Building a pair of custom open baffle speakers

[Response Audio]

These speakers were built on a personal level and will be used in rotation with other speakers in the shop for testing and evaluating our other products as well as for demos and auditions.

We are working on a high end Purity Audio Deaign speaker but is not something we can discuss at this time. It will be a next year release. Released first will be the High power hybrid mono blocs and headphone amp(s).

[Response Audio]

Here are a few better quality pictures of the speakers up and running. Next step is tweaking the crossover, possibly trying a ribbon tweeter and finally making the socks for a clean look.

[richidoo]

Looks great Bill! They are pretty slick for monoliths. Kinda classy actually. The black color is cool with the black drivers.

Are you using a sub with them yet? Does it need it?

Can you bring that tweeter out flush with the baffle? I think the tweeter reflections inside that recessed hole will be pretty audible. Maybe you are using it as front loading for +SPL.

I was reading that the Legacy Whisper/Helix which use that midrange tweeter arrangement like yours has each mid driver angled away from the tweeter a little bit, which adjusts the lobing to create a midrange beam of sorts to minimize wall reflections. Figuring out the specifics is another matter altogether...

[Response Audio]

Hi richidoo,
Yes, they do need a subwoofer. Large subwoofer towers are in the plans. Most likely a large sealed cabinet design with six 8" or 10" woofers per tower. I will hold off on the sub towers for a while as I have to find a fast 10" driver that can keep up with the speed of 5" midrange drivers. I also want to be able to mate the subs with other speakers used.

The tweeter will be mounted flush with the front baffle. I mounted it this way as I didn't want to mar up the front baffle untill I made a final decision on what tweeter I was going to use as well as which midrange panel will be in the final design. I still have another midrange panel using 4 midrnage drivers (mounted in a vertical array) with a Neo8 and ribbon tweeter. The ribbon will take over at about 8kHz-10kHz.

[richidoo]

Cool, sound like a well thought out plan, as usual! Thanks for sharing it all with us Bill.

There's something about the look of them. Anyone else agree?  Techie but in an artful way. Maybe its the MT arrangement, or some kind of geometric harmony.

[evan1]

Cool, sound like a well thought out plan, as usual! Thanks for sharing it all with us Bill.

There's something about the look of them. Anyone else agree?  Techie but in an artful way. Maybe its the MT arrangement, or some kind of geometric harmony.

Love the look. How do they sound ? Can't wait for Bill to send these out on a tour Get them ready for the rave

[Response Audio]

Can't wait for Bill to send these out on a tour  Get them ready for the rave

These will have to be heard when everyone come up here for a "Rave". This was you can also audition the new Salk HT2-TL with the RAAL ribbon (see them in the photo as well), the Extreme Adagio loudspeakers with external crossovers and the Purity One and Purity Reference linestages feeding our prototype Hybrid amplifier.....maybe the mono blocs versions as well.

[mdfoy]

Bill,

Those are nice When is the Rave?

[Response Audio]

Welcome to Nervosa Mr. Foy

I have a few more details to take care of first before I can schedule the RAVE. We have picked up a new line of speakers and want to wait till I bring a pair in to have here. I also want to have our new mono bloc hybrid amps up and running rather than the stereo unit as they will be needed to drive the new speakers.

I am also making arrangements to have an AMR CD player here.

I will have two complete systems set up with my plans being as follows:

Main system:
Purity Reference preamp, Purity 500W Hybrid mono bloc amplifiers, King Sound Prince II speakers, AMR CD777 CD player

Second system:
Purity One preamp, Purity 250W Hybrid stereo amplifier, Salk HT2-TL speakers, highly modified Jolida CD player

[mdfoy]

Bill,

This site is a cooler than AC.  I look forward to the Rave, keep me in the loop.

BTW. The cbs/hytron 5814wa tubes are REALLY nice in the pre-amp.