As the owner of both OB's and Planar's I thought it might be interesting to hear what other non box listener's have experienced. I imagine many of you, like myself, ventured away from box designs for a reason...namely the more lifelike presentation provided by a stat. I've tried box designs, Focal JM Lab, Dynaudio to name a few, and I still own a pair of Focal floorstanders that I use as rear channels in a HT setup, but aside from the OB's nothing I've heard comes remotely close to the midrange and upper frequency presentation of my stats. If I want to bass out for a bit I'll listen to my OB's, which even as natural sounding as they are don't approach the midrange delivery of my 'stats. It's true for some of us, once stat never back. The majority of criticism I've heard against them surrounds LF delivery, or a lack of integration between a panel and a sub. I've experienced successful results with well over a dozen pairs and models of stats.
To the poster who questioned ones ability to keeping open designs clean...I don't know anyone who listens 24-7. When not in use I simply treat my planars and OB's like I would a grand piano by keeping them covered, otherwise dust and airborne particles will only create work for you. All stats need to be regularly vacuumed, so this is a non issue.
I've not owned OB's but for a short time, thus I've no idea what long term exposure to the elements will be like, but I'd imagine corrosion concerns really are a non issue, but even so these Hawthorne Audio drivers are fairly inexpensive to replace...which brings to mind another major benefit of a non box or OB design...one can easily upgrade their drivers, crossovers and other components easily or make continual upgrades, tweaks, and changes to their speakers anytime they choose. No box design allows for that type of convenience or ease of use.
A tip to keeping them covered when not in use - Old sheets work in a pinch. I recycle king sized sheets just for that purpose. In the past I've made actual form fitting covers for a few former pairs of ML's. My current Vista's came with two different sets of factory fitted covers, which I found very interesting considering ML didn't provide covers for any of their former speakers so it's nice to see they finally stepped up to the plate and provided covers. And yes, there's no power to them as long as their not receiving a signal so keeping this stat design clean and dust free really is a non issue.
I'll end by saying I've heard some pretty high end box designs but I've yet to own anything in a box design where I didn't hear the box, if you know what I mean. But hey, I believe in live and let live, so to each their own. Thanks for everyones input.
Enjoy!
