Open Baffle loudspeakers.


Hello. I am very interested in any responses that the Audiogon community may have regrading Open Baffle designs. I know that this is was 60 year ago idea, and now boxes predominate.

But who has actually heard these?

Thanks.
128x128dalecrommie
I attached an exciter to a 2x2 foot, 1" thick piece of solid, pink insulation.  Using the positioning '2/5  3/5 rule', I heard a perfectly clear, quick and well balanced sound:  well balanced for a certain upper level of frequencies.  Having not tried it, I'd assume a much larger piece would offer more bass, but uncontrolled bass....blurry, without texture.  I guess you'd just have to use traditional boxes to get good mid bass down to bass, but still, wouldn't it be worth it for the air and clarity?  Acoustic guitars, the shimmer of drums and the air in 'wind' instruments sounds amazingly real.  Has anyone experimented with the larger exciters?  What other baffle mediums have you used?
+1 @grannyring on Nola.  In my experience, open-baffle cone drivers are a great compromise between completely closed-box speakers and planar or electrostatic designs.  Done well, I find open-baffle dynamic cone speakers in general to be more open sounding than box speakers but with greater tonal density and "oompf" than flat panel designs along with fewer bass production and integration issues.  Nola in particular has got me rethinking what my own end-game speakers may end up being precisely because of this issue.  Hearing their Grand Reference towers at a show in NYC years ago continues to be the single most impressive audio reproduction experience I've had. 

Spatial is another brand not mentioned previously that embraces an open-baffle architecture. 
I have a pair of Spatial Audio X1 Turbos.  They're wonderful, with tight, solid bass and a good presentation all the way up through the high end.

Then, last Christmas, I decided that I deserved a pair of Spatial X2s.  Even more wonderful, with fabulous bass down to 18Hz, and an air motion transformer handling the high end.  They image like crazy, and are utterly non fatiguing.  I listen to them for hours at a time.

I put the old Spatials in my system in my finished basement apartment.  They, and I, like their new home.