Open Baffle Speakers

The original Alon designs used the tweeters and mids on an open baffle mounted on an infinite baffle bass module. Most of the current Nola (formerly Alon) models also use a variation of this configuration to good effect.

With these speakers you get a fast, open, airy and transparent sound signature along with mostly excellent bass and a huge soundstage. They are also quite dynamic. To my ears, these Alon speakers (including my Alon Vs fed by the Cary 303/300 and Herron Electronics) produce a very dimensional and natural sound. Of course, with the bass in a box you have crossovers.

I'm not into DIY. I like to buy what sounds good already. It strikes me that the open baffle designs - even hybrids like Alons - are hard to get right.

Want a serious open baffle,then consider the Crevasse speakers from Finland.1metre ribbon with 2 10" woofer in an open baffle.

I used my Lowthers based on a kinda Bazzilla design, though I changed everything, I made about 6 different boards for my Lowthers the last one went down to 100hz, I used the Altec woofers from there on to whatever..30hz maybe? Supertweeters, subwoofers, biamped, triamped I used passive line level Xover, passive (speaker level) Xovers, I used EQ for the Bass...I tried Fostex, Saba green cones, Vintage Telefunkens, Oval Telefunken (recommended) etc.... Never had sooo much fun, I strongly recommend them, the only little detail I found was the soundstage thing...
Then I heard different speakers with a whole new bag of worms and things I could never get with my OB, I still miss some things from my OB, but I think I am getting better results now, I dont get that natural balanced sound, but I get better detail now and better soundstage...I am working to make it sound more "Natural" like my old OB...
Its all a trip, you decide where to go and there is no best place, is Prague better than Cancun?
(I would stay away from Beirut and Haifa for the moment though)

You could probably find some alons/nolas to listen to if you're interested... mine have really natural midrange.

Greh:

There is a lot of interesting discussion going on at the Audio Circle, REDwineaudio, Decware, and Omega Speakers site re: your very same question-open baffle speakers. That type of speaker design and a new product from Red Wine Audio made for some interesting commentary and wound up with a review at 6moons.com that was positively gushing. Your answer may lie there. It certainly piqued my interest.

Nonoise