Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Silbatone Box Adventures


from Western Electric Oscillator July 1947

Whether it's an open baffle as conceived by G.A. Briggs or an enclosed box like the Western Electric utility boxes above, I've always been an advocate for a wide baffle design. The wide frontal area serves as an acoustic reflector that helps propagate sound toward the listener instead of escaping to the sides and back. Somehow the wide baffle, whether open or closed, always makes reproduced music sound more alive to my ears!


A notable exception is the narrow front baffle Silbatone box designed by Dr. Stefano Bae for the Western Electric/Altec 755A. Since I uploaded the cabinet project under the auspices of Joe Roberts, it has garnered a following amongst DIYers who've reported successful results mounting other 8' drivers like the Altec 755C, 755E and the Lafayette SK98/Pioneer PIM8L

I finally got a chance to mount and listen to my 755Cs and PIM8Ls + other 8" wide band drivers. Hopefully, this article will encourage readers to DIY this mini-monitor sized box because it really offers a lot of musical pleasure per cubic inch!

To recap, let's start with the...