Open Baffle Experience

@mwatsme The recordings were made by Audiogon member @shkong78 at the Pacific Audio Show. I don't know what he used to make them.  To me the Spatials sound very good and are at the very least competitive with the Voxativs.

@jaytor Wave-guides, yes that makes more sense, open-back - nice!

One of the things that has prevented me from pursuing large front baffle designes (like Spatial, Pure Audio Project, Caintuk, etc.) is one of the same problems I hear with box speakers - reflections from the front baffle allow localization of the speaker, they don't 'disappear' so they sound like listening to speakers - ruining the 'being there' effect. Maybe a wave-guide solves this? Problm with wave-guides is they act to compress - same as horns can seem 'shouty' and broadcast forward. Maybe the AMT being open on the backside solves this? Most box speakers take these issues and add cabinet resonances, backwaves, (typically) flat side-panels and so on, stacking too many bad cards in your hand to form a winning combination unless a ton of $ is thrown at it. I once had a pair of egg'ish-shaped speakers made of concrete (no cabinet resonance), they sounded very good... until the Carver monoblocks blew a chunk off the inside in short order - returned those rattly beasts for a pair of bipole Mission spreakers that served me well for decades.

Cool thing about LXmini + OB-subs is they're inexpensive, you get to build them yourself (sense of accomplishment), they barely care about the room or treatments, you can use them to build an entire 'lifestyle' system for $2k (less than many of these guys are paying for a pair of cables), and tune them to sound however you like and whenever you like. What can be done to change the sound of most speakers... an endless game of cable-swapping, gear matching, tube-rolling, room treatments, vibration oscillators all around the room, copper screws, magic beads... the list may be infinite and infinite $.

One of the things that has prevented me from pursuing large front baffle designes (like Spatial, Pure Audio Project, Caintuk, etc.) is one of the same problems I hear with box speakers - reflections from the front baffle allow localization of the speaker, they don't 'disappear' so they sound like listening to speakers - ruining the 'being there' effect

Honestly I do not understand this problem. I get edge diffraction, but my speakers have 1/2" rounds on the edges and I defy anyone to tell me they can hear where the speaker is.  I've heard many other speakers that do a great job of disappearing as well, some with very narrow (Vandersteen) and some with broad baffles (SF Amati Heritage).  I've never felt this was an attribute of baffles which could not be dealt with.

@mwatsme - yes, I agree that a narrow baffle helps make the speakers disappear by reducing the front baffle reflections. I think the wave guide used by the X4 does reduce the affect, but probably doesn't eliminate it altogether. I listened to a few songs on them at Pacific Audio Fest and thought they had a nice sound stage, but I wasn't that familiar with the songs that were played. 

One of the things I like about GR-Research's designs is that they use a folded baffle design so that the front baffle is as narrow as possible while still providing more separation between the driver front and back wave, lowering the frequency at which cancellation starts to occur. Like the Linkwitz speakers, they do a nice job completely disappearing 

On the other hand, I do find the Spatial Audio speakers somewhat more attractive. They have a nice clean look. 

I've heard some very nice box speakers, but they were also VERY expensive. As a percentage of production cost, a lot more of the expense goes toward the cabinet in high quality box speakers. An open-baffle speaker with comparable quality drivers and crossovers can be made for a lot less.