interior stuffing?

PeterK · 01-18-2006, 06:08 PM

Hey, I got these DIY speakers at a garage sale(DIY meaning someone home made them... not parts that I put together) I took out the woofer and inside there is insulation on all surfaces, but the back wall has insulation that fill up about half the depth of the sub. I can easily remove an about 2-3" piece from the back wall, to create a bigger airspace. I'm wondering what kind of effect this will/should have on the speakers, will giving them a bigger box make them more efficient?, have louder bass?, have tighter bass? I really don't know, I've never made a speaker before, and don't have a clue.
and one more thing, If I do take the back insulation out, the homemade crossover is exposed to the inside of the box save a small sheet of clear plastic that the maker for some reason put in the box. Will having the cross over exposed be a potential problem?

thanks all

PeterK · 01-18-2006, 06:12 PM

oh ya, these are sealed speakers. They were originally ported, with a 2x8" rectangular port in the front with insulation stuffing the port and stapled on. I removed the insulation and sealed up tightly the port... and there is no way I can unseal it, without extreme measures, so don't get any ideas

and also, they are playing a lot of bass (10" woofer) They are my mains, set to large, with the LFE redirected to them (I have a shit sub)

PeterK · 01-23-2006, 03:21 PM

no one knows?

PeterK · 01-26-2006, 01:38 PM

apparently, this is an unanswerable question

Mattak · 01-26-2006, 07:51 PM

I find it interesting that you admit to having no clue, but decided to seal the port, for what apparent reason I don't know

What kind of stuffing was it - polyfill (light, fluffy) or something like egg crate foam? Polyfill is used to basically slow down the backwave and make the enclosure act like a larger, unstuffed one. Egg crate foam is usually used as deadener and to break up/disperse/absorb the back wave.

No, having the crossover exposed poses no problems, they usually are bare, or at the most dipped in some kind of wax/plastic.

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PeterK · 01-27-2006, 06:56 AM

lol, you got me, I dont know what I was thinking when I sealed them, it just happened.
It's basically wall insulation, but its slightly more dense that the stuff thats in my walls, you can't squish it very much, without putting a good amount of pressure on it. It's definately NOT a hard styrofoam or egg crate foam.

Chris Tsutsui · 01-29-2006, 04:03 AM

The batting is there to actually make the box appear "bigger" than it's supposed to. Sound waves echoing inside the box will be absorbed by the fiberglass batting or whatever was put inside as a liner.

By removing all of the lining, your box may pick up a resonating character.

Picture a glass bottle you blow into so it makes a tone. Then picture blowing into that same bottle if you lined the walls with fiberglass. It probably won't make as loud as a tone as before.

If you REALLY pack it in there, the woofers will sound "tight" and maybe lose some of it's body and "gut".

You may find that the speaker "box" will add more sound by removing the lining and it should affect the way the speaker sounds.

By plugging a port, you are removing a few decibels of added sound from the lower range of what the speaker plays. It's not necessarily bad, but if you plug the port on one speaker that was designed to integrate with another while ported, then that might cause a "dip" in the response.

As for exposing the crossover, that should do absolutely nothing harmful. The XO is inside a box which should protect it from getting dust and water on it which is really the only thing bad I see happening to an exposed crossover.

If you increase the size of the box you will probably get slightly deeper bass but it won't be as loud if that makes sense. I don't think it'll be worth the trouble doing that though because it can create additional problems.

If you notice the crossover has "cheap" electrolyte capacitors then you can replace those with higher quality caps which might improve sound quality. You can do this with the resistors too but not the inductors. This would probably be the only "tweak" that is safe to do on a pair of speakers you don't know much about as far as design goes.

Geoff L · 01-30-2006, 03:09 AM

Don't know why you bothered to ask anything as you went ahead and just did what you felt like doing. No harm done, their yours to do with what you see fit, correct!

The speakers could have been very well designed or they may be a cheaply done DIY and sound, well, like dog doo. I don't know and without pic's of the internals, crossover, drivers, baffel and bracing if any, it's impossible to say.

The supposed port you closed off, (you mentioned had filling in it). Sounds like it could have been a home Apro duct. The idea is to make the box think it large than it really is. This vent type is NOT the same as a ported speaker.
By closing off the vent and also taking out some of what ever was inside, it may have done more harm than good.
Again impossible to say.

How heavy where the cabs.??

If the builder was attempting to build a decent set of speakers "usually" they will have some heft (for their size).

If your happy with the speaks after your custom mods,

thats all that really counts...
Enjoy your new speaks

Cheers ¥

PeterK · 01-30-2006, 07:10 AM

ok, i really can't hear a difference anyways. I'm just gonna put the stuffing back. I'm sure whoever made these knew what they were doing better than I do.
I'm not unsealing the ports though, that's too big of a job, and I am probably upgrading these mains in about a month anyways.

Thanks guys !