YES! This Speaker System Will Change how you LISTEN to MUSIC! Introducing BLOCKS! Must See!

Gowa

charlielaub

Hmmm, I can see some problems. It seems to combine a Pure Audio Project type system in a modular form, but unfortunately has "sides" that form a rather deep and tall enclosed space to the rear. This will definitely cause some resonance issues for frequencies above about 300Hz much like a U-frame but worse because it is also tall. It reminds me of a projects that I made using 12 12" woofers. Even in the low frequencies there were many bad and audible resonances. Of course I have not heard the system, and I give audio reviewers very little credibility overall so I'm not confident that the speaker pictured at the beginning of the video is really "all that".

If you go to the MFG web page, you will see that this is a modular system and they have other builds using the same concept:
https://www.closeracoustics.com/post/introducing-closer-acoustics-blocks-a-modular-loudspeaker-system

They offer a block that has a blank (closed) front baffle, a block with a 12" woofer, and a block with a 12" fullranger. They also show a slim fullranger vented or TL type speaker with a 4" or so driver. I'm not a fan of any of these except maybe the 12" woofer block. The 12" fullranger block has the sides like the woofer block, and this is not good acoustic practice for an open baffle application. Also, that driver should always be on top and not in the middle of a stack like PAP does with their systems. It's just a bad design approach. You need as little baffle as possible above 1kHz OR a really wide baffle like 1m wide, but those in between baffle widths and folded baffle cause all sorts of problems with diffraction and the dipole response in the middle and high frequencies. This was one of the mains points of the theory section of my paper in aX last year.

I have a very jaded opinion of full range speakers. They are full of compromises and are often cute little projects that sound OK but if you measure them they are really awful. But I feel the same about for example Nelson Pass First Watt flea amps like the Amp Camp amp, so YMMV. But honestly, this seems to be a company that sold some simple full rangers and then developed the "bass open baffle" add ons that are probably OK, and finally decided to expand the concept further and do some bigger things with bigger drivers but with the same FR approach. That's no bueno.

The review in the video invokes all sorts of magic words when describing these speaker and how they sound, especially on vocals. Every time I head how great OB speakers sound with vocals I know one thing for sure: the FR has some serious problems and the crossover is very likely too simple and/or the on and off axis responses are very different. A good OB or dipole speaker should sound just like a good boxed speaker: balanced tonally, with good sound staging and rich satisfying sound. I do not believe that ANY component in the playback chain should impart a "sound" of its own to what you hear but instead should be neutral. Speakers are definitely worst in this regard, but without striving for this goal the audiophile listener will forever be chasing their tail and swapping components in and out ad nauseum in an effort to enhance and tweak their "sound" that much more. Don't be that guy.

Also, you should read a bit about the reviewer in his own words:
https://www.stevehuffphoto.com/who-am-i/so-who-am-i/

tajanes

Interesting, thanks for posting.

And yes toward's Charlie's comments, U-frame-ish set drivers do tend to have some resonance issues (as such I'd think opening up to some extent one side of these modular units would be beneficial). However that said, I wouldn't say (nor expect) that a good OB or dipole speaker should sound just like a good boxed speaker, they can sound better 'in room' IMO, but I've always been a Maggie fan. Dipoles of course are not be-all end-all designs, and like smallish boxed designs can benefit from a supplemental low-end sub.