[Bumpy]

I'm not try to start a heated argument just a debate.

I have been looking at 3 way open baffles across the Internet and people seem to have their own slant on what constitutes an open baffle speaker. For me the very definition includes the use of dipole drivers to give that distinction open sound, free of restraints.

The first area to step outside the description is the bass - many people put it in a box.

The second area to step outside the description is the tweeter - many people are using mono pole drivers.

So whats going on?

[JohnR]

I did write a definition a while back (which I forgot to make sticky but have now) - https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=149677.0

But this is just a definition... as far as why boxed bass, I suppose it's just a tradeoff some make for size vs output vs frequency.

[mcgsxr]

I played around with OB for over a decade.  I absolutely enjoyed it.  Part of the fun was trying different alignments and combinations.

For many, the hardest part to accommodate is multiple large woofers on OB.  Many will instead try a single sealed woofer vs 4 OB woofers to get similar output.

I never got past 2x12's on OB for bass and that was satisfactory to keep up with the 8 inch OB mains (wide range drivers).

Some have the room for 2x15 per side!