Battle of the Open Baffles

Pure Audio Projects are awesome. I was at a club gathering a few years ago where the guys from PAP, Hattor, and Lampizator were demoing their gear. I heard the Trio with the voxitiv field coils driven by a Lampi Integrated, not on the market, and the Pacific DAC. Wonderful setup.

The PAP Quintet 15’s , Vox ac 1.5 widebanders with a few mods, XO and wire, are jaw dropping. 8 ft off the front wall, Wall to wall cavernous imaging. Now with addition of the Charter Oaks Peq-1 can even bring the image forward of the front plane on certain recordings. 

+1 for dougthebiker--GR Research NX-Otica. They need a medium level skillset to assemble (and lots of clamps--rent from Home Depot). The CNC work is just about perfect. Or you can always hire a woodworker, carpenter, or handyman to assemble them for you--and still have a great deal. I've listened to many OB speakers, and enjoyed some of them, but NX-Oticas are the best I've heard.

..I do want to hear them with the field coil Voxative module

@larryi 

Me also.  On the Voxative own speakers this upgrade seems expensive, but is lower priced option on the PAP.  Reviews say the Voxative field coil is a significant sonic uptick.  

I have both open baffle subs and speakers in my painfully square room.

The whole dipole concept has soo many advantages over box speakers especially in non optimal rooms (the figure 8 sound pattern allows you to put then very close to side walls) You do need space and diffusion to make them sound their best, and as with any system, room correction never hurts.

I do not see myself returning to anything sealed except, maybe a couple of subs to enjoy the earth movimg pounding you get in movie sound effects.

For music however, the accuracy of the bass is beyond anything I haven heard in boxed subs including the JL Gothams which are fantastic in their own right and nicely compliment any system.

OB excels in vocals and while very well suited for jazz (which I listen to a lot of especialy horns - Miles or Chet Baker are near religous experiences), I am still awe strucked by "Killing in the name of" by Rage Against the Machine and another one of my favorite mind numbing songs by Tool - "Chocolate Chip Trip".  The drums sound like drums should sound and the deep bass is so clear.  Victor Wooten on "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" gets into to some very deep bass, and hearing those really low notes through the OB subs is something to behold.

In my opinion, you cant go wrong with any open baffle implemention, but only if you have the space. They require a minimum of 3f toff the wall behind them, but despite potentially low WAF they are eally special. (I have mine at about six feet)