[nocrapman]

I have always had boxes. I am curious to hear what the open baffle has to offer.
I dont have lot of time these days to research a lot.

Is there a safe starting place to begin the open baffle journey via DIY?

[JCS]

Yes!  While others will have different opinions, I strongly recommend Martin King's site:
www.quarter-wave.com
Great read on open baffle theory and a nice small, passive XO OB project.  I have built a modified version of Martin's small OB and really enjoy it.  For those who don't know, Martin's MathCAD worksheets ($25 and work with the free demo version of MathCAD explorer) are superb tools for modeling a wide variety of speaker, including OBs.

Cheers,  Jim

[puppet]

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/110583-fast-fun-inexpensive-ob-project-46.html#post2752617
That's a pretty long thread centered around a nice inexpensive build.

[gainphile2]

Open baffle speakers are exercise in compromises of:
- Frequency response
- SPL (especially lower frequencies)
- Polar response

ABC dipole is one of the simulators which takes these into account. And better, it's free now:
http://musicanddesign.com/A_B_C_Dipole.html

Any simulators are close at best and you really need to iteratively build and measure the design.

Although looking simple, they are one of the most difficult loudspeakers to design for accurate acoustic output.

Linkwitzlab undoubtly is the long reference of this design:
http://www.linkwitzlab.com

[SteveRB]

+1 for Martin's site.

this was my first OB. It takes about a day to build.

http://www.quarter-wave.com/OBs/OB_Design.pdf

[Æ]

I have always had boxes. I am curious to hear what the open baffle has to offer.
I dont have lot of time these days to research a lot.

Is there a safe starting place to begin the open baffle journey via DIY?

Open baffles are similar in many ways to planars. Dipole radiation pattern. You should pull them away from the rear wall by several feet.