Battle of the Open Baffles

@larryi @kennyc  The PAP Trios with the Voxativ field coil drivers are sublime, far outperforming the "standard" Voxativ drivers offered as the center drivers for that model IMHO (albeit at a significant cost increase). I heard them at the New York Audio Show a few years back and needless to say they left a big and long lasting impression. I hope you get to hear them one day.

I’ve heard several systems with Voxativ field coil drivers and they are remakably dynamic, which is why I am interested in how they sound in PAP systems.  My concern is with how bright and sharp sounding, something I heard with their driver and some other field coil widerange drivers.  I hard similar sound with various Classic Audio field coils and the G.I.P. 4165 12” full range driver.  
Some other field coil full range drivers are smoother and more mellow, such as the ones used in Songer Audio speakers.  The best wide range field coil I’ve heard is the Jensen M-10, a driver that is from the 1940’s.  

The ABX Audiophiles speaker has the tweeter way behind the woofer......so time alignment is way off.  And that tube connector that the compression driver is mounted on will add "horn throat distortion'.

The Voxativ drivers have crappy binding posts on them.  Throw the nut on the binding pos away and hard wire to the voice coil wires and it will blow your mind....way more pure and refined and extended.

Eveything makes a difference!!!!!

Have you heard the ABX speakers? The throat extension was actually designed to correct for a time alignment issue that is present when the modified dipole compression driver is mounted directly to the mid. Based on my listening experience I’m not hearing what you’re saying.

I have been making speakers and modding them since the 1970s.  The information I share is based on listening tests and reading and talking to others about their EXPERIENCE.  There are lots of things to consider....including the phase of the speakers as measured in pulse tests....like Stereophile does.  Does your tweeter sound best set back that far?  Have you experimented to infinity?  All speakers that I mention in my "expanding the possibilities"  lectures are great speakers stock.  However, 90% of what I say can be applied to most speakers with sonic benefits.  Horn throat distortion can be measured.  Do you really think you can send a sonic wave down a tube and not have a coloration?  Does this make sense to you?  Do you really think that having no diffraction control right on the edges of the speaker cone does not affect the sound?  You cannot trust that because someone made something (and even if they have a great reputation)...that they really know all there is to know.  It takes a village.....no it takes an entire world.  The knowledge of Audio is infinite.  This is why there are so many choices.  NO ONE......including me knows jack diddiy squat.......I am a master tweaker (relatively speaking).....but I am NOT a master.  There is NO MASTER.  Have you looked at Dragsters....they all look the same and do the 1000 feet in exactly the same time and speed.....That is because there is common knowledge in what makes a car go fast....you have horsepower, traction, drag, gearing and weight.....that is all there is.  In Audio you have infinite possiblilites.  Every single piece of wire has its own sound.....every connection.....every cap....every resistor....every diaphram....every thing matters.  Do you have your cables off the floor?  It matters.  Have you removed all your binding posts and speaker wire connectors and LEDs....and run your whole system off a super inverter system?  Do you have a super ground rod and filtered ground system for your stereo?  It works.....the game never ends....there is always more to learn and to discover.....which makes the audio game like life itself.....ever expanding joy, love and discovery.  I wish you feel better and better about yourself and everyone.....forever.

Ever expanding light, love, knowledge and Joy.....that is who we are.