I have been enjoying my open baffles over the past few months and it was time to try a few things that had been in the back of my mind.
One of my favorite speakers of all time is the Parker Audio 95 Signature. It uses two 5 1/4" midbass drivers with a high quality ribbon tweeter
sandwiched between them in an "MTM" or "D'Appolito" configuration. This setup increases the efficiency of the speakers by 3 decibels
and the three drivers have the effect of sounding like a single "point source". It works very well and makes the 95 Signature one of the best
sounding loudspeakers on the market, regardless of price. These speakers outperform many speakers that cost 10 times as much.
Based on this, I wanted to try the MTM configuration in an open baffle setup using the Visaton B200 full range drivers and a Heil AMT driver.
I recently attended the 2012 Audio Karma audio show in Novi, Michigan. One of the exhibitors at the show was Hawthorne Audio, the company
that designed and sells the "Augie" 15" open baffle bass driver that I use in my audio system. They were showcasing their new "Rainier"
flagship speaker and it sounded very good. It is a large open baffle speaker using a 15" Augie bass driver, a 15" Silver Iris mid-bass driver and
a proprietary AMT driver mounted in a marble horn lens. Despite its large size, this speaker sonically disappeared and convinced me to
make my next speaker on a similar sized baffle using all of my current drivers in a WMTMW configuration. The effect is excellent.
The five drivers in this configuration act as a single "point source", with the sound stage and sonic image appearing between, in front of and
behind the physical location of the baffle panels. It's hard to believe that speakers this large can "disappear" ..... but they do.
Having an efficiency of 99 decibels with one watt of power, they produce a big sound with a low powered amplifier.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Return to website Home Page