Why do open baffle speakers sound so great?! - w/ Clayton Shaw, Spatial Audio

Nicholas from Linear Tube Audio talks to Clayton Shaw of Spatial Audio Labs about his unique and wonderful open baffle speakers, his inspiration, setup advice, and tips for DIY builders...
Spatial Audio Labs: www.spatialaudio.us/
Linear Tube Audio: www.lineartubeaudio.com/
Check out the system Spatial, LTA, LampizatOr, and Anticables put together, which Part-time Audiophile call "the best deal in audio." www.lineartubeaudio.com/produ...

[@farchmarch7043]

I own a pair of BP 15 (BP=baffle plan=open baffle) from the french manufacturer Rouault Acoustic🇫🇷, and it was a huge change in my audiophile routine, and all is told is really true. I’ll never go back to conventional speakers anymore, for sure…

[@seetohhiapseng5702]

I love open-baffle sound. Thank you both for your time and insights.

[@LinearTubeAudio]

Thanks for watching!

[@vivianvaldi7871]

For DIY guys : it really impacted my ears / GR Research. Thx both of you.

[@ianwhite9149]

Very excited. Well done.

[@hamidrezahabibi8111]

I loved the interview. As the former Magnepan exclusive distributor and dealer among carrying other brands, the moment I heard my MG-1.5 I knew I was entering a new territory in reproduction of music. It was a heavenly experience and unforgettable. But we get older and hopefully wiser and in this regard I understood that I must pay attention to higher sensitivity loudspeakers since they work perfectly say with a SET amp be it tube or transistor. I will definitely consider Spatial in my endeavor in this beautiful and addictive business and hobby. By the way it’s great to see you Nicholas. I think the Gradient Helsinki 1.5 is using a dipole bass but the efficiency is still on the low side. Well, Stay Safe everyone and enjoy the music cause as Nietzsche once said; Without Music, Life would be a mistake. Your ancient fan from Tehran Iran.

[@LinearTubeAudio]

Hey! Great to see you here, my friend. Thanks for watching!

[@nikolajmathiesen3620]

Unfortunately I heard Spatial speakers once while visiting the US. It is now very difficult to live with box speakers, but the shipping cost and weak New Zealand dollar makes it near impossible to own these beauties. Great interview!

[@MAELOB]

Dream system LTA and spatial, someday 🙏🏼

[@TombstoneTube]

Great interview.

[@Newrecordday2013]

First! What a great interview! Excited to see what LTA does with the new channel!

[@LinearTubeAudio]

Thanks for the support, Ron!

[@mfkhometheater7742]

Speaking of Allied Radio I wonder if Clayton remembers McGee radio. I bought a lot of stuff from McGee back in the day. I also started building speakers as a kid and started using T/S parameters in the late 1970's and moved on to open baffle in the mid 1990's. I knew Siegfried well and use to visit him regularly when in CA on business. I still frequently converse with Brian Elliot, the man that taught Siegfried about open baffle.

[@tee-jaythestereo-bargainph2120]

Thanks for the video , I been searching for a set of speakers my neigbor had back in the late 80s these were open baffle also , they was a big metal square like 3ft tall and 2 ft wide the highs/mids were on top and bass drivers on bottom i think but dam those speakers had crazy bass ! They also had little legs about a foot tall holding them up but he had a Sansui G9000 driving them and omg! But the speaker was incaged black metal on all sides speaker wasnt 1ft think almost like a frame but diffently not time windows !

[@arturogonzalesdelvallegalv7131]

Éxitos!!☀️

[@gerritgovaerts8443]

acoustic elegance makes a special range of dipole woofers in 10 , 12 , 15 and 18 inch : very high xmax

[@Canadian_Eh_I]

Honestly I dont have a huge space maybe 600 sqft living room and I have 2 15" eminence woofers I run open baffle and with some frequency overlap with my 2 10" B&C mids I am extremely happy with the bass I get. I set the crossovers on a DEQX and run each speaker from a separate amp. Using 2" B&C compression drivers in ktubes I made for the highs. Sound is incredible smooth and effortless. Its all about the crossovers !

[@Canadian_Eh_I]

forgot to mention, I point the woofers at the ceiling!

[@joeyahoo4493]

I built the Majestic 15" 2-way big & heavy leaky box speakers from Australia's Siliconchip magazine April 2014 edition. It's a leaky speaker (not fully enclosed). From books about how to make speakers one says the f response from an enclosed speaker is relatively flatter than other types but ot can't really go down (only around 60 - 80 Hz). To reach 20 Hz but f response still relatively flat needs acoustic system : leaky box (tht's why acoustic instruments can sound louder & go down). The f response can reach very low & relatively flat (but not as flat as the enclosed one) across the f audio. The fo of the woofer is 27 Hz. They say in the box it can reach down to 12 Hz. F response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz relatively flat. It shows -3 dB @ 20 Hz. So, like they say, it's still going down actually. Each speaker is around 53 kg. It's double cabinet : Caboodle kitchen cabinet for skeleton then covered with beautiful red oak particle kitchend board (look at the picture). The bass is solid & punchy. Very easy to produce lows. If I had a chance to build again for someone else I'll use marine plywood (harder) for skeleton, give braces to support the skeleton & support the diagonal angled board behind the woofer from behind the board. Yes. However, it's still boxy sound but the bass is solid & punchy. I like listening classical music : violin, cello & piano. I'm really happy with the lows. I test it wth CD f sweep from 10 Hz - 20 kHz. The woofer starts to response around 15 Hz as rumble.

[@ayewhite333]

I really want a pair of X4’s. Someday

[@peterwood2633]

Only learning of these speakers the last few days. Very interested but shipping is only within US?:(

[@421CentralIowa]

I'm coming at this as a hobby where I want so badly to just make my own, but Clayton does a great job of explaining why I can't just go to Parts Express and buy four Eminence woofers and a pair of Peerless tweeters and get anywhere NEAR the same result that he has created. So me as some goon with no background information trying to get there is going to cost me far more in both money and time (which is money) to get my own M3 results. It's sad to me since I'm a self-sufficient hobbyist who'd prefer to make something myself, but it's the truth. I appreciate how down to earth he is and not having to use a thesaurus full of frou-frou words to sell his speakers or cut down any one else's. I'm appreciative that he has spent a lifetime achieving something so cool on his own path in an industry full of NOT this design. I fell into this open baffle rabbit hole assuming I could just educate myself with a lot of reading and then spec things out on paper and get out the jigsaw and a sheet of plywood. It's clear his success has come directly from working with the driver companies to develop modifications in them that doesn't exist in off-the-shelf stuff you can purchase as a hobbyist. I'm glad he has made the breakthrough so that in the future there may be dipole woofers offered for sale. In the meantime I need to save my cash and try to get a set of these. I thought it was interesting to hear him talk about farming out the design. I love the way his speakers look and it's so true about trying to be the technical person AND the design person. So many DIY efforts go over the top and look so goofy or the polar opposite, like a Homer Simpson spice rack... Thanks for uploading this interview, I learned a lot.

[@mkshffr4936]

Don't be dissuaded from DIY. In reality OB is easier to get good results with than most box designs.Choosing the right drivers and baffle size is the biggest factor. Crossovers can generally be pretty simple.

[@el34glo59]

That's not true just grab a pair of l15 you can plug right into him check out the Decware site

[@overbuiltautomotive1299]

u can its just a speaker system

[@Mrch33ky]

trash is as trash does

[@overbuiltautomotive1299]

@@Mrch33ky i found open baffles are not all that a sealed enclosure with a soft spider for lack of better term works well acoustic research made the ar-12 way back in the 1980`s and sound very well even into day run 20 watts to 80 and fill the room and a few more smaller unit crammed into a space eq.ed to fill gaps work well .speaker system can get silly snob infested prideful mess fast $ and time is money but like rot roding one can not bill for that part in full for r.n.d its a hobby at some point

[@listeningto8371]

The only two open baffle speaker companies? Try the LX521

[@iscmiscm]

No one mentioned the Dali Skyline 2000's I have a pair and one of the things that got to me was the quality of the bass. The are supposedly flat to 38 Hz, but I think that they may go lower in room. Anyway it was always the quality that I liked and especially the attack. Kick drums actually sound like kick drums. Now I find most box speakers to be annoying in some ways and they never seem to leave that box sound. Funny thing, some years ago, while living out in the country, I took my box speakers outside and the first thing that I noticed was the lack of the 'box' sound, so I suppose that the room must accentuate the sound of the box somehow. I also get what you are saying about the BBC and small speakers, as my Sonus Faber Signum's do not seem to have a boxy sound at all, although to have no really deep bass. However, I can listen to them all day. I have some B&W DM70's with the dipole electrostatic mid-range/ tweeters and sometimes wonder how much better they may have been with dipole bass to match. Last thing, I really enjoyed the video, Thanks

[@joeyahoo4493]

Hi Ian. I agree wth you. I built the Majestic 15" 2-way big & heavy box speakers from Australia's Siliconchip magazine April 2014 edition. It's a leaky speaker (not fully enclosed). From books about how to make speakers one says the f response from an enclosed speaker is relatively flatter than other types but ot can't really go down (only around 60 - 80 Hz). To reach 20 Hz but f response still relatively flat needs acoustic system : leaky box (tht's why acoustic instruments can sound louder & go down). The f response can reach very low & relatively flat (but not as flat as the enclosed one) across the f audio. The fo of the woofer is 27 Hz. They say in the box it can reach down to 12 Hz. F response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz relatively flat. It shows -3 dB @ 20 Hz. So, like they say, it's still going down actually. Each speaker is around 53 kg. It's double cabinet : Caboodle kitchen cabinet for skeleton then covered with beautiful red oak particle kitchend board (look at the picture). The bass is solid & punchy. Very easy to produce lows. If I had a chance to build again for someone else I'll use marine plywood (harder) for skeleton, give braces to support the skeleton & support the diagonal angled board behind the woofer from behind the board. Yes. However, it's still boxy sound but the bass is solid & punchy. I like listening classical music : violin, cello & piano. I'm really happy with the lows.

[@callmebigpapa]

I have some Carver Amazing that were gifted to me should I bother to refoam? What Clayton said about horns is how I feel but the wife hates the my large horns.

[@fabricegrard1001]

Sapphire M3 incredible ldspeakers

[@rizaldymarcella5203]

How can the speakers be availed here in the Philippines?

[@67Pepper]

24:28 M. Fremer has his Wilson's jammed in the room corners. He says in his "system" video that they sound great in that position. He makes a point of stating that, even though it's against conventional wisdom, just FYI.

[@jungtarcph]

I heard Clayton was sick and about to retire. He looks pretty fresh to me!

[@LinearTubeAudio]

This video was filmed long before Clayton got sick. Clayton was sick last year, but he is fully recovered and has designed a new speaker: claytonshawacousticlab.com/

[@philipw7058]

Thx for answering my concern I have a huge room and have no problem with bass and love my boxers,and I need to load my room with bass and your speakers can’t do that,my room is 32by25by10 every driver needs to be pulled away from surfaces to perform properly and your speakers as you sad only perform in small rooms to properly get any bass performance

[@roberthart9886]

My room is 19 x 35 x 12ft peak in open beam ceiling. Check into Emerald Physics. Their 2.8s have dual 15" carbon fiber woofers per speaker + a 12" carbon fiber concentric midrange

[@johndaddabbo9383]

Hmmm, you may want to watch, or rather Listen, to this interview again as Clayton clearly did not state two of the things you indicate in your response (...and in fact he pretty much stated the opposite). So yeah, take a another listen if you have a few minutes.

[@ghostrecon3214]

I can't help but feel their rectangular face is suboptimal. Judging by the extensive work by Linkwitz, I suspect we will see changed to this design in the future, if not I would love to hear their justification for their design compared to Linkwitz design.

[@biffo1960]

Send. Me. A. Pair

[@gerritgovaerts8443]

best tip for diy'ers is to read this downloadable pdf for designing the perfect (constant directivity) dipoles : www.dipolplus.de/thema11.php

[@bujoun76]

Gerrit Govaerts Thanks! A lot of juicy information there...

[@gerritgovaerts8443]

@@bujoun76 Other woofers that are suitable for dipole use can be found in the Peerless SLS and (X)XLS line . Also the Seas Extreme L26ROY gets a nod .

[@bujoun76]

Gerrit Govaerts Thank you sir...!

[@gerritgovaerts8443]

@@bujoun76 Just one more tip . Once you have digested the theory of dipoles , you will come to realize that only minimal or even no baffle will work in the mid and high frequency range . For example , if you want to operate your midrange up to 2 Khz before crossing to a tweeter , and you also want to stay well below the first dipole peak (as needed for constant directivity) then the dipole distance cannot exceed 6 cm , leading to a max baffle width of 12 cm , on which you can barely fit a 4 inch driver . That is the reason why you know see a trend in DIY circles toward (semi) naked dipoles with the midrange and tweeter chassis suspended in the air with strings or chains or mounted on very minimalistic (almost invisible) baffles . This relation between width and frequency is purely proportionate : crossing over at 1.5 Khz will give you a max baffle width of 2*12/1.5=16 cm PS : was rooting for Bernie too as a Belgian ...

[@geickmei]

You still don't understand why open baffle sound the way they do. OPEN BAFFLE HAS EQUAL AMOUNTS OF DIRECT AND REFLECTED SOUND. It is the reflected part that yields the depth and spaciousness. Positioning is also important, and toe in, to create the spatial patterns that make the soundstage size and shape.

[@sasquatch1554]

"You can't put any speaker in the corner or against the wall"...............Audio note would like a word.

[@listeningto8371]

That word would be "True"

[@sasquatch1554]

@@listeningto8371 No, Peter Qvortrup would vehemently disagree.

[@Dreez76]

I'll trash this "fact" here and now. Open baffle speakers sounds great because the room they're in, is designed to make them sound good. Place open baffle speakers in a regular untreated livingroom and they won't get their "godlike" sound . Now ofc, any speaker worth their money sounds better in a "treated room" , but open baffle speakers are more demanding.

[@floydloonie4880]

@Dreez76- I'd have to disagree with your view on this type of speaker system. I've had a pair of "open baffle" panels for the last ten years in my 10X12 foot bedroom and the speakers sound AMAZING !! I have no special acoustic treatment added to the walls and the soundstage is bigger than the actual physical size of the room should permit. My speakers were designed by the legendary Bob Carver around 1990, and are his Platinum series "Amazing Loudspeakers" with 4 X 12" bass drivers paired with a 6 foot planar ribbon driver on each hardwood panel. I switch between my Sansui 9090 receiver and a Phase Linear 700 amp+ 2000 pre-amp to drive them depending on how much volume I'm in the mood to be immersed in. In my opinion the Carver ALS system has all the open air transparent electrostatic qualities of Magnaplanars that I like so much, but are far more dynamic sounding with full tight bass hits and shimmering highs that sparkle in an endless pool of mid- range vibrations that give me the sensation of floating in an almost semi-liquid musical medium. If I had bought speakers like this when I was younger, I could have saved a lot of money that I spent to feel the same sensations that I now get just listening to my old LP collection.

[@LinearTubeAudio]

The hundreds of people who have enjoyed our untreated rooms at audio shows would disagree with you. I’ve found just the opposite, that open baffle speakers are exceedingly unpicky about the room and east to set up, and I’ve set them up at at least a half dozen rooms, all untreated.

[@Coneman3]

I bet properly designed TLs sound better.

[@wolfgangjungheim7502]

Wie kann man nur so viel Quatschen und sich selbst so in den Mittelpunkt stellen, wo sind die Lautsprecher?

[@Vinyl360-nh5pr]

"We make everything ourselves, except the drivers." Aha, so you make the wood and solder together a crossover. Anyone who praises this as top engineering should keep their mouth shut when it comes to the DIY sector. I would like to know what your "encouragement to build something yourself" looks like in detail. Do you tell people to buy the drivers Spatial uses, screw the base to a baffle and that's it? Hardly. Because that would be extremely stupid from a marketing point of view.

[@Noscrap909]

Disappointing interview, never talked technical.