DIY Line Source Open Baffle Speaker for nearfield listening

[all4music]

It all started with el-cheapo experiment of Open Baffle speaker with some really old creative speakers and cardboard sheet. And I was pleasantly surprised how nice it sounded!



Later I started looking into options for building mini line arrays for the desktop listening set-up. Zeroed in on Peerless drivers : Peerless by Tymphany TC Series TC8FD00 3″ Full Range Speaker 4 Ohm .Ordered 12 of these little guys.

Bought couple of wooden planks from nearby saw mill. After making some careful measurement so that the drivers have nil or minimal gap between them - started the long and arduous labor of drilling holes for the drivers.


My drill machine literally started smoking after drilling 5 holes - had to request a hardware fabrication shop if I can use their drill press - they reluctantly agreed.

Post that started working on creating bevelled edges for baffle and as well as for driver rear mount holes.






After sanding and finishing the surface - made use of inkjet printer black ink and spirit mix for staining the wood. Finally decided to use Castor oil to finish the surface. Now all these stuff were readily available at home and hence decided to use them.




Soldering wires on to 12 drivers:


And finally after using 54 screws:


Tada!!


Final location:




This is an ongoing project - will post further after some tweaking. First I need to tidy up the wiring. Overall it was a hectic project for a single weekend!

Speakers sound open and effortless. These still need some burn-in time and are being driven by Allo Volt+ [not Volt+D] amp.

 

[vea]

Great effort and looks fantastic. Are you running any EQ on it?

 

[all4music]

Great effort and looks fantastic. Are you running any EQ on it?

Thanks! Nope, no EQ yet. I'm planning for couple of updates before getting to EQ.

 

[Subbu68]

Nice work. How does it sound? What is the final impedance of the array?

What you said is true, OB can spring surprises.

Have embarked on the OB journey in March '22 (in fact that brought me to HFV). Since then I am contemplating how to cut the wood. Mine is a pair of Ahuja 12FRX. Smitten by the OB magic.

 

[all4music]

Nice work. How does it sound? What is the final impedance of the array?

What you said is true, OB can spring surprises.

Have embarked on the OB journey in March '22 (in fact that brought me to HFV). Since then I am contemplating how to cut the wood. Mine is a pair of Ahuja 12FRX. Smitten by the OB magic.

Thanks! Combined impedance is 5.9 ohms [4ohm drivers - 3 in series and 2 sets in parallel].
As I said they sound open and relaxed. Haven't been able to listen to them much.
Of course cutting wood is a hard task and 12 inch one is difficult unless you have the jig.

..

It’s very tiring and you keep counting number of holes left. Seems like unending job…

...

So true.. in my case I had to drill 12 holes and it was a pain. By the end of 5th hole the drill machine started smoking!
Even more difficult task was creating chamfered edges on the rear of the baffle!