I just received a pair of Lii Song open baffle speakers sold through Decware. They have the 15" Fast 15 speakers from Lii Song. Right now they sound terrible. Flat harsh and very little bass. Is this because they need a lot of hrs of breaking? I’m asking this to people who have or have built open baffle speakers. They sound a lot better on the Youtube video demos thru headphones. If they start to sound good, this is one heck of a deal. $2250 for the complete speaker shipped from China. Received them in about 3.5 weeks of business days. I had to put them together and they are heavy with a beautiful finish.
What is driving them?
I would also experiment with speaker location.
Since you bought them thru Decware, I would direct questions to Steve. I’ve found him to be responsive and friendly.
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When you listen to them " . . on the Youtube video demos thru headphones." What exactly are you listening to? The headphones or the speakers, or ???
Right now Musical Fidelity A308cr 250 watts into 8ohms. Going to try a 30 watt tube amp to see if that makes a difference. Speakers are 4” from back wall.
I just was referring to sound quality, new speakers in the room vs Youtube via headphone sound. I know you can’t really compare. One reviewer said his didn’t sound good until about 100 hrs.
If at all possible, try them at least two feet from the back wall, more would be better. I’m not an expert on open baffle or similar designs, but the back wave can cause all sorts of cancellations or peaks after it reflects off the back wall.
With respect to break in, all speakers require some break in. Anywhere from 100 hours to 500 hours is typical.
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I’ve been told that 4’ is recommended. The closer to the back wall, the more cancellation occurs.
I assume there is a typo on 4 feet?
I would still try adjusting and listen more.
If the original spot is the best, you’ll know
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Just to be clear, your quote above says four inches … Yes four feet is much better.
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Yes feet. Sorry.
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That 15" driver is going to take a while to fully break-in. Based on my experience with the 15" drivers in the Spatial OB speakers expect a couple of hundred hours at least and the louder you can play them the better. Also don’t believe the efficiency specs on OBs given by the manufacturer as they are usually way off. And yes depending on your room specifics you should find your sweet spot between 32-48" from the back wall and diffusion panels behind the speakers help.
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Thank you.
You are so right! I unplugged my subwoofer, put on some heavy bass music and turned it up. It was unbearable. So I grabbed the dog and as I was leaving the house I cranked it up with the remote and closed the door. Let it play for about and hour. They are really tight speakers. What do you think about putting on some rap music and leaving for the afternoon?Lol
Unfortunately, the only thing that works is time and with some speakers it can be hard to listen at times during the process.
Interesting speaker. I’ve always liked open baffle designs, but open baffle with no crossover sounds even more enticing.
I’m sure once they’re fully broken-in and dialed in in terms of placement they will sound fantastic.
If these speakers can be properly mated with a subwoofer they would represent an amazing value.
Well, with a whizzer cone, there’s a mechanical crossover that has the same phase characteristics as a normal crossover (i.e. it’s not phase coherent, if that’s the goal).
An example of what that looks like is this lowther driver - you can see the phase wrap at 3.5 kHz.
http://troelsgravesen.dk/Lowther_files/EX3_SPL-1mtfb_-22.2dB_phase.jpg
A similar design to this could be much better implemented with a coax, like this:
I would like to do some high Q open baffle drivers as a side project. There are a lack of these in the DIY space and wht is out there (like these lii song or acoustic elegance drivers) are expensive and not high Q enough for most simple, passive designs like this.
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You have a good point. In my case I wanted to try OB speakers. I’m not good at building stuff and didn’t want to spend a lot so I ordered the LiiSong complete for $2250 shipped. The baffles arrived first and a few days later the speakers, bases and hardware arrived. The baffles are really heavy. So are the bases. The 2 part stands are 1/4” steel. Installed the speaker is too heavy to move for one person. I took the base plates off so I could move the speakers around. The quality of these baffles and speakers is outstanding. The baffles are made in a piano factory and are beautiful. I can’t believe these things were shipped from China to my door for 2250. I’ve got around 50 hours on them and the mid range and mid bass are starting to come out.
Well, I’m glad you feel like you got a good value but, at that point you could likely buy a set of Spatial M3 turbo or Clayton Shaw Caladan’s or something else with a crossover and and more neutral response.
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I’ve still got boxed up in storage a pair of the Spatial M3 Triode Masters, which was the last of the models Clayton made with the coaxial mounted compression driver. Models after used a separate tweeter which changed the character of the speaker. It was and still is a vey good example of the OB concept. I packed them up when we sold the second house in Florida and have never gotten around to trying them again in the new room addition.
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