Open Baffle loudspeakers.

The trick to OB's as Ngjockey said is DSP!!

I started out with a set of stock Hawthorne's...really good...kinda felt like I had my Maggies back but without that super small sweet spot!!

Then I bi-amped them with a Behringer DCX2496 and added subs...improved greatly!!

Next step...removed the Behringer for a DEQX...best move I have ever made in my audio swapping days...that thing is amazing...I'll never be without one!!! So simple with such great results, I just don't understand why people aren't eating them up!!

You can take a good speaker and make it really good or a really good speaker and make it great!!!

And mine are mounted on a 18" x 28" board 2' from the back wall with a slight tilt up...love it!! You don't have to be fancy but you now have the option to if you want...

Anyhoo...I betcha heard this before...once you go to an OB, you'll never go back to a box!! You'll always hear a box!!

My 2 cents :)

Nola speakers are open baffle in the mids and highs with a sealed box on the woofer only. Great sounding speakers!

I have Salk SoundScapes that have an open baffle midrange. Box speakers don’t reproduce the liveliness that is often heard on the musical stage. Open baffle and panel speakers are attempt to solve the problem. The bass issue mentioned previously is something that needs to be addressed by the speaker designer.

Advantages:

1. Liveliness is added(restored?) to the music
2. Freedom from box resonances

Disadvantages:

1. The image is larger than life
2. Bass frequencies are a difficult problem to address
3. There is the back wave of music coming out behind the speaker that reflects off of the wall. These reflections need to be managed.

FWIW, Dennis Murphy solved the image problem by putting the open baffle midrange in an partially fiber filled open backed box.

Bob

One more advantage of open baffle speaker is that the image can be deeper and wider. One more disadvantage is that the added ambiance makes the image less clear and vocals less distinct. Proponents of open baffles say that the extra clarity is from artificial recording studios and opponents of open baffles say that the ambiance generated by open baffle speakers is artificial.

Bob

You can add Emerald Physics to the list. I have the CS2.3's in a tri-amped configuration and they are just amazing. The 2.3's have two 15" woofers per side to deal with the OB bass issue. DSP/active crossovers are the way to go. My DEQX will be here in two weeks. Can't wait!