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Pure Audio Project open baffle speakers

http://www.pureaudioproject.com/

Has anyone out there tried these?

They sound intriguing 

Are there any/many got-ya's like room size, speaker placement in room, amp size/type etc...

A friend tried DIY open baffle a couple of years ago and they were quite large

My problem at the time was the amount of space I had available. I have since moved into a new house with a much larger listening area - 17' x 42' with 8 ft ceiling

Thanks for any input - Cheers


williewonka
ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
3,329 posts
 
mrotino,

You have only scratched the surface with 40 hours on the speakers. Mine improved up to and beyond 300 hours. The bass will benefit the most, becoming more prodigious with better presence and slam with kick drum and electric bass guitar. It does get much better than what you hear now.

Oz



mrotino
66 posts
 
Yes Ozzy that's what I've heard from many owners which is hard to believe as the bass is already quite good and much better than what I had previously.  It's difficult for me to play them continuously since my family doesn't like it unfortunately.  Anyway I'll try to get more hours on them and look forward to the improvements as well.
I've heard the 100 hour point is significant and that they continually improve as you've mentioned beyond that as well.
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
To the OP, I reviewed both the PAP Trio15 line (Tang Band, Voxativ, and Horn1), as well as the Tri-Art Audio Series B 5 Open for Dagogo.com 

Every OB speaker has its own design and build characteristics. "Better" is quite subjective. I can set up either of these quite different designs in systems that are captivating. You should familiarize yourself with the primary drivers available and try to gain understanding about how they would sound generally, apart from particular brand, i.e. horn, full range, concentric, etc. 

For your more sizable space I would look at the Quintet rather than the Trio. Due to the arc of the front baffle I wouldn't be concerned about the speaker's top being 1' from ceiling. The horn is exquisitely refined and when set up optimally is stunning in resolution and center image focus. My understanding is that the field coil driver is much better, but I haven't laid hands on it. 

dhl93449
455 posts
 
I have a set of PAP Trio with Horn 1 midrange. They replaced a set of B&W 803Ds. Here are my impressions:

I am using the Leonides XO. Have very mixed feelings about this XO. It is a first order XO and does little to roll off either the bass drivers or the Horn 1 midrange. The Horn 1 is good down to 300 Hz or so, and the bass drivers go all the way up to 1500 to 2K Hz (where they have a nasty peak). So there is a large area in the lower midrange where both the Horn 1 and the bass drivers are active. I added an RC network to the bass drivers to try to attenuate the upper midrange somewhat, and it works after a fashion but is not perfect. The speaker sounds great on Jazz but is trying for compressed rock. Am in the process of looking at an active XO system so I can better roll off the horn and the bass drivers at about 800 Hz.

Compared to the B&Ws, the imaging and sound stage depth is vastly better. Even with the frequency response issues, these have much better upper midrange (not as harsh and they don't "beam" like the 803s did). Bass is quite good compared to the B&Ws, which surprised me.

I also have the Voxative drivers which I have yet to try, and may swap these for the horn. The horns use Beyma Spanish made drivers and are incredibly efficient, at 108 dB/Watt. May also take a look at the ESS drivers as these are quite inexpensive at the moment.

I do have to comment on the CS from this company. Ze'ev is quite responsive until he has your money, thereafter not so much. His business model is to drop ship the components from all over the world, so the user has to assemble and test the speaker. We had a number of QC problems (the initial shipment of woofers were damaged by the manufacturer in packaging) and many of the parts were quite late in delivery.

So for me these are a work in progress, which I don't mind so much as I am a tweaker. I think they have real potential if the frequency response aberrations can be brought under control.  
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Imo, it's not advantageous to lower the mid-bass as you will make the speaker sound smaller.  Try working with different resistors,  caps (I put in Mundorf oil filled for a beautiful i.provement) and the wiring. All of these are efficacious.  If you have lower end electronics you should not expect extravagance. Also, if speaker is sitting on floor, use some baffle tilt to change relative position of drivers to ear,  as this is a good way to adjust perception of balance of drivers. See my review at Dagogo.com 
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