Speaker Wood
- Thread starter Plitron
- Start date
I went to a website and was reading how correct you are regarding wood resonance and it looks like there are scientists that study the resonance of wood. Well, it looks like it will be 1 inch mdf for me then. I can live with that. I bet that it will be cheaper than maple, which is good because I am not a wealthy man.
Thanks for the tips.:yes:
Goodwill_HiFi
Super Member
Use high grade plywood if the cabinet will be of any size. MDF flexes a lot in comparison to high grade plywood. You can brace it, but then your making it even heavier, and it still wouldn't be as rigid as braced plywood. Plus MDF make lots of dust when cutting, and it's known for having some nasty glue holding it together......don't breathe it.
hypertone
Keepin' it Analog
If I was building speakers, I would go with some high quality plywood like birch or maple, preferably marine grade.
MDF is easy to work with and a good density for speakers, but it is poisonous. The dust is really bad for you, and you need to wear a mask when working with it. Also, it continues to gas out formaldehyde even after your speakers are built. I built some shelves out of MDF in my bedroom and had a sore throat for weeks. It's nasty stuff imo, and I'd rather not have it in my home. The smell makes me want to vomit.
MDF is easy to work with and a good density for speakers, but it is poisonous. The dust is really bad for you, and you need to wear a mask when working with it. Also, it continues to gas out formaldehyde even after your speakers are built. I built some shelves out of MDF in my bedroom and had a sore throat for weeks. It's nasty stuff imo, and I'd rather not have it in my home. The smell makes me want to vomit.
epifanatic
acoustically suspended
Well put my friend:thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp:
dnewma04
The Healer
Why? better performance.
If speakers are primarily furniture to you, then by all means use real wood. They are primarily speakers to me and wood is not an option for me because the sound is more important than the looks.
BwanaJim
Well-Known Member
I gotta say that "two inch thick Maple" might just beat 3/4" MDF resonance wise but Really, for your back's sake consider braced MDF with a nice veneer.
The corner stone of speaker engineering are the Thiel-Small parameter's that allow you to predict the performance of the speaker BEFORE you build it.
Qb ( the "Q" of the speaker box, Read Q as resonance ) is a vital factor and as dnewma04 said speaker company's go to great length's to lower the box resonance.
Wharfedale went so far as to build hollow box walls and fill them with sand.......WOW
The corner stone of speaker engineering are the Thiel-Small parameter's that allow you to predict the performance of the speaker BEFORE you build it.
Qb ( the "Q" of the speaker box, Read Q as resonance ) is a vital factor and as dnewma04 said speaker company's go to great length's to lower the box resonance.
Wharfedale went so far as to build hollow box walls and fill them with sand.......WOW
ymarko
Super Member
Common.
Sure real wood is much better because it makes the speaker much more valuable. For me I never even look and the pressboard speaker (unless it covers with a real wool veneer).
All this pseudo-technical opinions are full of ... (I like "multidementional" wood argument) simply because the difference in sound would be about 0.0001% (after thick insulation).
It's like you ask what screw to use and they advice you don't use the metal ones because of "resonance". True, but how nedligible it would be!
Or it's like a real estate agent calls fake granit countertop better then the real one because it "multidementional" and "uniform" due to epoxy, no matter how ugly it looks.
Use common sence, this is not a space ship you build.
Use the best looking real wood (or veneer), don't listen to "scientists".
Sure real wood is much better because it makes the speaker much more valuable. For me I never even look and the pressboard speaker (unless it covers with a real wool veneer).
All this pseudo-technical opinions are full of ... (I like "multidementional" wood argument) simply because the difference in sound would be about 0.0001% (after thick insulation).
It's like you ask what screw to use and they advice you don't use the metal ones because of "resonance". True, but how nedligible it would be!
Or it's like a real estate agent calls fake granit countertop better then the real one because it "multidementional" and "uniform" due to epoxy, no matter how ugly it looks.
Use common sence, this is not a space ship you build.
Use the best looking real wood (or veneer), don't listen to "scientists".
And then, when the seasons change and there's less moisture in the air you can sit and listen to your speaker boxes crack because real wood is not dimensionally stable. It will swell and shrink. And it will do it in one direction more than the other. That's one of the major reasons to use MDF or high quality plywood. MDF is dimensionally more stable that real wood because it has no grain. It will absorb some moisture if not sealed but it will do so uniformly. Plywood is more stable because it is cross laminated sheets of real wood. That means each layer keeps the ones beside it from expanding or shrinking.
The sound issue is the other big one. As stated, hardwood is great for instruments because you want resonances to get the "tone". However, the job of the speaker is to reproduce what it's given, not introduce it's own resonances into the mix. So you go with the most inert material you can. Since nothing is totally inert, acoustically speaking, you use tools like bracing or damping to move the resonance into an area where it won't cause problems.
As ridiculous as it may seem, Newman actually does know what he's talking about here. As do those mentioning the toxicity of MDF. I use a respirator when I'm cutting, routing, or sanding MDF. I don't notice the smell if I'm not machining the wood, but I play hockey and the smell of my equipment after a game has probably killed off 90% of my sense of smell.
Ray
SaSi
Seriously Illogical
Regarding the "Real Wood" vs "Plywood or MDF" choice, IMHO even furniture are built avoiding real wood as much as possible. Veneered plywood is the material of choice for anything flat and large like tabletops, cabinets, etc. Real wood is used only for chair and table legs.
JonL
Lunatic Member
I wonder if NidaCore would be good. It's a marine material. A closed-cell honey comb that's used as a core between two layers of fiberglass to make very light but strong and stiff boat hulls and decks. It seems like it would have little resonance, good damping, and it is very light.
a_retent
In memory of Trixie woo-woo
Gypsum board, hmmm. :scratch2:
I have seen a sub cabinet made out of cement.
Anyway, as others have stated, MDF can be nasty to work with. Yes, solid woods believe it or not are living things and they do move or shift with the change in climate and will resonate at certain freqs and sound pressures.
I still like making cabs from high density particle board but not every home improvment store carries it, the last stuff I had to get from a lumber supplier. It uses a finer wood particle than the stuff you find at the home improve store therefore it seems to be denser than the regular stuff. It literally looks like sheets of glued sawdust powder instead of sawdust chips.
Medium density fiberboard reminds me of cardboard dust glued up into sheets. :yuck: Another product I've used in the past is baltic birch plywood. The baltic birch plys are are all the same thinkness whereas the plys in standard plywood vary in thickness and quite often contain voids (pockets of air) in the plys.
Best of luck building your own cabs, I've certainly enjoyed it. I think it's fun when someone asks where you got those speakers and you tell them, from my shop.:thmbsp:
I have seen a sub cabinet made out of cement.
Anyway, as others have stated, MDF can be nasty to work with. Yes, solid woods believe it or not are living things and they do move or shift with the change in climate and will resonate at certain freqs and sound pressures.
I still like making cabs from high density particle board but not every home improvment store carries it, the last stuff I had to get from a lumber supplier. It uses a finer wood particle than the stuff you find at the home improve store therefore it seems to be denser than the regular stuff. It literally looks like sheets of glued sawdust powder instead of sawdust chips.
Medium density fiberboard reminds me of cardboard dust glued up into sheets. :yuck: Another product I've used in the past is baltic birch plywood. The baltic birch plys are are all the same thinkness whereas the plys in standard plywood vary in thickness and quite often contain voids (pockets of air) in the plys.
Best of luck building your own cabs, I've certainly enjoyed it. I think it's fun when someone asks where you got those speakers and you tell them, from my shop.:thmbsp:
gkimeng
Forum Mod, ClassicSpeakerPages.net
I like "appleply," a domestic variation of bb that comes in standard US sheet sizes up to 1.25" thick (bb maxes out at about .75" thick and only seems to come in 5'x5' sheets).
a_retent
In memory of Trixie woo-woo
Appleply? I gotta check that out, especially in 1.0"-1.25" thickness. I have gotten BB in 4'x8' but it runs about 60 zords a sheet, so I try to keep waste to a minimum.
Thanks
