Lining Speaker Cabinets with black hole 5? (1 Viewer)

[aaron_d]

One easy question for all, should i line the inside of my speaker cabinets with a foam type material such as Black hole 5? Do you do this with all speaker boxes? I am building some fronts and before i glue the last side on i would like to line the insed while everythign is easy to get at. They are towers with 2 woofers, a mid and a ribbon tweeter. Veritas.

 

[john bourne]

When building my GR AV-3's I opted for a more economical "homebrew" version of Blackhole-5. I glued thick vinyl floor tile into the cabinets then glued acoustic foam onto that. It worked great - the AV-3's absolutely sing. The best part is Home Depot sells them for 59 cents for a 12' x 12' tile.

 

[Allen Ross]

toss in a layer of wool matting too for added bonus

 

[Steve Elias]

Just for the sake of additional opinion on Blackhole 5, check out the following "rant" by John Krutke:

http://home.new.rr.com/zaph/audio/whispermat.html

-Steve

 

[aaron_d]

Thanks for the answers but i need to be more specific. The cabinet i built is sealed. SHould i still line the sides with an egg crate type of material? I was wondering if it is a gereral rule that with all MDF cabinets you should like the insides with some type of material.

 

[john bourne]

Are you building from a kit? It is my understanding that the amount of polyfill and dampening is accounted for in the design and differing amounts will change the tonal characteristics. I think I'd ask the designer or if that is not possible perhaps someone here with a lot more knowledge could give you an equation to account for differing amounts of dampening so that you could use that to model different scenarios. If all else fails there is always trial and error. If possible ask ThomasW here on the forum - he seems to know all the specifics on these types of things. Good luck.

 

[aaron_d]

I am building Wayne J's Veritas. It says to do polyfill by the woofers but nothing about lining the cabinet. I always though it should be done because you want a always want a dead cainet.

 

[CarlDais]

I use BH5...I figure after all the time & expense I just put into the speaker why not? Does it improve the sound? I think it works. Better than other materials? I dunno never A/B it. Sealed needs stuffing...don't put too much directly behind or next to the woofer...experiment. It will definitely change the tuning. Egg Crate foam is ok for internal air turbulence but it does little for cabinet wall dampening. Using the variuos other mass loading materials will work, such as Vinyl tiles, dynammat, feltpaper, goop, Wool felt is good as absorbing or diffusing internal sounds and does so so on dampening vibrations. Dave Ellis likes to place his stuffing a bit away from his woofer in the back of the cabinet and lines the walls with absorbtion. He also builds a well damped and solid box. NCMS advocates a dam good box & their Goop.
Rick Craig has a good box and Lotsa Egg crate foam.

Best of luck to you.
The cost of BH5 is no more than what you'd blow on a dinner & a movie. I know that has no scientific validity ti just puts my $$$ expenditures into perspective.