Jeff Bagby is a very talented speaker designer. While working on our Pharos design, Jeff asked if we had ever considered offering an open baffle speaker. He had developed a design he called the Galileos and was kind enough to lend us a pair to "play with." When we sat down to listen, we were immediately drawn to the incredible imaging and midrange detail. So we started discussing what we might do to take the design to the next level. Specifically, we talked about upgrading the woofer section and perhaps incorporating a ribbon tweeter. Of course, this meant an entirely new design, but Jeff was game so we went to work.

The result is Archos - a high-efficiency (94db) open baffle design that has the added advantage of being very tube friendly.

One of the greatest sources of coloration in the midrange of a traditional "box" speaker is caused by the internal reflections of the cone’s rear output off of the midrange enclosure’s rear wall and back into the cone. In many designs these reflections are handled by loading the midrange into a large sealed box stuffed with damping material, or possibly using a transmission line to capture midrange energy and direct it away from the cone. Although these methods can be successful, in this design these reflections are completely eliminated by removing the midrange enclosure altogether.

The result is an open, airy soundstage with a great deal of ambiance. As one would expect, the G2 ribbon tweeter produces an extremely transparent top end. The PHL 6.5" midrange is extremely accurate and quite detailed. The foundation of the design is a 12" Lambda woofer, a very accurate low-distortion bass driver. Jeff's crossover design ties these all together in a tightly integrated and seamless fashion.

If you are fan of open baffle designs, you may want to read on.