Open baffle?

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Falcon

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Open baffle?
« on: 11 Oct 2020, 11:36 pm »
When I was a kid we had a Zenith 2 channel stereo with 6"X9" speakers in boxes that were about 1'X1'X6". The speakers had a pressboard back with a lot of holes that I could look in and see the speakers. I'm wondering if that kind of design is considered "open baffle". The sound certainly could come out of the front and back of the speaker boxes so wouldn't that be the case?
I also remember counsel type stereos made by countless companies that you could see the speakers from the rear which seem like they would be open baffle as well.
What's the opinions out there?

Russell Dawkins

Re: Open baffle?
« Reply #1 on: 13 Oct 2020, 08:17 pm »
I would consider those as variations of a "U-frame" open baffle. The holey back panels didn't have a lot of acoustic effect apart from minor reflections back to the driver, but the depth and shape of the space into which the rear wave exited would have had an effect on the sound, as it does in an H or U frame. There would be minor cavity resonance and standing waves between surfaces. Because this is not a tuned box, either reflex or sealed, I would consider these 'fairly' open baffles, or at least near the open baffle camp.

After all, these terms can be somewhat nebulous and not completely defined—like whether passive radiator designs are properly considered 'ported' as many would have it.

Another old and largely forgotten configuration could be (but wasn't) called a variation on the resistive port, and that was an open backed box with multiple layers of absorption completely filling the interior. The rear wave would be attenuated and delayed, but not reflected back, so I guess the radiation pattern could have been cardioid down to fairly low frequencies, like the Geithain studio monitor designs of Germany.

JohnR

Re: Open baffle?
« Reply #2 on: 14 Oct 2020, 05:43 am »
I believe modern guitar amps are still like that. However in this context "open baffle" includes the design goal of accomplishing a dipole-like radiation pattern, which these don't have (the goal) AFAIK. If someone wanted to measure one and post polar response plots though, that would be awesome :)