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How many 'listen outside of the box' design?

Whether I owned electrostats or open baffle designs the majority of my audio life I've owned boxless speakers. My choices were made in part due to a logic of removing a 'box' from the equation of having to interact with a room. The more I thought about it it seemed a very logical choice. Why enter a speaker into a box and then have to deal with the resonation of the speaker interacting with the box and the room? I'm not saying successful box designs haven't been built, what I'm suggesting is box designs seem a more complicated way to achieve true room integration. I've discovered, dollar for dollar, I've exceeded most box designs. How many think as I do, or have experienced similar results based upon experimentation?
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jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,502 posts
 
With Open Baffle speakers do they require extra special up-keep clean-up wise since the back of the drivers are exposed? Do extra air-filters or de-humidifiers need to be employed in a room that has Open Baffle speakers. The reason I ask is that I have to dust my speakers every couple of weeks to keep them presentable. Also I noticed some oxidation in some of my monoprice speaker wiring that is over 3 years old. I couldn't imagine having to dust the actual speakers themselves. Now with Maggies and other Electrostats how are those cleaned? If ever I venture "outside the box" I just want to make sure all that is needed.

Thanks in advance.
rleff
1,065 posts
 
On my soundlab's I have custom covers that slips over them when not in use;but before that I vacuumed them with the attachment that has soft bristles and lowered the suction to keep them clean;also they were not powered up when sitting idle;I thought that helped control the dust that could be attracted to the membranes.
sibelius
256 posts
 
I have Hawthorne Audio Open Baffle speakers and really enjoy them. There is something about the sound that just seems very natural and effortless. I have also enjoyed listening to other boxless designs like planars (Maggies) and ES (Quads). Of course, no speaker does everything well but I find that OB's do a better job than most across the full spectrum of musical genres. It's also a bonus that OB type speakers tend to be much less expensive to build than box speakers.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
I've been a Magnepan owner since the early '80s when I bought some pre-owned MG-1s. As impressed today, with my 1.6s, as I was then.....
jeffjazz
95 posts
 
Have Eminent technology speakers. I wish the macros dynamics was better, but that is it. It does so many things right, I know I would have to spend big bucks to better it with a box speaker. Every speaker design has some limitations. This planar speakers just sounds so pure and real. I think the mid operates from 80 hz to 10khz. No wonder! It does have a box woofer on it but other than the woofer having more punch than the planar drivers, it is very fast and box-less sounding.
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