being opposite polarity from the front wave. Then in the other time domain thread you mentioned how all speakers were not right.

is it more important that:

1. The back wave be in the proper polarity with the front wave?
2. Or… that the front wave is in the proper polarity with the signal?
3. Or… does none of it matter?
4. Or… does all of it matter?

 

Magico - See figure 7:

 

Kef see the step function figure:
 

 

B&W:

 

Wilson Sasha (see figure 8):
 

 

Focal (see figure 5):

 

Genelec:

 

 

Revel - See figure 7:

 

 

@coralkong 

 

I switched to OB speakers (Emerald Physics) a while ago, and I don't think I could ever go back to a box speaker. ...they sound absolutely glorious when you get them dialed in. Anyone who tells you differently is talking out of their ass.

With respect to my experience with dipole speakers, I agree completely - very well said!

They need lots of room to breathe and placement can be tricky

I haven't found this to be the case with LXmini + Phoenix[alt] OB-subs; however, the only other OB-like dipole speaker I have experience with is Martin Logan e-stats, and they needed breathing room, critical placement and very limited listening position. The carioid/omni dispersion pattern eliminates those issues.