Macaria by MACO Open Baffle Loudspeakers to Debut at AXPONA 2024

Designed and manufactured in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Macaria by MACO is a design-forward, luxury, open-baffle loudspeaker made from high quality, long lasting, locally sourced materials. Liberated from traditional enclosures, the Macarias promise the natural soundstage of quality open-baffles in an elegant design with deliberately crafted details that inspired Deborah Ann and Armando Rehyez, the two co-founders of MACO.

In this edition of Voice Coil, Steve Temme explains "How to Measure Free-Field Speaker Response without an Anechoic Chamber," Mike Klasco writes about "Plastics and Composites for Audio Products in 2021," and there's an updated Speaker Enclosure Vendor Directory. James Croft provides a fascinating patent review of a speaker assembly design for low-frequency control using an acoustic dipole. And Vance Dickason characterizes two new tweeters: the D2404 Ellipticor Tweeter from Scan-Speak, and the Satori AT60NC-4 AMT Tweeter from SB Acoustics. Now available in print and online!

Open baffle loudspeakers are extremely popular for good reason. They can be fitted with large low frequency drivers and they sound "real," in part because open baffles play with room reflections and sound good even off-axis. A big concern though, is control over the bass response, where the size of the baffle, as well as the choice of the bass drivers are critical. And that is why the engineering team at SB Audience decided to launch new woofers designed for enthusiasts of open baffle applications.

PureAudioProject just confirmed that its latest Trio15 configuration is now available for pre-order. As Ze'ev (Wolf) Schlik, the founder of the modular speaker company explains, the Trio15 Coax10 project is a step closer to the realization of its original vision. "For a long time we were aiming for a three-way Open Baffle Speaker made right; and with 2020 coming to end we are excited to announce the addition of Trio15 Coax10 to our Trio15 line."

PureAudioProject is a different kind of high-end speaker company taking a modular, semi–DIY approach to open-baffle loudspeakers. Already with a solid reputation after touring high-end audio shows globally, the company offers four basic modular configurations, from which everyone can create their own, personalized system. PureAudioProject speakers are priced very reasonably, but now the company has launched a smaller Duet15 Prelude model, offering an introduction to this fascinating concept.

In this speaker review, Oliver Masciarotte and Kent Peterson (of Warkwyn) listen, measure, and listen again to the PureAudioProject Trio15 Heil AMT speaker system. This is a fascinating modular system, in this case designed using an ESS 6" Air Motion Transformer (AMT) and two Eminence 15" drivers, specifically optimized for use in open-baffle applications. This article was originally published in audioXpress, September 2019.