DIY Open Baffle Experiment

[jaudere]

So if I understand you correctly, the combination is 4 twisted pairs + 1 single core per pole - correct?
Curious about 1 thing- what is the wire between your amp and speakers?

All these wire combinations that I tested and described ARE the wires between speaker and amp. The internal wires of speaker i.e. Speaker terminal to full ranger and full ranger to tweeter is single core solid copper wire used for earthing. In fact when I saw huge improvement in sound after changing from multistranded copper wire to solid wire in the internal wiring, it prompted me to try the same cable and Cat 5 between speaker and amp.

 

[keith_correa]

If correct, why should I try using so thick cables. Need to try single strand from amp to speaker.

Because IMO all those measurements and stuff and logic about resistance/capacitance/inductance for cables seem hokum to me. I don't think anyone knows why some cables sound good/bad. All they are offering are theories acc. to them. Does not make them right. Your ears are the best judge. Whatever sounds the best to you is THE ONE. Irrespective of whether the measurements say otherwise. That is why experimentation using permutations/combinations is key. And of course - try single strand too. It's just 1 more permutation.

 

[keith_correa]

All these wire combinations that I tested and described ARE the wires between speaker and amp. The internal wires of speaker i.e. Speaker terminal to full ranger and full ranger to tweeter is single core solid copper wire used for earthing. In fact when I saw huge improvement in sound after changing from multistranded copper wire to solid wire in the internal wiring, it prompted me to try the same cable and Cat 5 between speaker and amp.

Am confused now. Can you list [best sounding first and so on] the combinations of cables that you tried in 2 buckets. 1st Bucket: Amp to Speaker. 2nd Bucket: Speaker terminals to drivers.

Example:
Amp to Speaker

1. Cable 1
2. Cable 2
3. ...

Speaker terminals to drivers

1. Cable 1
2. Cable 2
3. ...

This should provide clarity.

 

[aashish351]

Okay... time to bring the thread back to my Open baffle experiment .

I have made a slight change in the baffle... instead of having the long extending support at the back, I have attached the supports on the side of the main baffle such that they are extended half in front and half at back. Here is the picture after:

By aashish351 at 2012-06-01

I decided not to go ahead with the hinges idea after suggestions from juadere and hari..

The reason is of course to reduce the extended back portion to see if it was the cause behind creating standing waves and giving midrange glare.

 

[jaudere]

Sorry to highjack your thread. By the way, what are your listening impression? This design is supposed to be better than previous one. It is quite close to H frame and mainly used for subwoofer on open baffle. Again I have forgotten the advantage but if you type 'H frame vs U frame subwoofers' in google, you should get the answer. Will try to find it myself also.

 

[keith_correa]

Thanks Keith. Bit complicated for me. My reachin electronics DIY is limited.

Not complicated at all. See attached image - "Before" is your existing 3.3uF cap. "After" is what you need to replace your single cap with - 2 caps, 2 resistors and one 9v battery. Cheap enough. But the potential benefits could be HUGE.

 

[keith_correa]

Okay... time to bring the thread back to my Open baffle experiment .

Oops! So very sorry for the hijack. I completely missed the fact that this thread is yours.

 

[aashish351]

No problem guys... I don't mind at all! Knowledge is good wherever found!

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

 

[jaudere]

Not complicated at all. See attached image - "Before" is your existing 3.3uF cap. "After" is what you need to replace your single cap with - 2 caps, 2 resistors and one 9v battery. Cheap enough. But the potential benefits could be HUGE.

Now it seems simple.I was bogged down by the write up. But what is the value of resistors? And those caps are bipolar I suppose (if I am not wrong wiring two caps of same value in series halves the value). Do it need a circuit board to do this or point to point wiring is ok?

 

[keith_correa]

But what is the value of resistors?

According to the article, anything from 500k to 1M is fine

And those caps are bipolar I suppose

The article says nothing about them being bipolar

(if I am not wrong wiring two caps of same value in series halves the value)

You are not wrong

Do it need a circuit board to do this or point to point wiring is ok?

P2P is perfect

 

[aashish351]

Sorry to highjack your thread. By the way, what are your listening impression? This design is supposed to be better than previous one. It is quite close to H frame and mainly used for subwoofer on open baffle. Again I have forgotten the advantage but if you type 'H frame vs U frame subwoofers' in google, you should get the answer. Will try to find it myself also.

Was only able to connect and listen for 10 minutes. Initial listening impression of only 10 minutes is not very clear. There seems to be a slight improvement in midrange glare problem. The bass seems to be the same. More after a detailed review.

 

[aashish351]

had a chance to give a long listen to the open baffles now... definite improvement from the previous design. the H-frame like baffle works better for me. Bass is still limited to upper mid-bass level but I connected my HT subwoofer to the pre outs of the amplifier and overall sound was much better and full bodied. I kept the subwoofer level low just to compliment the bass frequencies a little bit. I think, there is no further modification required to the baffle at the moment... Any further improvement may come from trying a better full range or 2 way drivers for the next experiment.

Will get the baffle polished and post final pictures soon...

 

[jaudere]

Great! Congrats. It is so much relief when you get the sound you want. In fact if you are getting the sound you want, don't even think of getting better full ranger. If at all, active Crossover with bi amping the speaker will give you better sound. I am seriously thinking about it too.

 

[aashish351]

Active crossover is also on my radar.. But for that also I will need to change the driver as this is a 2 way coaxial speaker with an inbuilt passive crossover.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

 

[aashish351]

And still, the sound is not equal to my Dali ikons.. But I can appreciate the open baffle sound despite the fact.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

 

[jaudere]

You need not worry even if the coaxial has a passive XO built in. You can still use active XO, with XO somewhere around 250hz. However, you need to find better full ranger if the sound is not to your liking. Please let me know if you zero in on any active crossover. All of pro crossover have balanced in puts and outputs while home audio amps/CD players have RCAs. This problem is keeping me away from going active.

 

[aashish351]

you can use this to solve XLR to RCA problem... MCM Custom Audio Balanced / Unbalanced Line Level Converter | 555-8485 (5558485) | MCM Custom Audio

 

[aashish351]

I guess I can declare this DIY Open Baffle Experiment finished. It was a successfull experiment... in the sense, I can't say that I these are replacements of my existing setup, but this experiment was done with basic knowledge, use of cheap material and manual carpentry of a basic level... All this with an intention to taste the possibilities of Open Baffle speakers. I am definitely going to try a more thoroughly designed and professionally crafted Open Baffle with good quality drivers and other material.

Posting the final pictures...

By aashish351 at 2012-06-11

By aashish351 at 2012-06-11

By aashish351 at 2012-06-11

By aashish351 at 2012-06-11

By aashish351 at 2012-06-11

 

[jaudere]

Congrats. Enjoy the set up. I have ordered silk dome tweeters from Iwai speakers to replace my piezo tweeres. They should arrive in another 2 days. Lets see whether they make any improvement over cheap Showa piezos. I am in search of second order high pass filter at 8kHz. Let me know if you have any info.

 

[aashish351]

See if you find anything here....
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