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Open Baffle Epiphany!

It's fairly common to see powerful plate amps driving large OB bass woofers while flea watt tube amps power the OB full range drivers. Using a plate amp designed to be mounted inside a sub often requires a frame enclosure in order to be used externally. I usually build the frame but if you're lucky you can find a deep dish picture frame or shadow box that works. Gaps can be covered with strips of screen door molding painted in the same color.

Here are three plate amps in their home brew frames: Dayton SA 100, Yung SD 100 and Yung SD 300. The first two produce 100 watts each powering two 8 ohm woofers. The SD 300 makes 300 watts driving two 8 ohm woofers. The Yungs are class D and make little heat while the Dayton is not and gets very warm ( notice the cooling fins on top ). The Dayton sounds a bit more precise and is my preference.

FWIW plate amps are mono and if you want stereo bass you need a pair. I've tried stereo bass but in my case I can tell little difference between stereo and mono bass.

Driving two bass woofers with a single plate amp requires doubling up the speaker leads at the two binding posts.


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Good evening. I am about to build new open baffles. I am using 1.5” butcher block countertop.

I’ve been back and forth in my mind about the build. I’m using a 15” bass driver and a 10” full ranger, and have been thinking about the Liionidas design from the Lii Audio group - the bottom(with bass driver) and top(full ranger) pieces of baffle are separated. This supposedly helps the bass driver not interfere with the full ranger(I guess)

I can optimize my space better if I put them a bit closer together without having two separate pieces of wood.

What are your opinions on this? Would I improve things separating the drivers?

Many thanks!

Geno
 
Genov said:
Good evening. I am about to build new open baffles. I am using 1.5” butcher block countertop.

I’ve been back and forth in my mind about the build. I’m using a 15” bass driver and a 10” full ranger, and have been thinking about the design from the Lii Audio group - the bottom(with bass driver) and top(full ranger) pieces of baffle are separated. This supposedly helps the bass driver not interfere with the full ranger(I guess)

I can optimize my space better if I put them a bit closer together without having two separate pieces of wood.

What are your opinions on this? Would I improve things separating the drivers?

Many thanks!

Geno
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Hi Geno, the main reason to separate drivers would be to reduce baffle resonance. With solid baffles 1.5 inches thick I can't imagine that you would have any audible resonance. From the looks of the Liiondas design they don't appear to be as thick as what you plan to use. Are you considering the butcher block countertops from Ikea?

Another reason folks use modular designs ( like Pure Audio ) is it makes it easier to try different full range drivers or woofers without scraping the original build. There's no standard size for driver cut outs so there's a good chance an eight inch driver from one company won't fit in the same opening as an eight inch driver from an other company. Enlarging a speaker opening is a royal pita while reducing the size of the opening means cutting a new baffle.
 
Poultrygeist said:
Hi Geno, the main reason to separate drivers would be to reduce baffle resonance. With solid baffles 1.5 inches thick I can't imagine that you would have any audible resonance. From the looks of the Liiondas design they don't appear to be as thick as what you plan to use. Are you considering the butcher block countertops from Ikea?

Another reason folks use modular designs ( like Pure Audio ) is it makes it easier to try different full range drivers or woofers without scraping the original build. There's no standard size for driver cut outs so there's a good chance an eight inch driver from one company won't fit in the same opening as an eight inch driver from an other company. Enlarging a speaker opening is a royal pita while reducing the size of the opening means cutting a new baffle.
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Thank you for the detailed response, Poultry.
Actually, you have helped me decide to go ahead with the split design. Because in addition to the 10” Lii drivers, I still have a pair of Alnico Betsy’s that I can place in other separate top baffles, and periodically swap them out. I’ve been wanting to use the Betsy’s again, and this is a great way to do that.

Also, the ability to take the top part off would help if I ever have to move it very far. The Lii 10” and 15” in the same 1.5 thick hardwood baffle will be a bit on the heavy side - I’m guessing in the neighborhood of 100 lbs!
 
Genov said:
Thank you for the detailed response, Poultry.
Actually, you have helped me decide to go ahead with the split design. Because in addition to the 10” Lii drivers, I still have a pair of Alnico Betsy’s that I can place in other separate top baffles, and periodically swap them out. I’ve been wanting to use the Betsy’s again, and this is a great way to do that.

Also, the ability to take the top part off would help if I ever have to move it very far. The Lii 10” and 15” in the same 1.5 thick hardwood baffle will be a bit on the heavy side - I’m guessing in the neighborhood of 100 lbs!
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With a split design some DIYers use steel rods to connect the two section. Lowes carries them but the heavy duty ones aren't cheap.

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There's also the option of adding a supra baffle to try a different sized driver. With this crazy quilt wall paper covering the baffles I can glue on more wall paper to cover any extra holes I've drilled. Here I'm trying a pair of 8" Zenith alnico full range drivers which were very close to the Lowthers in SQ.

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Poultrygeist said:
There's also the option of adding a supra baffle to try a different sized driver. With this crazy quilt wall paper covering the baffles I can glue on more wall paper to cover any extra holes I've drilled. Here I'm trying a pair of 8" Zenith alnico full range drivers which were very close to the Lowthers in SQ.

View attachment 2653197
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That’s a great idea! I had not thought about putting another piece of wood over a larger cutout to use a smaller driver. That would allow me to use just one piece of baffle instead of two.

The metal post is a great idea, but as you say, expensive. If I went that design route, i’d use 2” x 2” square wood post.

Thanks for the great advice!
 
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Genov said:
Well, here are the new speakers. The ability to swap out the full-ranger influenced my decision to make the split setup. A variation of the Liionidas design.

Poultry, thanks for your comments and advice going into this. This is my first ever build.

View attachment 2657801
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Nice and they take up less space than the ones you have on youtube. I know how good that combination sounds and this youtube audio doesn't do them justice.

 
Here's a great track to show off open baffles. Visitors who have never heard OB's are flabbergasted when I stream this selection. Total sound emersion.

 
Poultrygeist said:
Nice and they take up less space than the ones you have on youtube. I know how good that combination sounds and this youtube audio doesn't do them justice.

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Yep - space was the main reason that I needed to do something different. The old setup was not planned - it just evolved into that. I started with the Caintuck baffles with the Betsy drivers, added Caintuck baffles with bass drivers, then upsized the same configuration. I had the upsized baffles made for me - all I did was paint/stain them, and eventually cut the half-circle notch to help move the baffles closer together.

The new speakers are so much better space wise, and I can move them out into the room a little more, which really helps the sound.

The surprising thing though, is the SQ improvement going from 1.5" Baltic Birch ply to 1.5" solid hardwood. The wood is Acacia, and the sound has improved with the change. Steve Deckert said that it would improve things - and it did. I doubted that, but hearing is believing. The biggest improvement is with the bass. The dense wood tightened that up. Call me full of **** if you'd like - I can take it :beatnik:
 
Poultrygeist said:
Here's a great track to show off open baffles. Visitors who have never heard OB's are flabbergasted when I stream this selection. Total sound emersion.

Click to expand...

Decware posted this for one of their demo videos a while back. It may be the perfect demo track - especially for open baffles! I'll add it to my library, and give it a go :rockon:
 
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