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My 15 year speaker journey has lead me to this: From countless commercial boxed speakers, to DIY boxed speakers, to DIY open baffles, H-frames, W-frames, U-frames, to no baffle ladder frames and finally, metal scaffold frames. This woofer assisted wide-band (no Tweeter) configuration represents performance, relatively low cost and simplicity..... .....no crossovers with a separate DSP amp driving the woofers. They look like they shouldn’t they do. In one fell swoop this speaker arrangements eliminates box and baffle resonances that mainstream manufactureres work so hard to control. Getting rid of all baffles also eliminates edge diffration and improves imaging. Instead of a single expensive wideband, we use a small Faital array of multiple cheap drivers. This is necessary to be able to play at high SPLs without stress or distortion. The array starts a gradual roll off at 500hz and climbs to over 15k. I dont find above 15k is necessary or natural. The first time I attended a classical live concert I remember thinking ‘where is the treble’ ? ‘Air’ I regard as an artifical hifi artefact. The Faitals have a very smooth response, are relatively efficient for a small driver and are very fast & dynamic. Eliminating all the various Open Baffle bass frames (U,H, W etc) designed to increase the bass also increase room modes and make the speakers more difficult to integrate in the room. For sure, this system is not efficient and requires more with the advent of Class D, watts are cheap! The UM18 woofers chosen for this application have heavy cones and magnets, and are inefficient. These are usually not recommended for open baffle. Most experts suggest light, efficient paper coned, fabric surround woofers with high QTS are best. These may be good for jazz and classical quartets, but they wont do rock & electronic music. The UM18’s give the best bass I have ever heard, and are capable of seismic frequencies. I find best integration with the Faital array occurs at a crossover of 275hz, but of course with DSP this can be adjusted to taste. More info: The idea of this video is hopefully to give you a taste of what these speakers will do. Of course, when you listen at home you are not listening to my set-up, but yours. Headphones may be more accurate, but bear in mind you are still listening to my recording taken through a Tascam DR-05x. List of hi-fi components: Speakers: Baffle-less scaffold frame, UM18 woofers mounted face to face, acoustically in phase, electronically out of phase. Very directional figure of 8 output in this configuration. Faital 334433 array, 3FE22 (16ohm) 4FE32 (8ohm) Amplification DEQX preamp running flat. This amp is not vital to operation of this speaker and is not being used for eq, Temple Audio Mono amp driving arrays, Supercaps power supply. Pair of Behringer NX6000D Class D amps with built in DSP driving woofers and cross-over. Source Lindemann Limetree Bridge streamer Chord Quetest DAC
