Hello, this video showed up in my YouTube feed so I watched it. DISCLAIMER: Please don't take this as me advocating for this tuber, his schtick, or this new speaker he's so breathless about. I only want to hear what the OB experts think about his basic ideas on driver isolation, back mounting, isolation bases, baffle thickness, and the acoustic justifications for these. He says most OB designs with a low and a FR driver are doomed to failure from vibrations. Would be interesting to hear from someone with actual experience building and testing these. Thanks in advance for your patience if you're able to make it through. In case the link doesn't work the title is "Macaria Speakers vs. My Own DIY Speakers"
Last edited:
I have these issues with the OB i'm currently building. The first prototype had a 15" driver and 4x 6" full rangers on the same baffle and on heavy bass notes the vibration transferred into the full ranger's cones which resulted in nasty distortion. The drivers i'm using have very light paper cones (3.5g mms) which are easy to excite.
It was partially mitigated by separating the baffles and mounting them on aluminum profiles with anti vibration washers in between. However while the single 15" provided plenty of bass for my small "lab" i realized that i need 2x15" per baffle for the large room i'm going to place them in. So now with 2x15" even my isolation attempts don't cut it. I like listening at higher volumes and on some electronic tracks with large amounts of bass the FR distortion still occurs.
It was partially mitigated by separating the baffles and mounting them on aluminum profiles with anti vibration washers in between. However while the single 15" provided plenty of bass for my small "lab" i realized that i need 2x15" per baffle for the large room i'm going to place them in. So now with 2x15" even my isolation attempts don't cut it. I like listening at higher volumes and on some electronic tracks with large amounts of bass the FR distortion still occurs.
Think little about how many vibrations are going to speaker cone when it plays full range, all bass vibrations are present in full power on the tweeter part of the speaker.
And this artificial vinyl noise in video is annoying.
And this artificial vinyl noise in video is annoying.
This is a lengthy mix up of very common speaker building science, mixed with a lot of OB and FR voodoo. The Hifi version of common BBQ grill, steak knife and magic bullet mixer TV sales technique.
Only much more boring.
Blow up a simple, usual problem to gigantic size and present some obvious solution as the most brilliant thing since the invention of sliced bread. Answer your own, obvious questions, don't focus on facts and prevent to be exited about this wonderful product.
What a master mind genius did construct them and make the baffle 2" strong. No one ever had this idea. 2“ or two inches. Not one, not three, not one and a half. No, exactly two! Unique on the planet I suppose. Probably they patented wood panels in 2"?
This overpriced OB speaker is just made from very simple, cheap, common and broadly available materials, floating around in any untidy workshop.
The problems he puts into focus are none or can be solved much better.
The outbursts of enthusiasm only show this limited acting talent. I don't think this will help to sell these monuments of ordinariness, but I may be wrong.
My best advice: Don't waste your time watching this monkey.
Only much more boring.
Blow up a simple, usual problem to gigantic size and present some obvious solution as the most brilliant thing since the invention of sliced bread. Answer your own, obvious questions, don't focus on facts and prevent to be exited about this wonderful product.
What a master mind genius did construct them and make the baffle 2" strong. No one ever had this idea. 2“ or two inches. Not one, not three, not one and a half. No, exactly two! Unique on the planet I suppose. Probably they patented wood panels in 2"?
This overpriced OB speaker is just made from very simple, cheap, common and broadly available materials, floating around in any untidy workshop.
The problems he puts into focus are none or can be solved much better.
The outbursts of enthusiasm only show this limited acting talent. I don't think this will help to sell these monuments of ordinariness, but I may be wrong.
My best advice: Don't waste your time watching this monkey.
@Turbowatch2 your points are well taken. Maybe I should have thought more about requesting people watch the silly video, which is of course pumping up his views when he doesn't really deserve that. So others may want to skip the ******** but my intent was to explore whether FR drivers maybe should not be in the same baffle as bass drivers, or if they can what's needed to avoid the cone vibration issue. And if others have experienced it as a problem. If so, what can we learn? How thin is too thin based on user's builds, how to join the foot to the base, attaching the driver, and other best practices to mitigate the issue. Are these things warranted for full range drivers in particular, making this a problem that has been possibly overlooked by some makers/manufacturers. I'm interested in the issues, not in these particular speakers and definitely not in watching the stereo cave or whatever it is. That was just something I clicked on while eating my lunch.
One thought is how Linkwitz separated the bass unit from the upper speaker with a "bridge."
The quick answer: It is nothing wrong in the idea of isolating the mid-high from the bass. On the other hand, there are world class speaker that don't care about it and sure outperform this 2 Inch wonder.
For any technician each new loudspeaker project is unique, if not it is a copy. So while on one speaker a certain way of constructing it, a special material or whatever exotic idea you may have, is an audible advantage, it may be a waste of time or money on another one.
Some of the members here can sure make a better construction from the components used in this OB, making it measure and sound better. In loudspeaker building, just a single part in the crossover or linearisation circuit will make more of a difference than any flexible or solid mounted chassis.
Experience, education, budget and predefined goals decide how to build a speaker. Real innovations today are rare as pink unicorns. There are many high end speaker out there that use up 50% of construction budget for maybe 1% improvement. Often speaker are not technical devices, but an expression of your personal style and wealth.
For example, massive wood may be fine for instruments, but speaker are better build from some homogenious material. Even as there exist many speaker that are so expensive because of the "fine" wood used. Cabinets from massive wood don't need to sound worse than those made from MDF or plywood, they just don't sound any better. The owner might be more happy knowing the wood is not just a thin veneer, but solid, even if the sound is not improved.
Just like he likes to go shopping in his SUV, even as he would be better off in a Prius...
For any technician each new loudspeaker project is unique, if not it is a copy. So while on one speaker a certain way of constructing it, a special material or whatever exotic idea you may have, is an audible advantage, it may be a waste of time or money on another one.
Some of the members here can sure make a better construction from the components used in this OB, making it measure and sound better. In loudspeaker building, just a single part in the crossover or linearisation circuit will make more of a difference than any flexible or solid mounted chassis.
Experience, education, budget and predefined goals decide how to build a speaker. Real innovations today are rare as pink unicorns. There are many high end speaker out there that use up 50% of construction budget for maybe 1% improvement. Often speaker are not technical devices, but an expression of your personal style and wealth.
For example, massive wood may be fine for instruments, but speaker are better build from some homogenious material. Even as there exist many speaker that are so expensive because of the "fine" wood used. Cabinets from massive wood don't need to sound worse than those made from MDF or plywood, they just don't sound any better. The owner might be more happy knowing the wood is not just a thin veneer, but solid, even if the sound is not improved.
Just like he likes to go shopping in his SUV, even as he would be better off in a Prius...
Sorry, people, I thought the video linked to above might start a discussion about what's actually important in designing full range open baffle speakers but since it ended up boring and/or annoying everybody instead it's probably best to just drop it. Seems like we all agree the source material isn't hifi enough to be worth critical listening.
Nothing to discuss per se since the pioneers covered the subject to a 'fare thee well' by the end of the 1920s. At least one design concept that lasted into the early '60s.
First off, those Maco branded, Macaria model speaker we see in the video...uses the Lii Audio F-15 full-ranger on top, the Lii Audio W-15 woofer at the bottom. Further two F-15s cost $798 for a pair, the W-15 woofer, $598 a pair for a total of $1396...That Macaria sells for Six thousand three hundred two dollars...6332 divided by 1396 ...really obnoxious pricing.
When I see SPL response graphs of these drivers, I cringe & wonder just how bad some peoples hearing actually is...many here declare those response graphs "deceiving" & not truly accurate, the "you don't know what your talking about" invariably is spoken....but none of these individuals will document true double-blind testing....& I'll bet real monies they won't get a wonderfully flat 30-20K response...plus or minus eight to ten Db maybe. Oh yeah, I'll hear "you're setting it up all wrong", or some other lame excuse. Sorry, make mine plus/minus two Db...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
When I see SPL response graphs of these drivers, I cringe & wonder just how bad some peoples hearing actually is...many here declare those response graphs "deceiving" & not truly accurate, the "you don't know what your talking about" invariably is spoken....but none of these individuals will document true double-blind testing....& I'll bet real monies they won't get a wonderfully flat 30-20K response...plus or minus eight to ten Db maybe. Oh yeah, I'll hear "you're setting it up all wrong", or some other lame excuse. Sorry, make mine plus/minus two Db...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...