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Large infinite baffle speakers?

foxwelljsly

foxwelljsly

Me too, I ate one sour too.
I've been living with a pair of Kef 103.2's for a few months now. They're like an infinite baffle SP2 and sound bloody fabulous.

Whilst I've had loads of smaller infinite baffle speakers, these are far larger than the largest I've had previoulsy (priobably Ruark Sabres). I was wondering if there were any other infinite baffle designs that were this size or larger. Anyone?
 
Various AR's? AR94s I had were floor standers and pretty big. Good sounding speaker - although these days will need refoaming - mine rotted.
 
ATC SCM19/SCM20 are pretty chunky.

Technically a number of the Tannoy Prestige can be a closed box as you can shut off the ports via a slot in the front. On a similar aesthetic, there is the Klipsch Heresey, although I really am not a fan of them.

On KEF, there is the RDM1, another chunky sealed bookshelf.

Rare but there is also the Kord Vulcan, same layout as the Kord Tornado/Wilsmlow HSM but in a smaller sealed enclosure.
 
JPW P1, AP2 and AP3, Heybrook HB1, Acoustic research AR6, AR7, AR18 (all Sealed 8" 2-ways)
 
The term 'infinite baffle' has become somewhat looser in its definition over the years. Strictly speaking it designates a sealed enclosure large enough so as to provide minimal air spring to the driver. Is this what the OP is seeking? Or are sealed designs that don't meet the IB criteria also under consideration?
 
15” Tannoy Lancasters. The 15” driver actually works very well in a 75L sealed box. The factory Lancaster cabs were pretty porous despite having no port, but the hugely over-engineered DIY corner cabs my first pair were really good sounding cabs IMO. Very tight, fast and controlled bass and enough extension for a typical UK living room.
 
My Chatsworths are sealed, approx 70L with 12” Golds in.

Snell K are sealed also, very nice things.
 
darrenyeats said:
Yam NS1000.
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Lots of three-way speakers of that form-factor, e.g. AR 3a, Ditton 44 etc. It really surprises me there hasn’t been any revival as it is one of the most sensible ways to build a loudspeaker IMO, and a lovely timeless/classic form-factor aesthetically too.

PS If I ever wanted to try designing a speaker myself this would likely be my starting point. I’d just try to use modern driver advances to run the mid unit over a wider range so it wasn’t too far away conceptually from a full-range driver with a super-tweeter and sub, i.e. get the crossover points as far away from the critical midband as possible. Again it really surprises me no one has tried it.
 
The Radford M90 was a very clever sealed box design. It’s made from plywood and the two smaller drivers sit in their own compartment whilst the bass unit (12”) sits on its own in about ¾ of the cabinet volume.
bf5ac9c12965cef3134ff6804ccc9eed.heic
 
Tony L said:
Lots of three-way speakers of that form-factor, e.g. AR 3a, Ditton 44 etc. It really surprises me there hasn’t been any revival as it is one of the most sensible ways to build a loudspeaker IMO, and a lovely timeless/classic form-factor aesthetically too.

PS If I ever wanted to try designing a speaker myself this would likely be my starting point. I’d just try to use modern driver advances to run the mid unit over a wider range so it wasn’t too far away conceptually from a full-range driver with a super-tweeter and sub, i.e. get the crossover points as far away from the critical midband as possible. Again it really surprises me no one has tried it.
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Hence the Gale 401's - just this recipe I run. Mid range runs a long way (475 Hz to 5Khz) before the tweeter.
I suppose the Quad 57 etc also run the same idea - but the OP wanted IB style.

There has been a bit of a revival of the format - consider the recent re-imaginings of the Wharfedale Denton and Linton's with bang-on classic looks - and reasonable money too.
 
Probably completely wrong for your needs (active, digital) but the Meridian DSP6000 is large if not traditionally wide like other designs mentioned here, with the 4 side firing 8inch bass drivers, per bass bin.
 
JensenHealey said:
Hence the Gale 401's - just this recipe I run. Mid range runs a long way (475 Hz to 5Khz) before the tweeter.
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That is interesting, I didn’t realise the Gales ran the mid that wide. I’ve always liked them (a friend has had a pair off and on as long as I’ve known him, which is best part of 40 years now!). I bet with a good modern units you could expand that range to about 300Hz - 8kHz. The widest I’ve ever owned was the Klipsch La Scala which runs the mid-horn 400Hz to 6kHz and was beautifully free of crossover issues in the vocal range.
 
Original B&W 801 would fit that bill I guess. Cerwin Vega SR2 (I think, as I’ve never seen the rear of the cabinet). JBL L150 must be pretty close size wise to the Ditton 66 as well.Ditton 25 was big also!JBL L250 but again unsure if it had a rear port! Kef 105 a bit smaller and Linn briks are fairly large as a sealed box and some of the vintage Tannoys Tony mentioned. Is the current Tannoy Canterbury HE vented or are the grooves either side just cosmetic? Just checked some pics, the look cosmetic!
Acoustic Reaearch AR9 would qualify from back in the day, can’t think of any others.
 
Tony L said:
That is interesting, I didn’t realise the Gales ran the mid that wide. I’ve always liked them (a friend has had a pair off and on as long as I’ve known him, which is best part of 40 years now!). I bet with a good modern units you could expand that range to about 300Hz - 8kHz. The widest I’ve ever owned was the Klipsch La Scala which runs the mid-horn 400Hz to 6kHz and was beautifully free of crossover issues in the vocal range.
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The Ditton 66 also does 500Hz-5kHz, though the rolloffs are asymmetric (the high-pass filter is steeper than the low-pass; a combination of the crossover circuit and the MF500's naturally steep LF rolloff). There is another tradeoff of course in that the higher you run the mid the closer the tweeter has to be placed to the mid to prevent phase cancellations. This obviously becomes less of an issue the further you sit from the speaker.
 
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