Open Baffle Epiphany!

Thank you for all the suggestions. I wonder if I went with the passive option and wasnt happy I could add a 12" with plate amp later ? Or would that not work? I was leaning toward the passive route for simplicity and less clutter.

You can go with passive crossovers and later switch to bi-amped active. With a monkey coffin it's harder to bypass the passive network because it's internal.

OB's are honest with nothing to hide. :)
 
I think above is good advice,in my opinion,as Great passive crossovers can be tricky to get right,in any speaker.
Not trying to scare people away from them,I use them,in my OB's,but in my situation,was very lucky that a good friend built/tweaked mine.
I consider him a Wizard of sorts in my world regarding complicated(to me) crossovers,and boy he nailed it!

I/We earlier bought tried a Mini Dsp's,and with my friends help,they sounded great,they're very cool too,but as I'm not a computer guy,and after auditioning/Room eq,etc.,and adding a diy sub,found,that I preferred a more 'Minimalist system'.

If it were me,and I was currently getting into/trying Open Baffle by myself,I'd go Paul's route and opt for an active crossover he mentions,& plate amps.
Keeps it affordable,you can change it up,and,in my opinion makes it simpler to understand,especially for somebody like me,I know nothing of crossovers,except they can make or break a speaker.
.
Please Correct me if I'm wrong,but I think most of the current batch of newer OB's are trending towards using using more efficient drivers,I see the B&C's M-Hardy mentioned are 97db,not sure of the Betsy/Misco units?

I think my EP's,are like 93db,and for instance last evening I watched an AC/DC concert at a much louder level than I normally Listen at,& volume was only at 9:30 am on the pre-amp,giving gobs of power,'Concert Level' in a 13x23 ft room,for sure!!,and using only a 100w amp..My other amp is 70w tons of power!
What I'm stressing here is you don't need a lot of power with efficient speakers,simple as that..

EP concert Kenny,tonight's concert,think I'll dial it down some,watch a Harry Potter movie.
 
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The full range drivers I've used in my OB systems sound better without a crossover. That was my experience with the Betsy and Lowther DX3 which were designed to sound their best with nothing in the signal path. The Tang Band W8-1808 according to the experts needs some corrective circuit but I ran them full range as well. I power my full range drivers with SET and SE tube amps and when using an active crossover much of the tube magic is lost in the mids and highs. It is for this reason that I only use an active crossover to low pass the woofers. Bi-amping works for me using a single ended tube amp to power the full range drivers and a solid state amp to drive the woofers. Here's an article on the advantages of an active crossover and bi-amping.

https://www.xkitz.com/blogs/making-...g-the-case-for-active-crossovers-vs-passive-1
 
I just found an 8 inch Heppner speaker that is identical to the 5 Heppners I have now... but the one I just found has a whizzer cone. Take a look at this pic:
s-l1600.jpg


Here is one like I have:
s-l1600.jpg


These whizzer cone Heppners are pretty rare. Is there anything to be gained by adding a whizzer cone to these speakers? A fellow on eBay sells 3 different sizes of whizzer cones.

Thanks for your comments.
 
Regarding the whizzer cones,I found they just didn't quite get the highs,(for my taste)...but considering their age,they did very well in their era..

I found newer speakers(especially tweeters) to have better sounding highs,(to my and Daughters ears).
When I went back and Listened to (vintage)speakers with Whizzer cones,they sounded lacking to me,found I couldn't go back to that anymore,and moved on.

In that period,I got into the HT craze,so delegated my 8 inch Whizzer cone (Radio Speakers of Canada),for affordable rear surrounds,they had good sized magnets,and conveniently mounted in wedge shaped cabs,so I secured them up in rear ceiling corners,firing down,they worked exceptionally well for this purpose for a few years.

I found HT receivers not cutting it for 2 ch playback,so,with receiver,above speakers,were sold off,and I haven't looked back,and found I I prefer 2ch,and that 2 Great speakers excel over 5 so-so ones,and cost less.That hasn't changed now for 18+ years,so doubt it ever will.

You may find whizzer highs work just fine for your personal taste,hearing,or not,all you can do is try it with the Music you enjoy,see what you think,and hey,its a Hobby,who cares what other people think/do,you only have to please yourself(& possibly significant other with looks?.
I haven't heard any of the new offerings,except MK/Alpair/Frugalhorn,so was another reasons to drop back into AK.

l read the above post too fast & I now fully understand regarding the way PG's system is set up re: using the x-over for low bass woofers.

I too like hearing tube mids/highs,especially on concerts,excellent on vocals,back up vocals,instrumentals,etc.
I've briefly tried/owned vintage and 126 Fostex full range,again,though good,didn't quite give me the highs I wanted there either.

I like tubes natural warmth,and would expect above choices of full range would be 'Very Enjoyable'!......especially with S.E.T!

...I'm thinking I may want to try that approach with my 2nd OB project..
....
Previously owned a vintage Stromberg Carson converted to 13w S.E.T,and I'll never forget while watching a No Doubt dvd,Rock Steady,through S.E.T/ Altec 19's & recall my Daughters, comment::......Wow,its like Gwen is in the room with Us!....Pretty much sums up S.E.T.,in my opinion.

Be nice if Everyone could experience S.E.T at least once in their lives!

EP concert Kenny,tonight's concert Pat Metheny Imaginary Day Live
 
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You rarely if ever see Lowthers paired with tweeters. They use whizzer cones and really nail the mids and highs. The newer models have rolled edges on the whizzers which eliminated "shout", a characteristic common to many full range drivers.

P1010016.jpg
 
The affordable 12" Eminence Beta 12LTA uses a whizzer cone but benefits from a tweeter. I added the diy phase plugs. The 8" Tang Bands use whizzers as well as gorgeous copper phase plugs.

P7170008.jpg
 
Thanks for the input re whizzer cones. I haven't yet (and don't really want to try..., but hey, maybe in the future) gotten into OB using a 2-way design. The Heppners I use already sound better than some decent modern enclosed cabinet speakers. (I A/B'd them using a speaker switch and it wasn't even close. My little 8" drivers were all over the cabinet speakers. I have written this up earlier in this OB Epiphany thread.)

I got excited when I found this one whizzer-coned Heppner that I pictured earlier. It's on its way here and saw that one or two others have also been sold on eBay... so they are out there. I'd really like to find one more and that way I'll have two with whizzer cones for my front mains. When the one with the whizzer cone arrives, I'll A/B it against a non-whizzered one and listen for the difference.

With my hearing, I think that full range drivers (even wide range ones, too) meet my needs.

So... with that, I'll ask again: does anyone know how to add a whizzer cone to a speaker without one???
 
With an x-acto knife, cut out the middle. Wooded egg with a few screws screwed in the back. Speaker magnet holds it in place
 
With an x-acto knife, cut out the middle. Wooded egg with a few screws screwed in the back. Speaker magnet holds it in place

That's for a phase plug but hnash is asking about adding a whizzer. Don't know if I'd bother trying to retro-fit a whizzer to a driver that didn't come with one. More often I've seen folks cutting them off.
 
"Wooded egg"???

Most craft stores have them and with a few screws ( 4 is better than 2 ) in the base they stay put by magnetic attraction. Look for the light weight ones about the size of a real egg. Of course before you do this you have to cut out the dust cap. With the Beta LTA's the ragged highs were smoothed significantly. I covered this either here or in another thread.
 

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Wow! That’s all that needed to add a phase plug? What would be an actual designed phase plug you’d buy 3rd party?
 
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