Open baffle speakers

Dick Olsher's Basszillas worked out very well for me.  The bass reflex cabinet with the 16" woofer and the absorbent disk on the back wall gave smooth, articulate bass but not the submarine-low thunder that I didn't care for anyway, and the DX4's with the ribbon tweeters were magnificent.  Drove the things with a 4 watt 2A3 to as far as you'd wanna go.  That baffle, though, needs to be BIG.  The plans are still out there, I think.  

An open baffle speaker with good field coil drivers sorts out typical issues with low frequency control. In my listening, the only traditionally boxed speakers able to eliminate cabinet colouration have been the massive kharma enigma veyrons and the goebel divin marquis, and even so, never fully - a nuanced degree of cabinet is always heard. Something about greatly increased size, i believe, reduces unwanted sound contributions of the sealed box design. Open baffle, all other things equal, comes without any trace of colouration whatsoever, coupled with all that air which accompanies live music. They’re simply amazing : )

In friendship - kevin 

If you MUST put speakers against the back wall, Larsen is the speaker for you. They are designed for that role and do it very well. If you wish to put your OB speakers (I have maggies and Linkwitz) close to a back wall, just hang a rug, curtain, quilt, or tapestry about 1 inch from the wall (attach the fabric to a 1x1 screwed into the wall) and place the speaker a few inches from the fabric. It can be a "hall runner" or something wider. Thick, fuzzy rugs work best. The speaker's stand projects at least a few inches front and rear, so you can push them up to the wall. If the room is wider than deep, turn the speakers 45 degrees to the wall (aimed at you) so the back wave reflects off the back wall and bounces off the side wall before bouncing back to you. That lengthen the path of the back wave. Floor carpet, rugs, etc will improve juat about any listening space. Popcorn ceilings are your friends. Happy listening!

Open baffle sonic benefits do not surpass boxed speaker designs from engineers who know their stuff.

Two different sonic presentation, nothing to do box speaker designers knowing their stuff.

Open baffle is much easier/cheaper to design/build. Even incompetent dudes with an open baffle offering can claim they are good at designing speakers. On the same note, If someone’s getting greedy/ trying to overcharge you for it (could name a few), have a second thought about it.

Tell that to Linkwitz.  Just as many, if not more, incompetent dudes design box speakers.  

They are a bit restrictive on your choice of subwoofer. But, inclusion/correct integration of subs is a necessity for openbaffle.

Correct integration is required for a box speaker as well.

They are much more room/placement sensitive. If you have a bad room or restrictions for optimal placement (atleast 80+% of guys on audio forums), try and stay away from it.

To get the best performance from any speaker room placement is important.  80% of guys on audio forums are not nearly as knowledgeable as they pretend.  Use of that percentage to support "stay away" is meaningless.

A Ripole subwoofer does a remarkable job for its size.  Borrensen, pretty competent dudes, now offer their version of a Ripole.  

Boils down to preference, no right or wrong.  Experiment and you could be pleasantly surprised.

Danny Richie of GR Research designs and sells both OB and sealed box loudspeakers and subs (in kit form). He has used the same drivers in both applications, and makes no bones about preferring the sound the drivers make when used open baffle. That preference is not a result of design difficulty, but of achieving maximum transparency, greatest soundstage depth, and lowest coloration.