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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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magfan
1,583 posts
 
I don't know what they are called, exactly, but does anyone use regular cone speakers without enclosure? 'Open Baffle'? is that right?

A line source using say.....the Audience driver would be something I'd love to hear. No crossover using fullrange drivers.....

failing that, I'll stick with my panels......
telescope_trade
539 posts
 
Magfan,

Yes, an example open baffle would be my X-Static speakers
from AV123 (now out of business). I love the
sound of them.
drew_eckhardt
394 posts
 
>I don't know what they are called, exactly, but does anyone use regular cone speakers without enclosure? 'Open Baffle'? is that right?

Sure. I built a pair of Orions designed by Siegfried Linkwitz.

Everything good about panel speakers plus the sweet spot is much larger, the bass goes deeper, peaks can go over 100dB, and placement is less finicky.
audiokinesis
1,872 posts
 
While not "boxless" in the literal sense of the word, omni-directional and poly-directional designs often have a presentation reminiscent of an open-baffle or planar speaker. I believe that much of what a good open-baffle or planar speaker does well results from the relatively late-arriving backwave energy, and essentially the same effect can be generated by other techniques, some of which offer advantages in efficiency, bass extension, or dynamic headroom.
spenceroo
183 posts
 
All recorded music is recorded through a box speaker, so what you are listening to is "box speaker music" coming out of your non-box speakers. Get it? Even that live music concert that you so desperately want to reproduce at home is coming at you through box speakers (the PA system) when you're sitting in the audience. My speakers don't sound boxy at all (SP Tech Timepiece 3.0) They sound like real music and disappear in my room. It all comes down to what sounds best to you.
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