Fast, fun, Inexpensive OB project

Even at 18" you'll be losing bass. But it's better than flat up against the wall. IME, 24" form the wall is bare minimum for Open Baffle.

As you probably know, with OB speakers the bass wraps around the baffle and cancels out the front wave. If you are too close to a surface behind the speaker, that surface will bounce back a lot of energy and with a very short delay. That means massive cancellation.

Of course I don't want to stop you from building a pair, it's well worth the money and the effort, but if you can't get them >3 feet off the wall I think you'll be disappointed. But you might like them enough to put them on stands and use them that way. :)

thank you. everyone was arguing with the idea without ANY specifics. idk what the minimum wall separation for OB is. so if 36" is it, then there might NOT be an HDTV mount with 36"+ extension? have to look around.
 
Interesting design with the round baffle insert for the Vifa tweeter. I think it's a real improvement in the overall appearance compared to the stock square look. Good job.

Thanks man! I really struggled with the cuts for those round inserts, I think I made 4 or 5 attempts because I don't have a router I used a jigsaw initially, then a dremel to get it very much closer to a circle, then hand sanded it. Not visible in the picture is that interior and the exterior of the circle both have rounded edges by design with my sanding. It turned out better than I thought. I will likely go over the ring again with some more black hammered paint over the screws so that the silver screws are no longer as visible but are more covered in paint.
 
Interesting design with the round baffle insert for the Vifa tweeter. I think it's a real improvement in the overall appearance compared to the stock square look. Good job.

When are you starting your pair and do you have a general game plan for the aesthetics and wings? I know your desire is to use baltic birch, etc. but beyond that I mean? I am eager to see your spin on this!
 
I would also use birch hardwood for the wings instead of pine. That's particularly important if you are going to stain it rather than paint it. Stain on pine will turn out very dark and won't look good compared to the front baffle.

To add to what you said, staining pine, unless you use complicated/advanced techniques, will stain unevenly (grain reversal) rather than merely darker, because of the density differences between "earlywood" and "latewood". As expensive as wood has become in the last few years, I prefer buying cherry for most of my "serious" projects. I usually finish with multiple coats of shellac, often waxing that. I'm old-fashioned.
 
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thank you. everyone was arguing with the idea without ANY specifics. idk what the minimum wall separation for OB is. so if 36" is it, then there might NOT be an HDTV mount with 36"+ extension? have to look around.
You're welcome. :up: I don't remember ever seeing an HDTV wall mount with that kind of reach. I remember some old CRT mounts with about 24" max.

Could you hang them from the ceiling? Of course they'd be hard to fold back out of the way like that. Didn't Magnepan have some wall mounted speakers at one time? How did they work?
 
You're welcome. :up: I don't remember ever seeing an HDTV wall mount with that kind of reach. I remember some old CRT mounts with about 24" max.

Could you hang them from the ceiling? Of course they'd be hard to fold back out of the way like that. Didn't Magnepan have some wall mounted speakers at one time? How did they work?

can't hang from ceiling here, but that might be an option elsewhere.

i had a pair of the magneplanars that were kept about 2' off the wall, but there was no real bass from these. they were on their stands atop a couple of cv 12" passive sub-woofers (1 each channel).
 
When are you starting your pair and do you have a general game plan for the aesthetics and wings? I know your desire is to use baltic birch, etc. but beyond that I mean? I am eager to see your spin on this!

Still a few months away from being able to work on this. Planning on March to start.

Want to have an oak look for this room. If I can find BB plywood with a nice oak veneer might use that. But also thinking of using solid oak for everything. It will probably be a game time decision.

I'm thinking of stealing your idea for mounting the Vifa. I really like the look that way. If I do and post any pictures I'll try to remember to give you credit for it. Don't let me forget.
 
thank you. everyone was arguing with the idea without ANY specifics. idk what the minimum wall separation for OB is. so if 36" is it, then there might NOT be an HDTV mount with 36"+ extension? have to look around.

The other problem with any of these wall mounted extensions is their lack of ability to counter the forces from the motion of the driver's cones. Particularly at low frequencies where there is a considerably amount of energy. Newton's Second Law applies here as it does everywhere else.

So the speakers on these expandable extensions are going move and vibrate with the music and it will affect the sound quality.

Some people go to great lengths to add mass to their speaker stands. Even pouring heavy sand into the base for that purpose. All of which is to prevent the speaker itself from moving and degrading the sound.

This type of wall extension mount works in the opposite manner. And the further out you extended it the worse the problem becomes.
 
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Still a few months away from being able to work on this. Planning on March to start.

Want to have an oak look for this room. If I can find BB plywood with a nice oak veneer might use that. But also thinking of using solid oak for everything. It will probably be a game time decision.

I'm thinking of stealing your idea for mounting the Vifa. I really like the look that way. If I do and post any pictures I'll try to remember to give you credit for it. Don't let me forget.

You don't have to give me any credit, I just know you are really detail oriented so what you put together is likely going to be visually stunning and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result. This is good man. You're going to enjoy it I think. I make so many mistakes that require wood putty and screws, etc. that I've given up on ever being able to use a solid piece of wood and stain it. I'm resigned to using veneer to cover up screws and minor issues in perpetuity ;)
 
If you plan to mount the OB‘s from the wall (@ 1m distance), please consider the leverage the wallmount construction would have to sustain...

Lever - Wikipedia

the polks weigh ~ 33# each and these hdtv mounts don't even grunt. you have to use some good screws though. i doubt if the ob speakers would weigh very much ~ 20#?

should be no problem. tv mounts have maximum ratings. iirc these support a lot more than the 33#.
 
The other problem with any of these wall mounted extensions is their lack of ability to counter the forces from the motion of the driver's cones. Particularly at low frequencies where there is a considerably amount of energy. Newton's Second Law applies here as it does everywhere else.

So the speakers on these expandable extensions are going move and vibrate with the music and it will affect the sound quality.

Some people go to great lengths to add mass to their speaker stands. Even pouring heavy sand into the base for that purpose. All of which is to prevent the speaker itself from moving and degrading the sound.

This type of wall extension mount works in the opposite manner. And the further out you extended it the worse the problem becomes.

right but this doesn't seem to be a problem. if organ music was the norm, it might be necessary to roll the monitors off at some point and to go to the sub. as noted, the sound is really impressive! these speakers are 45 years old? haven't even replaced the crossover caps.
 
Your current speakers are vibrating whether you realize it or not. They are essentially a mass at the end of a spring and will move small amounts when played.

As I indicated in the last post, that's why some people go to great lengths by weighting down speaker bases with sand. And adding feet that help keep the speaker from moving on the floor.

If you find a mount that can extend to 36" the problem will be even worse. Whether you ever really hear it or not is hard to say. But it will be there. I'm afraid that Sir Isaac has the last word on this.
 
when younger i saw an article regarding in-wall speakers that probably has been posted somewhere in the last few years, but i don't recall where.

this article indicated that in-wall was the best for several reasons. so this first effort in raising speakers off the floor was a step toward this possible eventual goal. another alternative is to make an acoustical shell that covers the entire wall (and thus becomes THE wall).

when i became a hifi nut, we were in the dark ages with 8-track media, LPs, cassette, reel to reel, the discwasher system, sae pop eliminator, and all of this 'good stuff'. so when it comes to distortion, those of us from the dark ages, are all too familiar with it. a case in point is a turntable without vibration reducing feet sitting atop a pair of tannoy arden speakers or something really 'funky' like this. talk about feedback in many forms.

so i don't sweat the 'small stuff', since the media is SO much improved. remember hiss? i do. but i don't hear it now.