[fldttchr]

Hello all!  My name is Mike.  I'm interested in upgrading to either Open Baffle (DIY GR Research/Spatial Audio) or looking into a DIY full range horn system.  Are there any GR Research, Spatial Audio or horn systetm owners in the Ohio area that would be up for a socially distant demo?  Thanks!

[Blackmore]

Welcome to Audiocircle Mike

[Phil A]

Welcome!

[ArthurDent]

Greetings & Welcome to AC Mike   

[fldttchr]

Thank you PhilA, Blackmore and Arthur. My listening room is the living room that opens to the kitchen and front room, it’s pretty large with a vaulted ceiling, all hardwood floors, lots of windows, and has no treatment, definitely not ideal. I like that open baffle speakers can solve a lot of room issues, I’m not interested in setting up a dedicated listening space.  My interest is towards high efficiency, listen to most every type of music, and have a pile of gear that I’ve enjoyed but am eager to part with to fund a speaker upgrade. I recently bought a soldering iron in case i take the plunge into diy which fits my price range. Fun fact: I live about a mile from one of the largest Klipsch dealers in Ohio, a year ago I stopped by to listen to the new heritage series La Scala but they were not presented very well there, I believe the store does best with High end AV home theatre installations and do very little business on selling full range horns. I stopped there after work today to see if they would be carrying the new Jubilees that are coming out in spring 2021, the manager said to expect an $30k price for the new Jubilees, and they would most likely not be demoing a pair in their store, not that kind of clientele I the area. So, I feel DIY is in my future, and I’m thankful for Audiocircle.

[FullRangeMan]

The Klipsch two ways models are rec for hi fi áudio with a small tube amp as RF83 (used) or RF7 along this there is the new highly praised Lii F15 fullrange driver for DIY OB or  BR 290L.
Good Luck.

[JLM]

Welcome!

Suggest auditioning before purchase.  While O.B. and horns can both be efficient, which can be a good thing, the presentations and how they position in the room are radically different.  IMO a true 93 dB/w/m efficiency loudspeaker is the ideal balance between revealing system self-noise, dynamics, and being able to relax while listening. 

Owned JBL 708P's a couple of years ago (largish active 2-way monitors, $4000/pair).  Nothing to look at, and had built-in ADC/DAC which irked me, but overall the best loudspeakers I've owned in 50 years.  They would easily fill your room.  93 dB/w/m, 250 watt amps, very dynamic - demand your attention.  They use controlled directivity wave guide loaded compression tweeters (similar to horns) with an 8 inch professional woofer.  Just add a streamer with volume control and you'd be done. 

[Speedskater]

There were several audiophiles and another group of home theater people that had meetings in the distant past. But not much in the last couple of years.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=110630.0

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/hellllo-northeast-o-h-i-o-members.1193648/

[fldttchr]

Speedskater -thanks for the links, I will check them out, i am interested in meeting other local DIYers and music enthusiasts

JLM - thanks and i agree, i would like to check all options out, I'm hesitant to do the Spatial 60 day trial because i might not send them back.  I intend to reach out to some klipsch Jubilee owners on the Klipsch forum and find some that would be down for a night of listening.  I like that OB take the room out of the equation to a degree, and the spatials can literally be pushed out into the room for listening and then stored away during normal business hours, where the GR research with subs could be more work to stow away and setup.  full range horns i know take up a lot of real estate, it seems those owners have them either in a barn outside of the house, or in a dedicated listening room which i'm not really setup for now but may be worth the trouble if that is what i ultimately want to get into.  Inlowsound.com has some DIY full range horn builds that seem like a great step in that direction at a price i can afford.  Question: why did you part with the JBL's and what are you using now?

FullRangeMan - thanks for the suggestion, the Lii Audio products look great, and would probably present the easiest DIY speaker build.  Do you add a super tweeter to your full range speakers to may up the 10k+ range?

[FullRangeMan]

No, definitely no, the benefits are minimal and musical electric signal from the amp will have a second VC to energize and receive return NFB.

[JLM]

JLM - Question: why did you part with the JBL's and what are you using now?

Learning that my nice DAC was rendered all but useless thanks to the downstream on-board DAC and that the internal ADC was even more lackluster throve me nuts.  I'm  speaker guy so can understand how such pedestrian electronics found their way into the 708P's (speaker guys fixate on loudspeakers).  So I dropped back to a pair of commissioned loudspeakers I've had for years (passive single driver floor standing transmission lines) that serve my tastes and preferred genres very well but would be harder to sell. 

Active loudspeakers can be much more advanced in terms of electronics.  Buchardt A500, Genelec "The Ones", KEF LS50 Wireless 2, and Kii Three are an excellent examples.