Open baffle speakers

I’m sure there’s an argument in here somewhere, but I’ll be damned if I can find it.

@ozzy62 Frequency response measurements are taken at 1 meter. The frequency response below 50 Hz of an open baffle woofer in a residential room at a 12 foot listening position is at best unpredictable and more than likely horrendous. An open baffle speaker makes a lot of sense if you were going to cross over to subwoofers at 100 Hz. It is easier to avoid enclosure resonances and you get the advantage of dipole behavior when it comes to room interaction. 

@mijostyn - not with nearfield listening and if that OB works off a competently designed and built field coil driver. You’d have to actually hear one to understand what’s possible. I only need to cross my subs over at 50db - any more affects the nuance of the mid and low woofers. My listening position is 7’ from each woofer, which are 8’ apart 😉

in friendship - kevin

@mijostyn - I have not had that experience. My OB woofers have smoother in-room response than I have ever been able to achieve with conventional box subs. I suspect this is because they don’t excite the side to side room modes as much because of the radiation pattern.

My response at the listening position is fairly flat, ultimately rolling off in the upper teens.

My experience with OB speakers is that the hype surrounding them in recent years is mostly unwarranted. They do sound different from most box speakers but not necessarily better. Of course if you spend $10K on a well designed OB speaker, it’s likely going to outperform a $5K box speaker. I suspect that many listeners who made the move to Spatial or Pure Audio Project OBs and raved about the performance were upgrading from cheaper box speakers.

Personally, despite their considerable shortcomings, I prefer Magnepans and ESLs to any of the dynamic-driver OBs I’ve encountered. 

One trait that has been consistent among all dynamic-driver OBs I’ve owned or auditioned is substandard imaging, probably due to the requisite width of the baffles. Also, none managed to completely do away with the resonances typically associated with box speakers the same way a panel speaker can.