jcmusic Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Has anyone here heard O/B speakers? How do they compare to horns? Did you like them? What is your opinion on them? Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batmans Robin Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 They can be FABULOUS! But a single driver design cannot give you the lowest bass. So some OB guys have woofers in boxes incorporated into the OB design, and some run separate subs, and some say to heck with the lowest bass I don't need it that much. Well worth AUDITIONING!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 I've never heard em..... [:#] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-malotky Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 There were several shown at Audio Karma last spring. Sounded OK, not the detail of horns but I can see why people would play with them. JM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emdeebee Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 I'm using a pair of open baffle Emerald Physics CS2's right now. These are a lot of fun. They're two way speakers, with two 15" woofers, and a shallow horn (waveguide) for the mids & highs. They have tremendous bass, and mine are far from the listening hours the manufacturer reccommends to achieve optimum performance. I enjoy these a lot, and they are quite a change of pace from my belles. Before I got these, I thought my belles were just right, now, I'm certain that I want to add a good sub or subs to the belles. The superior bass of the CS2's has shown me what I'm missing with the belles. If I can find the right sub/subs for the belles, they'll regain their rightful place at the top of the list! Marty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted January 2, 2009 Author Share Posted January 2, 2009 Hi Marty, what amp how much power are you using with the CS2's? Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody_Mack Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 Has anyone here heard O/B speakers? How do they compare to horns? Did you like them? What is your opinion on them? Jay Open Baffle (OB) speakers are nothing at all like horns. But, they are a lot of fun to play with, and yield a unique and facinating sonic expression. Although many are also Single Driver (SD), many are multi-way systems too. Some are passive, some are active. I've made about half dozen OB speakers and enjoyed every one of them. I've used full range drivers and sometimes augmented that with a woofer. I've used sheet rock, particle board and plywood for the baffles. The problem I had with them is that the best ones required a very large baffle - on the order of 36"W x 50"H and this became unwieldy in my small'ish room. Building OB and SD speakers is a huge cultish hobby all its own with dozens of dedicated websites. There are a lot of rewards and some very intriguing sound to be had, often for very low investment. But again, the sound is not anything like horn systems, and in fact, isn't meaningful to compare. For one thing, you simply wont get ear-bleeding volumes, nor will you get the solar-plexus busting bass notes horn people desire. It just ain't that sort of thing. For very few bucks, you can create some speakers that will reproduce music with an eery and uncanny dimensionality that can make good recordings come alive in your room in a very lucid 3-D sort of way in which singers and instruments are expressed with their true size and location. Great fun. Great post, Mark. Great fun, indeed! I have experience with the Hawthorne Audio 'Iris' line with the 'Augie' woofer. With their 96dB effiency they sounded fantastic on my 2A3 amps, and with speaker owner Brad's Arcam SS Integrated in his small living room. On Donald Fagen's 'New Frontier', they threw a soundstage about six feet high and all the way to the walls (although I believe soundstage is very much recording specific!). Very nice sound on the cheap. He now has the Custom Duets as seen in the link below. The best sound I heard at the recent Lone Star Audio Fest was a DIY rig put together by crossover and Altec guru John Busch. Proof yet again that you do not need to spend mega bucks for mega sound! See here: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue37/lonestar_08.htm Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted January 2, 2009 Author Share Posted January 2, 2009 Well in answer to my own question, WOW!!! I went to my friend Brad's tonight he is a big diy type guy. Anyway he has just finished making a pair of these O/B speakers, they sounded great! different buy really good. I was really surprized at how much bass they had, and from a 3" driver the mids and highs were just great. He is now looking into adding a horn into the next build. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emdeebee Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 Hi Jay, The CS2's require bi-amping, and use a Behringer DCX2496 for the crossover. I'm using class D amps, Wyred 4 Sound SX-1000 mono blocks for the lows, and a Bel Canto S-300 dual mono stereo amp for the mid/highs. I use my Cary SLP05 tube preamp, and it's a really great sounding setup. Marty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted January 3, 2009 Author Share Posted January 3, 2009 Hi Jay, The CS2's require bi-amping, and use a Behringer DCX2496 for the crossover. I'm using class D amps, Wyred 4 Sound SX-1000 mono blocks for the lows, and a Bel Canto S-300 dual mono stereo amp for the mid/highs. I use my Cary SLP05 tube preamp, and it's a really great sounding setup. Marty Hi Marty well my friends O/B"s sound really really nice I was floored by the bass and the natural sound they make. For my use they are probably not efficent enough. He is waiting on someone to complete their testing of a design that is a passive type setup. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 I am baffled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesboy Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Here's an example of an open baffle that I built for a customer in NJ. He wanted a baffle that he could nse to switch out various sizes of single drivers. The largest driver would be an Altec 604. I made adaptor inserts that can be used to mount various smaller drivers. The baffle is made from solid walnut and the grill ring is made from padauk and attached to the baffle with embedded magnets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesboy Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Here's a shot of some of the adaptor inserts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Landau Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I'm using the same type of open baffles myself with a pair of Altec 604K. I really like what I'm hearing. Bass is good enough for me. Here's a link with some info to the design http://members.myactv.net/~je2a3/open.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I didn't know the 604 could be used that way, I thought it needed a cabinet. I've been looking at the Great Plains version for quite a while, but what holds me back is my inability to build a decent cabinet. The Beyma coaxials look interesting too, and then of course that nice Radian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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