My way to open baffles.

It all started with a pair of old midrange Isophon drivers I purchased on ebay honestly without really knowing what I'm doing. i mounted them on small cardboard baffles and was amazed how open the sound was compared to my transmission line speakers I was using for about 12 or 13 years. Of course there was no bass at all. After this short insight into open baffle design the idea what could be possible didn't let go of me. I looked out for a affordable driver and read about the CSS FR125S, I think it was on the site of Tom Zurowski. Fortunately the driver was available here in Germany and not so expensive. Next thing was to find a baffle design. I wanted to play it safe as a newbie and decided to go for the JELabs design:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/pictu...7&pictureid=73

This set up was satisfying and offered sufficient bass for me. Listening to music was fun again. After about a year or so I realized that something bothered me a little and that was a kind of harshness in the high frequencies spoiling long and relaxed listening sessions.

So my research began all over again reading articles on all those websites when I remembered an article on TNT-Audio about Hawthorne Audio and their Silver Iris 15" coaxial driver.

The TNT-Reviews can be found here :Silver Iris solo and here:Silver Iris duets.

Some further reading convinced me that the Silver Iris could be the right driver for me and i ordered them at Hawthorne Audio. First thing was to mount them in my existing baffles:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/pictu...7&pictureid=74

Now the Silver Iris don't need a large or wide baffle and in my small listening room I had the feeling after a while that they didn't reach their full potential in those rather large JELabs baffles. Next thing was to go down in size:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/pictu...7&pictureid=75

I'll continue later sometime.

Cheers

Joerg

I fiddled around with the baffles to see what improvements I could achieve. Having the drivers on ear level made sense to me:

Here on a chair:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/pictu...7&pictureid=93


... and without seat ;) :
http://theartofsound.net/forum/pictu...7&pictureid=94

Listening to the Silver Iris on ear level was a further improvement. I didn't loose so much bass as I thought I would.

Cheers

Joerg

Great fun. Keep the ideas coming.
I suspect tall baffles from the floor up, will be better than being balanced on the chair.

Great work. Nothing like trying different approaches until you find what you are looking for.

:)

You could still use the small baffle on the floor,to keep your bass response,and just tilt them back so the drivers are pointing at your ears.