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Post by ChrisB on Jul 1, 2016 17:38:22 GMT
These are posh looking commercially produced open baffles from Switzerland. I saw them and heard them playing in a system at the North West Audio Show last weekend. The middle speaker in the photo below:  Despite the above blurb from the company website, I was told that the woofer is an 18 incher not 15" - it looked it too. I saw the price but can't remember exactly what it was, however, it was somewhere in the region of £16K. The amplification was from Italian company Grandinote - transistors with output transformers. Well, I can't say that the sound I heard was entirely attributable to the speakers, but I thought it fell extremely flat, rendering the music dull and lifeless and completely without passion. Very uninspiring. Nicely made though! |
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Post by John on Jul 1, 2016 17:47:18 GMT
How disappointing as I not seen this before
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Post by ChrisB on Jul 1, 2016 18:06:57 GMT
I read about them before the show and I was really looking forward to getting a chance to hear them. Unfortunately, I was only able to hear a couple of tracks, but one of them, I know very well. Others may have heard them and gained a different impression but yes, disappointing is a good word.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 1, 2016 18:25:07 GMT
I was similarly disappointed when I heard Tim de Paravicini's odd flat panel speakers a few years ago.
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Post by ChrisB on Jul 1, 2016 20:11:54 GMT
I'm not sure I remember those - do you know the model name so that I can Google it?
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Post by ChrisB on Jul 1, 2016 20:48:33 GMT
Primary Drive?
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Post by MikeMusic on Jul 1, 2016 20:56:11 GMT
This now makes me remember what I heard and thought about open baffles.
John and many others getting far better results.
Do they really think they can flog kit like this ?
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Post by ChrisB on Jul 1, 2016 21:05:57 GMT
Careful not to judge too harshly just on my experience Mike. This is a trap it's easy to fall into. As I say, I heard a system and not just the speakers in isolation and I have no idea whether what I heard was due to the speakers or something else. It may have been me.
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Post by jandl100 on Jul 2, 2016 6:01:16 GMT
I'm not a big fanboy of open baffles - ime they are a design of extremes - good at some things, not so good at others - but they certainly shouldn't sound 'flat' - quite the opposite. A very vibrant and lively sound can be had.
Looks like they used a deliberately weird type of amplification.
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Post by steveeb on Jul 2, 2016 8:23:33 GMT
Doesn't hurt to be reminded that:
# Throwing money at the problem doesn't automatically deliver musical connection. But it does raise expectations.
# That elusive nirvana where the result is greater than the sum of the parts is the reason it's called a system. Synergy is the black art of HiFi reproduction at any price level.
Actually I prefer the purposeful and honest appearance of John's OB creation; those remind me of a Rorschach test.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 2, 2016 9:00:06 GMT
I'm not sure I remember those - do you know the model name so that I can Google it? I don't think I ever took the model name in, Chris. They were flat, rectangular (tall rather than wide) and covered in a beige fabric. Smaller than Quads. Electronics were all TdP. It didn't help that all he played was big band music at a fairly low level, but the sound wasn't for me. |
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Post by MikeMusic on Jul 2, 2016 11:42:31 GMT
Point taken Chris.
We know the Chord amplifiers are slated because they run them into poor speakers.
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ynwan
Rank: Trio
Posts: 185 
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Post by ynwan on Jul 5, 2016 11:18:51 GMT
I listened to the Libération speakers at Cranage. The problem I had with them was that it appeared as though both mid drivers were being run completely open without any crossover* - given this the driver integration was surprisingly good but there was a ragged quality to the upper mid/lower treble which I suspect was one (or both) of the mid drivers breaking up at the top end of their range.
* There looked to be a single capacitor in series to the tweeter and a separate box which I suspect contained the bass crossover (probably also first order).
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Post by ChrisB on Jul 13, 2016 19:50:18 GMT
Here's another pair of OBs from the Cranage show. This system sounded a lot better to me than the one in the OP and the speakers were significantly cheaper.  Emerald Physics KC-II 2 x 10" woofers with an 8” midrange driver and 1" coincident tweeter. |
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