New speakers unveiled from Clayton Shaw - Caladan

pennfootball71

121 posts

11-04-2023 at 03:32pm 

Open baffle is midfi

I don’t think I can go along with that at all. Sounds like an uninformed opinion to me.

Not a lot of bass! They need a lot of room to breath and they don’t image as well.

Open baffle have to many compromises and a following of people trying to “beat the system” instead of something with full range and can dig deeper down like a Wilson or Vivid audio.

When you mind and heart are not open......then you react from your ego.

These are probably the woofs he is using:

https://usspeaker.com/beyma%2012BR70-1.htm

Here is the wire he is using:

https://jupitercondenser.com/products/copy-of-stranded-tinned-copper-wire-lacquered-cotton-insulation

For  $1200 you can buy the 4 woofs, 2 tweeters, wire and all xover parts.. This would be usng an even better coil on the midrange (Jantzen 12 gauge waxed paper foil).  Then you make a baffle and wire it up.  I would not use binding posts. I would hardwire the speaker cable to the wires going to the xover parts. 

Another possibility would be to cut off the back of the tweeter so there is no chamber.  This would lower the resonant frequency of the tweeter and probably allow a more transparent sound.  However, power handling could be compromised.  I do this to my Vifa tweeters that are sitting on top of my two way speaker.  The Vifa tweeter sounds way better with the back cut off.  However, it is not doing real low frequencies like the one in the Caladan.  However, if you used a digital xover and used steep slopes then you could cross it over at 1K and play 110db.

Another possibility would be to make the speaker with just the woofs and then put a shelf on top and mount the tweeter on a recessed baffle with felt on the top of the speaker to time align the tweeter with the woofs.  Mucho better than just tilting the speaker back a bit.  Of course, everything I suggest has to be measured and listened to.

You can just make the baffle with the drivers mounted and use a $500 Minidsp Flex as the digital xover.  Then you need two amps (modded Fosi V3 would be great for the bass and inexpensive).  This way you can time align the tweeter to the woofs and equalize the whole speaker and use whatever amps you want on the woofs and tweets......but if you are going to go that far then you might as well use a stack of 4 planars for the mids and highs and cross over at 400hz as explained before and on my website.

Only about 5% of audiophiles are DIYers......so this info is not hurting Clayton's pocketbook. Most of you are rolling your eyes after reading all this.....he he.  It is good eye exercise.

Have fun!

You can get as much bass as you want with open baffle.....you just need more woofer area than a woofer in a box. The Caladan with its two 12s has great bass for most people. You can also do the open baffle servo subs and get 15 hz. You can use 6 12s in a stack on each side and a line source of planars to the ceiling and digital xover and biamped and have a speaker that costs less than $10K and is better than most Wilson or Vivid (overall). If you can afford Wilson or Vivid, you certainly have the living room space to put the speaker out where they belong. Wilsons and Vivids sound way better when they are WAY out in the room. Open baffle speakers can image like crazy.....but you have to know what you are doing to make it work. Look at the IO Design speaker from Italy. No baffles at all......and great sound and imaging.

There are those that put the woofers in a box and have open baffle mids and highs. This way you get more bass out of a smaller driver. The Qualio IQ comes to mind. Great speaker.....and with mods would be world class.

There is no "system". The ego makes limitations. The mind and heart explores all possibilities and does so experientially.