Open Baffle Experience

Unless you listen to box vs. open baffle you can’t really comment.  I heard the Spatial Audio X4’s at the audio fest and thought they were wonderful and could easily live with them.  Oh yeah I have 20k box speakers.

I have built two sets for friends using Focal drivers at a time when they were still available. Both of them were coupled to sealed subwoofers. The baffles were a Corian sandwich with MDF in the middle. They were two way with a very straight forward 12 dB/oct crossover. The baffles were hung from the ceiling using decorative chains and the subs were just underneath. They were in essence open baffle LS3 5As. They sound much larger than they are. The owners are very happy with the results. 

Building an open baffle system is much easier than trying to build a non resonant box and the open midbass/midrange driver makes the speaker sound three times as large as it really is. Open baffle subwoofers is a patently silly proposition. I have tried it and the results are poor.  

@goose  You sir, make a good point, and have credibility.

@mijostyn - Your projects sound very interesting, but I have to disagree on the notion of OB subs.

My open baffle subwoofers work exceptionally well and integrate seamlessly with the open baffle speakers. Each subwoofer uses three 12" servo controlled woofers in an H-frame enclosure. They deliver powerful bass down to 20Hz with lots of detail.

They don't pressurize the room like sealed or ported box subs which reduces the room mode problems and the amount of bass that escapes the room. 

Granted, you need more drivers to keep cone displacement reasonable, but they sound very natural. 

OP.

As I sit here listening to my recently acquired Spatial M3TM's. I will tell you that they are different. I can see where they might be a completely wrong choice for some. In my space, with my rig they are magic! I will comment on two major impressions, in my space.

First thing I noticed was what I perceived as a lack of bass. What Ive come to realize is I am hearing a whole different kind of bass. Or maybe I should say now I am actually hearing all of the bass and not the box. The speed and definition in the bass is really satisfying to me.

Second thing I noticed was the absence of the room. They really do blend into a room much better than box speakers do. The boomy bass is gone that classic hole in the 80hz zone doesn't exist anymore... 

Running them with Innuos zen mini and power supply, Pontus II, Aric Audio pre amp and Aric Audio super KT88/150 amp, all helix design diy cabling. Have had monitor audio silver 500's, Cornwall IV's and Focal 948's.

Ill stay with Spatial at this point!

Not sure if there was any value there but would strongly encourage you to try and experience OB's if you have interest. I find them simply amazing for the investment.

J.F.