Foam and Spounge
- Thread starter AudioAdam
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Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
Peanut Head
Never have seen spounge in a cab't. Maybe you're thinking of fiberglass. The insulation is there for a reason. It reduces and helps to break up standing waves and is sometimes used to help "tune" a cabinet to the speaker it's being used with. Adding insulation can trick the speaker into "thinking" it's in a larger cabinet. (Yes...that's weird...but true.) Removing it won't neccesarily hurt anything...but more than likely your speakers will sound worse for having done it.
Particularly if you have a sealed box, you need some fiberglass, polyester or foam in there, both to minimize resonant modes in the box and to make the box act like a larger enclosure. If you take out the stuffing, you will probably have a louder but more colored speaker. You may or may not like this. It also may affect power handling. In many cases, the designers actually knew what they were doing, and second guessing them may not be such a good idea. But its one way of learning how speaker design works. But let me suggest two things: keep the stuffing you removed in a marked bag, so you you replace it if you change your mind, and make sure you use caulk or foam to keep the driver seal air tight -- if you create leaks, you are moving into a completely different speaker topology, and it will probably be inadvertant, so you won't know why the sound has changed.
F
foetusized
Guest
If it's fiberglass, use gloves when you handle it or it'll make ya itch -- Foe
soundmotor
super modified
AudioAdam said:
No, you won't but do the experiment anyway. I really doubt you'll like what you hear. Keep in mind that putting damping material into the cabinet cost more than leaving it out. Don't you think the manufacturers would have left it out if they could have & thus been more profitable?
soundmotor
super modified
AudioAdam said:
Coloration is a term used to describe the effects of non-linear response to the components in the speaker (woofer, midrange, tweeter) away from the design norm. In other words, they are playing in a way not intended by the designer; or maybe they are. Colored response can also refer to a speaker that may sound exactly like the designer intended but you don't like. In sound, everything is relative.
When fiberglass is used as the damping material within a speaker it acts as a heat sink. Ideally, what's going on within a loudspeaker should be an adiabatic process where heat gain/loss = zero. When the temperature inside the box rises, the air density changes and therefore the acoustic response can change as well.
Colored means an uneven frequency response -- certain frequencies are emphasised and others deemphasised. In a box with no damping, there will be standing waves at least three frequencies (and their multiples). Standing waves result when the reflected wave is in phase with the following wave, so it constructively interferes and amplitude is increased. These frequencies will also interfere with whatever signal the driver is producing.
Michael Powers
Super Member
I haven't tried this, but.....
I've read that unspun lambswool does a better job than fiberglass as a damping material. I am going to try it on a pair of Boston Acoustics A-100 speakers soon. I'll post my impressions when I do.
I've read that unspun lambswool does a better job than fiberglass as a damping material. I am going to try it on a pair of Boston Acoustics A-100 speakers soon. I'll post my impressions when I do.
Rockmonton
Infected with Altecitis
the fiberglas helps to keep heat to a minimum in the box, if taken out, the temperature could go up more easily, and burn out the drivers at a lower wattage.
fotno
Lunatic Member
Adam - I don't know if this helps or not, but I too have to have things simplified for me, so that I can understand the concept of something I can't quite grasp mechanically or mathematically. So here goes.
Have you ever walked into an empty room (especially a tiled room like a bathroom) and noticed that your footsteps, voice, and any other noise you make is amplified and echoes back at you? Have you ever wondered why that doesn't happen in a room that has furniture, carpet and draperies? The reason is that in that empty tiled room there's nothing to break up or absorb the standing or reflected waves produced by your footsteps and voice. In a room filled with objects, and soft draperies, those standing waves cannot develop as easily, so the echo effect is limited or eliminated altogether.
Now, the stuffing in your loudspeakers effectively does the same thing as that furniture. It helps the driver to operate properly, breaks up those standing waves, and controls parameters that the designers (who often spent years developing that particular design) felt were necessary for optimum performance. It also reduces the potential for damage or premature wear and tear on a given driver.
I hope that this helps, and I also hope that if I've made any fundamental mistakes (highly probable) that one of the guru's will come along and give you better terminology and more accurate analogies.
- fotno
Have you ever walked into an empty room (especially a tiled room like a bathroom) and noticed that your footsteps, voice, and any other noise you make is amplified and echoes back at you? Have you ever wondered why that doesn't happen in a room that has furniture, carpet and draperies? The reason is that in that empty tiled room there's nothing to break up or absorb the standing or reflected waves produced by your footsteps and voice. In a room filled with objects, and soft draperies, those standing waves cannot develop as easily, so the echo effect is limited or eliminated altogether.
Now, the stuffing in your loudspeakers effectively does the same thing as that furniture. It helps the driver to operate properly, breaks up those standing waves, and controls parameters that the designers (who often spent years developing that particular design) felt were necessary for optimum performance. It also reduces the potential for damage or premature wear and tear on a given driver.
I hope that this helps, and I also hope that if I've made any fundamental mistakes (highly probable) that one of the guru's will come along and give you better terminology and more accurate analogies.
- fotno
PioneerHPMLuver
Well-Known Member
fujimo said:
My guess is that the peanuts would bounce around and lodge themselves between the speaker cones and the frames. Not good. Possiby bag them in an old pair of Panty Hose? :scratch2:
I have a pair of Yamaha (NS-A1237) 40" tall, 3 way, 12" woofer speakers that came with no stuffing of any kind. Completely empty cabinets without anything whatsoever. They were given to me. I think they sucked for the most part. Then I decided what the heck...I drilled a 2.5" hole in the bottom left of the right speaker, then the same size hole in the bottom right side of the left speaker. I took the woofers out and stuffed some foam in there. major improvement. Now I want to put more stuffing and possibly eggcrate foam glued or stapled to the insides.
Any comments about my modifications and proposals? :scratch2:
Jim
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