Imagine spending 100 Euro for drivers and crossovers while the cabinets could cost 300 Euro or more. In my humble opinion, unless you are a serious manufacturer making a state of the art loudspeakers or an individual engineer with the know how in depth there is no reason to spend money for hardwood enclosures. Also, they are the most expensive of all. Wood panels have a higher density so are harder and more durable than any wood derivatives and the less resonant of all above making the best material for speaker cabinets. Panels made from scrap wood glued on each side. Because it is made in layers it is incredibly strong, lightweight, resists cracking, bending, warping, and shrinkage making it a great material for speaker cabinets especially when weight is an important factor for bookshelf or huge speakers. Plywood is made from layers of solid timber veneer that are usually about 3 millimeters thick. Just because it's made from small parts it can be easily damaged plus is not very good at handling high moisture levels. MDF contains a mixture of wood solids, wax, and resin bonded to gether under high temperatures and high pressure to create a uniform wood-like product that is far cheaper than real wood. The reason why speaker enclosures are made from MDF is because it's cheap and relatively easy to work with and definitely stronger than the chipboard is. Also is the most resonant material of all. Widely used by manufacturers from speaker to kitchen cabinets because it is cheap, NOT because is the best out there. Moisture and water is the real enemy of chipboard and it is the less strong / stiff material of all. The most common material speaker cabinets made of is chipboard, a wood derivative.Ĭhipboard, also called particleboard, is made from a slurry of wood scraps, sawdust and glue that is dried in sheets and pressed into boards. The current technology and materials have there limitations. In an imaginary world a pair of speakers would reproduce the real life sound waves as they are but unfortunately there is no such thing as absolute sound reproduction system. Rounding over the cabinet edge reduces peaks and troughs in frequency response around the baffle step diffraction frequency. So, this is the way to go.Īn other thing in consideration is the shape of the cabinet. Front bass reflex on the other hand take advantage of the free space in front of the enclosure thus it can be placed near the wall which is suitable for bookshelf loudspeakers. Rear bass reflex requires distance from the wall and can be from 10cm to meters depending on the loudspeaker requirements. Ported cabinet or vented or bass reflex allow for an extended bass response resulting in deeper bass tone which in this case is our goal. The advantage here is the control of the cone's movement thus more accurate sound but with loss of the lowest frequencies the driver can produce which is a disadvantage especially for small drivers. Sealed cabinet means there is no opening for the air to move in & out as the cone moves the airmass. Next was to decide between sealed or ported design. I have chosen to make the classic compression cabinet which is supposed to reduce part of the reflections in the cabinet. The goal for the loudspeakers was to be lightweight, relatively easy to make, good looking and most important good sounding.Īs mentioned above the main driver is only 5 ¼ inch (13cm) in diameter, which is not capable of producing deep low frequents like an 8 inch woofer but it can surely fill the gap of a sub woofer.
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