Open Baffle vs Box

genovanelli

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_yrG3ZzE1g&t=80s

Impressive stuff, not to mention setup!

Good to see Open Baffles doing so well in 2020.

As gregm mentioned above, if they were good enough for Siegfried Linkwitz, then they're certainly worth investigating for most of us. 

All those hugely complicated Gordian Knot box issues - dismissed at a stroke.

If you have the space (ie they can be very large) and you don't mind the looks (look ma, no box!) then open baffles are certainly worth a try for the sheer life-like freedom in sound that they offer. Much like open backed v closed back headphones.

What boxes do to the signal isn't pretty whichever way you look at it, you can always hear it, especially in the mids. No such thing as a silent loudspeaker cabinet, though some, like the Harbeth range do try awfully hard.

There are quite a few interesting designs where the midrange unit is backless combined with the bass driver in a box. For me it's telling that Siegfried Linkwitz eventually settled for an open baffle / box combination for his ultimate design. 

Sadly the complexities of getting an open baffle/dipole design to integrate well are no less than those for box speakers.