baffleless speakers

soundnovice

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Hello everyone...after a real long break..... this is what I intend to try out!

baffleless speaker!! :yahoo:

initial specs of speaker are as below. hopin with suggestions and opinions.

1. baffle less speaker - all drivers will be supported using wooden bars or will be suspending with chains
2. low end to be covered using 10-12" woofers
3. either use one fullrange driver to act as mid-tweeter (becomes 2 way) or use separate mid and a tweeter (becomes 3 way)
4. target low end to achieve is 80hz. or even 100hz is fine as later I will add a sealed sub to cover below 100hz.
5. I am equipped with xonar U7 7.1 sound card so I can play around with dsp xover and EQing.
6. to be driven by SMSL 160W class-D amps and 25W T-amps for woofers and mids/tweeters.
7. the listening environment is going to be nearfield. sitting at less than 8 feet from speakers and speakers separated by around 8-10 feet. so SPL requirements are low.
8. I am more interested in achieving better sound stage/imaging, resolution and proper lows to enjoy music (soft rock, classical instruments, vocals etc)
 
Congratulations for the decision.
I personally am happy that you are going for baffle less design.

Let us know your reasons for going baffle less. It will help others to refer your reasons to make their own decisions.

All the best.
Keep us updated.
 
recently I visited and had audition of LXMini speakers at SL's place. I am now having first hand experience of how an exceptionally open, dynamic and wide soundstage/image sound is supposed to sound like!! SL achieves it by omni sealed woofer and partial OB/baffleless full range driver. although i could not audition LX521 or Orion as per SL, LXmini sounds pretty close to LX521 in above departments. so as per my understanding and discussion with him, what i conclude is a boxed unit can never offer these qualities. OB is the next stop. I have experimented with OB previously(15" ahuja with 4" fostex), something similar to what Sumanta is having. althogh bass was limited to around 100-120hz (i could not play around much with EQing the woofer), the sound had the desired qualities. wide soundstage, dynamic and instrument seperation and most importantly wide sweetspot. I can settledown with a well designed OB any day any time. however i believe going baffleless is the next move. i am expecting similar or better performance than OB. the challenges are big as front and rear waves will cancel out more easily as there is no baffle or h-frame or u-frame. but few have achieved it. the idea is to use multiple woofers and do lot of EQing for low-mid section while having dipole tweeters to radiate front and back as in orion. one advantage would be simpler build effort as no much woodwok is required. figuriing out how to support the drivers would be a challenge.
 
All the best.
Looking forward for your next step.

There are some DIY efforts on baffle less design out there. Refer them please.

Tweeter pointed vertical worked nice for me in my OB.
 
Sumanta...any ideas how to support drivers?
one way is fixing them to small wooden bars. other way as few people have tried is suspending them with threads or chains to a frame. any new ideas?
 
Make a thick steel or wood plate wide enough and shaped so to hold all the bolts of your drivers. Have a support similar to Jamo R909.

Or make a goal post to chain hang drivers. Wife will mostly not accept them though.

I think going for no baffle is difficult to make than an OB.

Be carefull, making a proper box speaker as subwoofer to match with openness of baffle less drivers are difficult, costly. And since, you already liked bass of OBs, I suggest you make TL sub or may go for Ripole if you are going active way.
As I opined my impression earlier in our various discussions, big drivers brings sense of presence and natural sound impression for frequencies low to top mid. So, I suggest you to go for 15 inch drivers for low frequencies. Or 12 inch with high excursions (even for near field listening).

You can say, I like it that way, but I guess you have realized it too now listening OB and now LX mini, that bipole and omni brings impressively realistic and un altered musical expressions.
 
makes sense. good idea. but pipe dia should match that of magnet

Brilliant idea by T.Antony.

Soundnovice, you can get PVC pipes having workable thinckness with required diameter to fit magnets of bid drivers. Infact you can use reducers to narrow down diameter if you want to.

Somebody I have seen used a plate perpendicular to plane of driver flanges and hold just two vertical holes of each drivers. Looked neat.
 
Brilliant idea by T.Antony.

Soundnovice, you can get PVC pipes having workable thinckness with required diameter to fit magnets of bid drivers. Infact you can use reducers to narrow down diameter if you want to.

Somebody I have seen used a plate perpendicular to plane of driver flanges and hold just two vertical holes of each drivers. Looked neat.

yeah. using rubber gasket or similar material around the magnet, i think driver can be firmly fixed inside pipe.
thanks for the idea Antony :clapping:
 
The pipe doesn't need to be big to accommodate the magnet completely. A smaller diameter pipe can be used with a rectangular cut-out to support the magnet. If stability is an issue, two long threaded rods can be used to secure the driver to the pipe.

Did a quick drawing for reference...
cutout.jpg
 
Another awesome idea Antoni. However I would prefer flat wood panel with cutout for supporting magnet just for aesthetics reasons
 
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