First off, I am a non-DIYer, and admire all you that have the skills and tools to be able to build your own speakers and electronics.
This weekend my wife and I had the opportunity to visit with Daygloworange (Denny) to audition the OB-5’s he built at his workshop. The workshop is approximately 50’ x 50’ with 16’ ceilings, an enclosed office area housed within this space, plus assorted shelves, wood, table saws, etc. IOW, not ideal conditions but not a barren echo chamber either. Dayglow showed us some of his works, which were absolutely beautiful. Dayglow is the real deal, a master journeyperson cabinetmaker with a strong interest in audio reproduction. That is exactly the type of person you want building your speakers if you are all thumbs like me.
Dayglow’s OB-5’s were finished in a black satin stain with slightly curved sides on the bottom cabinet and a curved front baffle. They looked very stylish and smacked of custom designer quality. Even though they are tall and deep speakers, the relatively small width and lack of a top, back and sides for the OB MTM area made them WAF friendly.
As passionate as Danny Richie is in designing great sounding speakers, Dayglow is just as passionate about the cabinets he makes to encapsulate the design.
Okay, so you want to know my thoughts on how they sounded? There has been a lot written about the sound of the OB design by Danny, Dayglow and others and I won’t repeat it all here but simply state I totally agree with their assessments. Due of the listening environment of the workshop, we placed the speakers about 7’ apart and sat in a near field configuration ranging from 8’ to 11’. (I listen to mostly jazz but did have some pop and progressive rock to see how they would sound.) When they were fired up the first thing we noticed was the very wide and deep 3-D sound stage. (I currently own a pair of Paradox-3s w/ Focal tweeter) This was the first time I had ever listened to a Neo 3 tweeter and I was impressed how airy and smooth they sounded in the upper frequencies. The space between instruments became very apparent due to how much blackness developed between them. I stood up, slouched down and moved side-to-side in my chair to see how big the sweet spot was, and it is very large. These speakers will disappear as a focal sound point in the listening experience. My wife used the word transparent to describe them.
We listened to vocal tracks by Seal, Porcupine Tree, Michael Buble, Lara Fabian, Diana Krall, and Patricia Barber. These vocal tracks were reproduced flawlessly. Patricia Barber’s cds have a tendency to bring out the best and worst in a system and in this case it was all positive. We turned up the volume and they did get very loud. The only limiting factor in how these speakers ultimately will sound in your listening environment is the amp, preamp, source unit, and room treatment.
It appears Danny’s biggest competitor currently is himself and his design imagination (LS 6 & 9, O-3, etc.) He is providing many options to consumers through GR Research and his work with other companies
Danny Richie has developed another fantastic design that Dayglow implemented beautifully. So if there are any other non-DIYers out there looking for a reasonably priced speaker that will outclass some of the major players, please give Dayglow’s offering serious consideration. And for you DIYers, I am in awe with how you do what you do.
Laserman
