Ordered Visaton B200 for open baffle. Am I alone?

Well finally set them up in OB chipboard 38"x26" ( no reason for this size other thanthis was the size of the board) and they are 45 hrs into breakin. I've been told 200-1000 hrs for proper breakin, but they are starting to come alive. Very interesting indeedy!! Bass is a bit lower than my Quads, there is a harshness to the treble that i've been told can be ameliorated mechanically, so no problem if its still there after breakin. More anon

I have a different driver in a o-b too and I could describe the sound that I hear as having the same quality as mbhcid just mentioned. I notice also that a cd could sound fantastic as another really bad.At first I tought that it was the speakers, the amp, but I realize that it was the recording. One other thing: is hearing so many detail info in the sound and recording such a good thing? because when you hear so many details you tend to focus your attention on the flaws that you're hearing. But when you have a well recorded cd, it's really awesome.

I am using Visaton B200s in an open baffle design. But the speakers look like a conventional narrow box speaker from the front and side. But the back is open and is covered with a removable speaker grill. The inside is heavily lined with acoustic foam that stops the back wave sound being wierd as it would otherwise be in such an arrangement. Firing down inside the box and with a little horn loading I have an open baffle 8 inch bass unit, the bass exits at the back and the driver is invisible to the listener. Firing straight up and mounted at the front of the top panel is a super tweeter. I do use some gentle cross-over tailoring. Just a cap on the super tweeter and just an inductor on the bass. Just an inductor in parallel with a resistor on the B200. Some of this is pure heresy to the open baffle crowd but I find the Visaton on a conventional large open baffle with no cross-over to be too bright and to lack bass, and lack high frequency extension. With my finished product I happily sold my Verity Fidelios. My Visaton-based speakers beat them in every musical respsct. I just love the sound of paper cones done right and open baffle bass is unbelievably good compared with boxed bass. Mine rolls off sharply below 40Hz but the quality of the bass is absolutely stunning.

Redkiwi, you are discribing a daffle or damped OB.

Yes, damped open baffle. I went this way initially because of the aesthetics (WAF). When I shift the Visaton B200 to a large open baffle board with no cross-over filtering, I don't think I am gaining noticeable amounts of immediacy or detail, or hearing any reduction in 'box sound' but I am certainly losing neutrality and musical enjoyment. In most of life's controversial issues I have not found the answers to be at the extremes, and finding the best trade-offs between the extremes is the way to go. Most people I know who have tried the Visaton in open baffle have eventually been driven to damp the rising frequency response. A lot look to augment the bass and quite a few find that adding a super tweeter is essential to get the air of music in real spaces. That journey happened for me.