[Zitoun]

Hello Audiophiles,

As  I have been collecting a lot of feedback from different people in the community, I think this is my turn to give back and  share my story, if that may help other new comers or experienced audiophiles who are dealing with upgrades in their systems and Open Baffle technology.

I will share here my analysis of the OB (Open Baffle) landscape in the audiophile market and my conclusions.

The Community

First of, I did not considering myself as an audiophile, mainly because I had a false perception of what is an audiophile. That's I think because sometime you end up having conversation with some purists with the following characteristics:

   - The guy who present his setup by price tag, making his hobby an elitist social status artefact that helps self esteem.
   - The guy who tells you that you don't have a listening room good enough for audiophile gears. And spend his time like a lone wolf in a basement away of the family and real world's problems.
   - The guy who has an opinion on any speaker and equipment but never listened to them, and is also too old to have good hearing abilities anyways.
   - The guy who has compulsive buying disorder, and uses audio subjectivity to buy and swap gears.
   - The guy who talks more about equipment, spend more time finding new gear and tweaks than listening to new music and genre.
   - The guy who tells you that electronica does not require audiophile gears, and only listen to the same  Acoustic Jazz DSD files for years, because that's the only way to confirm that his setup is so good, but any other music does not sound that good in the system.
   - The guy who tells you that DIY is the best and HI-FI companies are Evil selling overpriced speakers, while spending hours of work studying, and upgrading the system for years.
   - The guy who is crying Snake oil when you talk about cables or very high end gear, but likes very expensive liquor and restaurants.
   - The guy who buys cables that are more expensive than having a band in the living room.

I am not saying this is true for everybody, but I think there is a little part of this in each audiophile, and I didn't want to become like that. My  goal was only to upgrade my 8 years old setup to something significantly better before my hearing starts to decline over the years, with the objective to get more emotion, energy, pleasure of my current music library, and enjoy new tracks and genre.

The Market

I realised that the market is really tough on the high end side for companies. Most of the people are satisfied with entry levels, because frankly nowadays they are really good, and you don't need more to enjoy music. High end is saturated with a lot le product that are very similar, and honestly I was always disappointed by the performance of 10k or 20k speakers compared to my small B&W bookshelves. I was about to give up and keep my current system because it didn't worth the investment to my ears. ... until I tried .... Open Baffle.

That was for me a revelation when I listened to ML ESL 11, finally I can hear the music properly with details, immersion, life. I realized it was possible to feel like being at the Event and the emotion of the track. Finally a speaker that can be as good as good headphones with soundstage and imaging.

The Selection

I then came into the conclusion that the OB market is very niche, because there are no plug and play products that can be sold in high volume, which makes it complicated to do a selection.
Fortunately the audiophile community is a very open minded group of people, and I could easily listen to all brands, and different models of speakers. And most importantly meet with very experienced nice people.

Here is the analysis I did and posted from another thread that compares all options I wanted to listen to.
>>>>> https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=168055.msg1787742#msg1787742 <<<<<

The shock

I had the chance to travel to Boulder and meet with the people at PS audio and listen to the IRS V, and also in Denver, meet with a really smart and nice guys a.k.a. Tyson that you may know on this forum. We spent 3 hours talking 2 hours in listening and I felt that I was there for 30mn. This was the longest listening session I did with any speakers.
We started with the GR research modified Klipsch Forte 3, they were impressive, I'd say that they were the first enclosed speaker I would buy to swap with my bookshelves, but still not the soundstage I liked.

Then we warmed up the Super 7 setup.
Right away put on my stress test tracks.
(Tundra Squarepusher / St Michel Aphex Twin)... Wow ok they just responded like it was nothing but a gentle lounge track... like if this was nothing... even more I knew right away that they were not only the best I heard with electronica, but they are better than the IRS V (I know some will cry snake oil, but hold on). The bass response is actually the foundation of the Super7, and they surpass any boxed woofer/subs ever heard, which makes it cohesive with the top end. The IRS has subs stacked in closed boxes in the back of the room, and you clearly hear a boxed sound not in phase with mids and heights. Clearly the Super7 is way more realistic.

One two punch

Another test song: Little Susie by Michael Jackson... very dramatic opera pop track.
This was the first time in my life I have felt so much emotion just by listening to a song. It was real, the singer was there and what he described in the lyrics surrounded me. I realized how much of a genius he (MJ) was. And then Tyson insisted to put some Jay Z, and I hate these songs. Wow, ok now I guess I am a fan... . I realized after a while that this setup reproduced real life experiences, removing the barriers between you and the artist intent.

Tyson likes to call the Super7 his time machine as it gives the sensation of being there back in the 70s listening to Janis Joplin, but other good speakers can do that like the Wilson Sabrina for example. But I will call them more empathy machine because if you try to put Jay z on Sabrina's speaker, you won't appreciate the production, you will have hard time to connect with his universe, because this genre requires very refined fast, clean bass.

Don't get me wrong the super 7 is not the best speaker, I don't think such things exists, and if people say that to you they are probably biased. But I can say they are the most realistic well balanced speakers that I have heard thanks to his designer a.k.a Danny Ritchie.

Conclusion

On that note, it was time for me to take a decision on what I want to do next. Well pretty easy now that I listened to so many speakers. Well not really. It's all about budget, resell value, room configuration etc.. (cf. spreadsheet here). My biggest fear with the DIY is the very little resell value, so as technology evolves, you are trapped with your investment and can hardly resell anything because in the end, mass marketing helps you to resell.
But well, will my goal be to resell these speakers anyway, No or it will be probably to buy a better version of them.
Will my wife understand why we don't go to Hawaii this year by listening to these speakers … YES definitely.
So I decided to invest my time in learning DIY skills and start getting the cabinet done with servo subs and make it a modular platform to add either Ottica MTM, super mini or the full super 7 top whenever the neo10 drivers will be available.
If you ask yourself about the NX-Ottica, I didn't listen to them so I can only defer to Tyson's appreciation on his review. For the space that I have it wouldn't fit in the living room with 2 subs, and I need something that aesthetically fits my families' tastes.

This is it guys, 9 months of searching, learning and listening, and a new project in hands.
So guess what I think you can call me an audiophile now, and I won't care having weird geek conversation as long as I am enjoying and sharing music with my friends and family.

The Audiophile Manifesto:
For any new comers sometime there is too much information but some rules you hear here are true :

Rule#1: Always listen to speakers before you buy (at least a similar one)
Rule#2: Always listen to speakers before you buy, no seriously a flight is so cheap you can fly to a shop or an audiophile place to get an audition, it won't cost much more than cables, and you'll save money in the long run instead of swapping gear every time.
Rule#3: Be respectful and humble, Music is all about connecting with people not having strong opinions on gear, meeting people is certainly what I appreciated the most doing this.

Cheers,

[Early B.]

   - The guy who talks more about equipment, spend more time finding new gear and tweaks than listening to new music and genre.

This statement pretty much summarizes the audiophile. And your post was so freakin' long, you definitely qualify for AC's Audiophile of the Year. I mean -- you're actually encouraging people to get on a plane just to listen to speakers?? Yeah, man, you got it real bad. You should self-quarantine.

[Tyson]

I'll chime in with my few cents, as I found it a great visit too and Zitoun was a very cool and interesting guy to talk to 

Upstairs System - Klipsch Forte III hotrodded by Danny
My office system.  I work from home so built out a system that can sound good while I am working and also have good tunes upstairs while doing other thing like cooking or other chores.  It sounds good because the speakers are completely hotrodded by me and Danny, extra bracing, NoRez, damping, stuffing, reworked crossover with way better parts, etc.  The upstairs system also sounds good because I put down heavy shag carpet with thick floor liners, and on the walls I built out massive acoustic treatments to absorb the slap echo.  Even with all that, the Forte's needed EQ for the room modes that box speakers all have in any room. 

We started up here listening and I could tell Zitoun liked what he was hearing - clean, fast, coherent, detailed and punchy.  But the speakers only go down to 35hz strong, then bass drops off a lot due to the PR design.  And, side to side imaging is good but deep imaging is mediocre. Plus the speakers are too short for serious audiophile use.  But as a fun speaker in a second system, they fit the bill.  After a lot of conversation and a few songs in the living room, it was time to move downstairs to the main system.


The Main System - Super 7's in the Basement

Running these with an iFi iDSD Pro, a 6BL7 based preamp and a pair of Dennis Had Inspire monoblocks.  We listened to everything, from Aphex Twin and Skillrex to Michael Jackson to Janis Joplin to Johnny Cash to Billie Holiday to Jay Z to Kodo (Japanese Taiko Drummers).  They ALL sounded amazing.  What I loved about Zitoun is that he really, really, really heard the core strength of the Super 7 in a way that many other's that have visited didn't quite get at that level - the ability to present a piece of music with the full artistic intent laid bare.  And not in an anlytical x-ray vision kind of way.  No, they let you hear EVERYTHING, but in a human, fully fleshed out, highly emotive way. 

Philosophical Musings

It's funny that you mention Jay Z!  Cause as I mentioned, Jay Z was one of the artists that I'd always hated.  Because every time I heard any of his music it sounded compressed and shitty.  But with the Super 7's, it's not compressed at all, and the production just unfolds in front of you, which allows one to connect to the music and the world being created in a very cool way.  With the Super 7's, that's happened with several other artists, music I used to dislike but with this system, it opened up like a flower to me.  Artists like Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Neil Young.  Hell, I've even developed "some" appreciation for opera!! 

And now, after your visit I've developed an appreciation for insanely complex electronica.  I guess I am a fan now    It comes back to a point we discussed a lot while you were here - a great hifi system should not "show you how poorly recorded so much of my collection is".  No, what it should do is give you a direct line to the beauty and artistry of EVERYONE in your music collection.  And maybe even open you ears to artists you'd dismissed previously. 

Anyway, it was crazy fun to hang out & talk.  Of course you're welcome back any time.  I'm really interested to see your custom OB build that you're going to do now....

PS - I'm listening to Aphex Twin right now.  It's all your fault

[Sonicjoy]

It comes back to a point we discussed a lot while you were here - a great hifi system should not "show you how poorly recorded so much of my collection is".  No, what it should do is give you a direct line to the beauty and artistry of EVERYONE in your music collection.  And maybe even open you ears to artists you'd dismissed previously. 

Tyson that was my experience too when moving from my Vandersteen 3a Sigs to the Emerald Physics EP 2.7 open baffle's. I can listen to albums that the Vandy's showed as poorly recorded, flat and lifeless but the OB's render listenable and even enjoyable even tho you can still tell that they are not well recorded.