New Open Baffle Speaker from Clayton Shaw

[WillBrink]

Here, a video from New Record Day, talking about and listening to the latest open baffle speaker design from Clayton Shaw. I Became a fan of his designs after first listening to a pair of his speakers at the Show Newport, quite a few years ago. His latest, The Caladan. I became a fan of NRD for the pains he goes through in attempting to make good recording for Youtube. Headphones if you got em. If you don't want to watch the whole vid, the price is stated at $2950.

I have no experience with OB speakers. Would love to hear those or similar some day. Seems OB making a big resurgence these days too. How do such speakers measure?

 

[egellings]

I find it hard to believe that the tweeter can go low enough to meet those woofers, or that the woofers can go high enough to meet the tweeter.

 

[mhardy6647]

I find it hard to believe that the tweeter can go low enough to meet those woofers, or that the woofers can go high enough to meet the tweeter.

Might (!?!) be able to get away with it with a pair of Altec 416 or 515B woofers -- although neither of those would be great on an OB.

 

[beagleman]

I have no experience with OB speakers. Would love to hear those or similar some day. Seems OB making a big resurgence these days too. How do such speakers measure?

Sadly, many or most "O.B" proponents, seem to eschew measuring and often rely on more simple "designing by ear".

I have been in a few discussions about OB speakers, and found almost outright hostility for even mentioning measuring or built in limitations for using an open baffle design.

Too many guys think it is simply throwing a large "Pro sound" 10 -15 inch woofer on a fancy plywood board mated to a tweeter with minimal crossovers and total disregard for the baffle "Peaking" present when combining front and rear radiation.


For some insight, I started making "OB" speakers as a teenager in the 1980s, and thought I had discovered some new thing, only to be later let down in finding every good aspect had a somewhat inverse bad aspect to bring me back down to reality.

There is a very good reason 99% of speakers are in a box, although conversely I found a rear radiating mid to be a nice feature if implemented correctly and designed and measured.

 

[mhardy6647]

I fiddled around quite a bit with open baffles (and also so-called "fullrange" drivers, and no coincidentally!) quite a bit around the turn of the century
They both proved ultimately unsatisfying to me - although I'll admit I retain some fascination for both notions.





These, made by Dave Slagle, are outta my price range.

 

[Nwickliff]

Sadly, many or most "O.B" proponents, seem to eschew measuring and often rely on more simple "designing by ear".

I have been in a few discussions about OB speakers, and found almost outright hostility for even mentioning measuring or built in limitations for using an open baffle design.

Too many guys think it is simply throwing a large "Pro sound" 10 -15 inch woofer on a fancy plywood board mated to a tweeter with minimal crossovers and total disregard for the baffle "Peaking" present when combining front and rear radiation.


For some insight, I started making "OB" speakers as a teenager in the 1980s, and thought I had discovered some new thing, only to be later let down in finding every good aspect had a somewhat inverse bad aspect to bring me back down to reality.

There is a very good reason 99% of speakers are in a box, although conversely I found a rear radiating mid to be a nice feature if implemented correctly and designed and measured.

What are your thoughts on the negative aspects of open baffle. I find very few compared to the difficulty of building a box speaker. It's difficult to build a box without resonances and other issues. A flat piece of plywood is, well, just that. If you take care with the other components it's been pretty easy. Tons of people throw pro sound speakers in boxes without measurements. All to often, many disregard the spacing between the tweeter midrange and woofer, or even just combine two giant woofers with a tweeter. I think it's just that the barrier to entry is nill, being that you need zero carpentry skills aside from cutting a hole and perhaps learning how to flush mount a driver...oh yeah and lots of people rear mount their midranges and tweeter behind 2inches of baffle which is a no no.

I have yet to build truly my own OB but I have stood on the shoulders of KEF and built one using the KEF Q100 Coaxial midrange and tweeter and some cheap (you could say pro audio [nothing wrong with them] 15" woofers in Parallel. All active XO. The sound is better than anything I've heard before and incredibly cheap! That's q100 speakers for $200, GRS woofers are like $36 bucks each (probably cheaper years ago when I bought them), $100 for full sheet of plywood, $150 for 4x8 dayton audio DSP for Crossover, $1500 for Buckeye 6 channel Class D NC252MP amp. I didn't cheap out on the amp but there are a ton if cheap good measuring class D 2 channel amps now you could stack.

Lastly I always run two subs regardless of the front speakers. Just makes no sense not to when that bass is so dialed in and I can adjust the bass per song or movie or show. Gives me more flexibility to cross anything at 80hz as well. I can run these OB to 25hz but output is limited by distortion. Crossed at 80hz they can go as loud as I can handle. Here's the response in room.

 

[beagleman]

What are your thoughts on the negative aspects of open baffle. I find very few compared to the difficulty of building a box speaker. It's difficult to build a box without resonances and other issues. A flat piece of plywood is, well, just that. If you take care with the other components it's been pretty easy. Tons of people throw pro sound speakers in boxes without measurements. All to often, many disregard the spacing between the tweeter midrange and woofer, or even just combine two giant woofers with a tweeter. I think it's just that the barrier to entry is nill, being that you need zero carpentry skills aside from cutting a hole and perhaps learning how to flush mount a driver...oh yeah and lots of people rear mount their midranges and tweeter behind 2inches of baffle which is a no no.

I have yet to build truly my own OB but I have stood on the shoulders of KEF and built one using the KEF Q100 Coaxial midrange and tweeter and some cheap (you could say pro audio [nothing wrong with them] 15" woofers in Parallel. All active XO. The sound is better than anything I've heard before and incredibly cheap! That's q100 speakers for $200, GRS woofers are like $36 bucks each (probably cheaper years ago when I bought them), $100 for full sheet of plywood, $150 for 4x8 dayton audio DSP for Crossover, $1500 for Buckeye 6 channel Class D NC252MP amp. I didn't cheap out on the amp but there are a ton if cheap good measuring class D 2 channel amps now you could stack.

Lastly I always run two subs regardless of the front speakers. Just makes no sense not to when that bass is so dialed in and I can adjust the bass per song or movie or show. Gives me more flexibility to cross anything at 80hz as well. I can run these OB to 25hz but output is limited by distortion. Crossed at 80hz they can go as loud as I can handle. Here's the response in room.
View attachment 365086
View attachment 365088

Look great!

Have a few questions.....What type of DSP and EQ are actually being implemented if I can ask?
I mean do you have a Before/after with and without EQ....You have a fairly flat response, looks quite decent!
Are you using actual powered separate subs for this set up?

 

[Nwickliff]

Look great!

Have a few questions.....What type of DSP and EQ are actually being implemented if I can ask?
I mean do you have a Before/after with and without EQ....You have a fairly flat response, looks quite decent!
Are you using actual powered separate subs for this set up?

Here is without EQ (your question inspired me to go back and adjust the XO a bit). This measurement is without subs. I'm using Dayton audio 4x8 DSP for the crossovers as well as a little bit of shaping for the tweeter. Just on band of EQ in this measurement for the tweeter -6db with a Q of .5 at 4000hz to flatten the tweeter response. The room isn't kind to my lo

wer end response and this is where I like multEQ-X take over from my AVR to smoothen things out. Now to run Audessey again.....

 

[bmwr75]

I watched the New Record Day review during November 2023 and placed a Caladan order on December 8, 2023. They were suppose to be delivered in March 2024. Finally were delivered January 2, 2025. Hardware to mount the braces and GAIA III feet were missing from the shipment. Today, seven days later, no bolts have arrived even though they were supposedly 2 day shipped via USPS on January 2 or 3. Also, the two baffle panels are both beautiful, but don't come even close to being a matched pair.