My DIY Open Baffle speakers

[bhaskarcan]

Hi all,

Inspired by FM Anilva, Jaudere & Sumanta's Open Baffle speakers I also started experimenting with them. Made some prototypes using locally available Ahuja/Sweton speakers. I was quite impressed by these local drivers performance on the OB. SO took a serious plunge. There are huge DIY resources in the web which are very informative & helpful. Specially the OB papers by Martin J. king. So without going into homework details let me describe my present OB speakers. It's OB on H-frame.

BASS: Eminence 15a in H-frame(imported from parts-express using ishopinternational)
Highly recommended by MJK

Fullranger/Mid-bass : Eminence 123Lta (Available in Kolkata)
My original choice was(and still is) Fostex126e. But since 12Lta was locally available and there are some good reviews in other audio forums, I momentarily opted for them.

Super tweeter: Eminence APT150 Horn (also available in Kolkata)
With the original plan(i.e. Fostex fullranger) there was no tweeter req'd. But 12Lta needs support on the higher freq hence

.....

Crossover: Active between low & mid, dbx 234xs. Local purchase. Passive betwn mid n high, 4uf AC Metallized Polypropylene

Capacitor on tweeter and ~0.39mh coil(diy) on Fr(Lampizator design & still experimenting).

Xo freq 200hz(24 dB/Octave) active betwn low/mid.

Mid-high driven by DIY Pass F5T v2, lows driven by vintage Sansui AU-719.

Placement: 3 feet from front wall(wrt listener), 2 feet frm side wall.

The reproduction is excellent, very live, huge sound stage. They say if u come out of the box it's very difficult to return.

And yes, I'm a convert.

Open baffle. (that's double sided foam tape on the dust cap to dampen it's unwanted vibration. didn't want to remove it fully as advised by most of the users in various forums)

Super Tweeter with motor driver cap.

Coil zig

My full setup

Thanks for viewing.

Bhaskar

 

[stevieboy]

That looks lovely bhaskarcan. Looks like you've lived up your name bhaskar can

 

[sachu888]

Looks very good,everything DIY

Regards,
Sachin

 

[shafic]

Hi friends,
Recently i got a pair ( boxes ) of SABA speakers as a gift from a friend. Inside i found one super alnico oval tweeter (greencone) and 8'' full range alnico driver ( greencone} per box. The outer box condition was very critical, no veneer and spilling mdf powder everywhere. One weekend i cautiously connected these speakers to my DUAL CV 40, a simple test amplifier, BOY!! i was mesmerized with their sound quality.

They are very fast. The tone, warm mids, clean highs and tight bass wow!! all these years was i searching for this sound quality?. I have heard a lot of speakers before (Tanoy LS alnico:clapping:,Magnapan :sad: etc) , although i currently have some very nice full range speakers ( Goodmans triaxiom 1220C, Vitovox Ak 123 alnico, Elac 8'' full range, Altec ....). and i previously owned Pioneer pax 30G,Goodmans Audiom 60,Goodmans RED alnico 12" Philips AD 12100/M8..., (all i have given to some of my best friends) but these are very special :licklips:all i can say.

I searched on NET and found that these are very good for open baffle setup.I also have some Alnico drivers ( Celestion, wharfadale,jenson all alnico 10'' magnets).
now i am very much confused about whether to go for open baffle or make some new MDF boxes for these Greencones. Need some advice from fellow DIY friends.

 

[shafic]

That looks lovely bhaskarcan. Looks like you've lived up your name bhaskar can

Can i say Bhag(run) Bhaskar-( run) bhag!! Hi!Hi!hyeah:

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Nice build. One of the good looking open baffle DIY speakers, I have seen.

 

[Shailesh Dhodia]

Hi Bhaskar, Congrats on your new set up.
Sumanta stays close by and I have heard his OBs. They are two way. Yours are 3-way. It will be a treat to listen to them.

 

[Sumanta]

Hello Bhaskar,
Ashok told me about you last week end when I was asking for his help for my dead Onkyo SR 608.
And now I saw your post when Shailesh told me about your post again.
Lovely execution. I liked the complete DIY approach. And boy you have those lovely record players too!
I am so happy that Eminences are available in kolkata now. who is the dealer for them there in Kolkata?

how about trying those tweeters upwards at the back of the baffle? I found they sound sweeter and image becomes even wider with more depth and height.
I use cheap Ahuja piezzo tweeters though.

I will definitely visit your place to listen to H baffle bass sound.

yes, you are right, once somebody gets pleasure of open baffle, (s)he most likely can't go back to cabinets.

Shailesh, mine is also a three way. the tweeter is connected via a capcitor (?) which restricts lower frequencies.

 

[bhaskarcan]

Hello Bhaskar,
..............................now I saw your post when Shailesh told me about your post again.
Lovely execution. I liked the complete DIY approach. And boy you have those lovely record players too!
I am so happy that Eminences are available in kolkata now. who is the dealer for them there in Kolkata?

how about trying those tweeters upwards at the back of the baffle? I found they sound sweeter and image becomes even wider with more depth and height.
I use cheap Ahuja piezzo tweeters though.

I will definitely visit your place to listen to H baffle bass sound.

yes, you are right, once somebody gets pleasure of open baffle, (s)he most likely can't go back to cabinets.

.................

Hi Sumanta,

Thanks for your kind words.

In my 2nd OB prototype I used Ahuja drivers(12FRX + piezzo tweeters). And used the tweeters as you have described. With this OB initially I tried the horn tweeters facing upwards/backwards. But finally found this setup better. Actually this Super tweeters are not so bright as the Ahuja's one. And it handles lower frequencies(~3500hz) quite well.

Ahuja's Full ranger 12FRx is also a nice driver(VFM). But their 15 inch woofers are comparatively very expensive. I got Eminence 15A for same price frm US.

3way system have their own intricacies. Hence my first choice was 2 way with Fostex126E(MJK design with active XO). Now trying to get Fostex in India.

The JBL distributor in Calcutta also deals with Eminence. If you need I can PM you his no.

Best regards,

Bhaskar

 

[bhaskarcan]

Hi friends,

I searched on NET and found that these are very good for open baffle setup.I also have some Alnico drivers ( Celestion, wharfadale,jenson all alnico 10'' magnets).
now i am very much confused about whether to go for open baffle or make some new MDF boxes for these Greencones. Need some advice from fellow DIY friends.

A prototype OB is very easy to make and inexpensive too. So why don't you try those lovely drivers on an OB and play with the placement in your listening room. Then if you don't like what you are listening there's always option to go into the box.

regards,

Bhaskar

 

[Sumanta]

Dear Bhaskar,
I have used cheap 15 inch LF driver of Ahuja costs me 1800 each.
How much Eminence costs you?
Could you please ask Eminence dealer whether they have any dealer near Baroda to get those drivers?
Taking them from Kolkata is a big task.

 

[Sumanta]

How much those tweeter costs you in Kolkata?

 

[Sumanta]

One more thing, I have seen people used two tweeters to have rear sound throw as well which I think increases depth of imaging and soundstaging (I am not good with these terms yet).
I wanted to avoid that too, hence opt for vertical up arrangement.

 

[bhaskarcan]

How much those tweeter costs you in Kolkata?

Tweeters cost me 2k each.

I got the 2 Eminence15a for 15k including shipping+custom etc. The Ahuja 15 inch woofer was asked 7k each at 'Dey sound' in Chandni.

Brgds,

Bhaskar

 

[anilva]

Very well done and very good looking. Why dont' you want to try with an all active setup using a Behringer Digital xover? It gives tremendous amount of flexibility.

 

[bhaskarcan]

Very well done and very good looking. Why dont' you want to try with an all active setup using a Behringer Digital xover? It gives tremendous amount of flexibility.

Thanks Anilva. The dbx234xs is a 3way active XO. I can always go full active with that. Then I maybe wasting the excellent mid-high clarity of the F5 turbo. Presently experimenting with LM3886 based chipamp.When that's ready maybe it'll be a full active setup. Let's see.

Regards,

Bhaskar

 

[bhaskarcan]

..........everything DIY

Regards,
Sachin

Thanks to you who pulled me(and many other hfv-ians) in DIY with your CNC n B1 built. Also not to forget great Mr. Om & buddy Krishnendu(kroyin) for tolerating & spoon feeding me. Long live HFV :clapping::clapping:

regards,

Bhaskar

 

[Sumanta]

Very well done and very good looking. Why dont' you want to try with an all active setup using a Behringer Digital xover? It gives tremendous amount of flexibility.

Dear Anilva and any other friends who can answer this,
What will be differences if I use Creative soundblaster with PC and foobar instead of Behringer one?
I have Laptop-Foobar-Creative way of two way active cross over set up now.

I wanted to have a feel of the differences.

Dear Bhaskar - I hope you do not mind my question in your post.

 

[omishra]

Bhaskar, that is great DIY, you went far ahead. hyeah:

Your own efforts paying you through this immense joy of music listening. We can see your hard work tastefully done everywhere in the setup.:clapping:

[Thanks for the feelings for mortals]

 

[sarith]

Eminence 15a in H-frame(imported from parts-express using ishopinternational)

I checked this site and it seems pretty good. I couldn't find parts-express in it under electronics though. Thank you for sharing this info