You know with dsp you think you could get around alot of problems and electronic crossovers.even if you don't like that you could get them close with electronic crossover and then build a fixed capacitor and crossover with coils and inductors.enjoy the hunt and experimenting..
Open baffle speakers
Open baffle speakers design is the simplest , to get bass response similar to other design , like ported, the baffle size must be huge to avoid low frequency degradations . Tipical size the baffle width 10-20" got weak bass performance. I am wondering how open baffle speakers design became so popular ?
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Back in the old days past, most manufactures of console stereos had open back cabinets. Some of these sounded really great and had no lack of bass. In experimenting while building DYI speakers I found a properly damped cabinet with not fully open back but partial depending on the cabinet size can open up the sound stage. Allowing an internal pressure regulated to breathe. With a resonator port internal to the cabinet with part of the resonator end open in my case with a front vent also made a Smooth lower mid bass. Midbass woofers usually cross over at any number of frequencies depending on the woofer can cross over from 500 to 5,000 depending on the setup. The woofer also does mid range as well as bass. The tuned hemholz took charge of the deep frequencies. There are more factors than you can shake a stick at when building. But this worked in my case. I am not an expert by any means. However if open back is used properly I think it is rewarding. I just had fun. I suspect some higher end open back manufacters are striving for openness not sounding like a cabinet or case is there at all. |
@bache I take all measurements from the listening position - about 8ft. in front and centered. Also, you can see in the photo that the LXmini and the subs are toed-in toward the listener(s).
Yes! This is true, you have uncovered (for yourself) another wonderful benefit of open-baffle subs... they don't 'load' the room, don't rattle decorations, don't turn the walls, celing or floors into giant vibrating panels. You might also notice that (despite excessive endeavors to improve the sound) there are no audio-inspired room treatments. Even though I have 'improved' (further minimized) the system since the photo and measurements that I shared - there are still no room treatments. Why? Because they are unecessary - for exact reason you said... the drivers don't radiate sound from the sides (that would reflect all over the room) causing need of room treatments. Now, could the room be improved with treatments... yes, I'm sure it could - but the improvements would be so minimal as to not be worthwhile (for me).
Again, I agree completely. This is not always possible, but I have endeavored it, comparing many different speakers in the same room and same system (at each time in history). Here's a photo from a previous itteration of 2-ch system, where I was A/B'ing LXmini against ML and Tekton DI's...
The only speakers I've had that have the same 'magic' as LXmini are the Martin Logan e-stats. Problem with those speakers is that the 'magic' only happens in a very small focused frame (head in a vice syndrome). The LXmini take the 'magic' and make it both more spacious and available everywhere around the listening area. Not all 'box' speakers are 'bad'. I've kept a few for various reasons... GoldenEar Triton One's are currently in the basement HT system as mains, GoldenEar Triton 3+ as rear surrounds, Martin Logan Motions as center and side-surround, and ML in-celings as Atmos (GE and ML both use AMT tweaters, so voicing is very similar), Elac were too good a bargain to resell and found a home in the garage system, and I learned a lot during my time with Tekton DI's. The Tekton's don't have the 'magic', but they do some things very well, resulting in me using them to fine-tune the crossovers and EQ of the LXmini + Phoenix(alt) subs. You might ask what 'magic' is missing from the Tekton DI's... they sound very good, flat linear and full-range response that is lightning fast. But when you listen to them, it sounds like you're listening to speakers - there is no 'magic' found in LXmini and other similar dipole designs. BTW, I have made several in-room recordings of this system posted on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxwE9oiZfmM |
@mwatsme your system sounds fabulous, especially for such a narrow room. Well done! |
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