The Ogy bookshelf loudspeaker is very well welcomed by the audience. We are very proud of this little gem.
Some of you expressed opinions that for some kind of music a bass reinforcement would be nice. An obvious solution seems to be to add an active subwoofer or two. Yes it makes more punchy sound but still this is not optimal solution in terms of a true nature of sound. Because OGY is a very fast loudspeaker it requires a fast bass partner.
While playing with various solutions for a completely different product it happened that we paired OGYs with a big open baffle with bass drivers. It was just for fun, but the more I was listening to this combo I was more and more intrigued of how good it sounds.
The next natural step was to try to make asm small open baffle as possible but still preserving the qualities of this solution. Also as a starting point was the assumption that if you have a place for a stand in your room to put OGY on, then maybe a "stand with woofer" could fit in too. I asked Electro Magnet Speaker to make a driver better suited for the open baffle cabinet, higher QTS. And we received one with 0,62 which in this case is a best compromise between the amount of bass and the speed of the driver. Its efficiency of 94 dB makes it possible to match acoustically with OGY without any additional crossover parts. They fit together like a hand and a glove.
The EMS B12 is 12" or 31 cm diameter paper cone driver with very stiff suspension. It is mounted from behind by and only touches the baffle with felt seal.
We used only one coil with 1,6 mm wire cutting the signal from 125 Hz down by 6 dB per octave. The coils is soldered directly to the pole terminal. All connections are cut to minimum.
With the open baffle this small I went for an H frame solution, and after a few iterations of woodworking here is the final result.
The connection to the amplifier is very simple: either you can you use bi-wiring - two separate cables form the amplifier to the OGY and it's Bass or you can use one cable and a jumper that connects pole terminals of both.
The overall result is very good. This is a very small change yet makes a big difference in terms of the body of sound and its presence in the room.
Make no mistake - THIS is not a subwoofer. An open baffle by it's nature - even with a big front - cannot go very deep as acoustical "short circuit" limits the scope but it is not the amount but the quality of bass that is important. We get a very natural sound.
It is very unconventional solution yet very efficient. All the qualities of the OGY monitor: three-dimentional soundstage, details, naturalness are preserved and on top of this or rather benith we get more solid foundation. Double bass or grand piano sound even fuller. Of course with OGYs Bass listening to more funky staff is even more pleasant. It really is :)
And hello, you can use it with your beloved 300B SET! A few Watts is enough to make it sing!
The story of this project is covered by three episodes in video on our Youtube channel. I'm linking here the final part.
If you by any chance plan to be in Warsaw for Audio Video Show in October (27-29), we will be showing the Full Ogy in action in Radisson Sobieski :) You are most welcome in our room on 7th floor :)