Most inorganic (plastics like nylon, Spandex, polyester) open weave fabric would be acoustically transparent enough for a subwoofer. Organic fabrics like cotton may be cheaper, but will absorb some degree of the sound, which will make them "flap" with low frequency sound.
A quick test is to simply breath through the fabric, generally if it has little restriction to air, it will also have little restriction to low frequencies.
A quick test is to simply breath through the fabric, generally if it has little restriction to air, it will also have little restriction to low frequencies.
Yup...just recently bought the last 3 or 4 yards they had at the local store. Here’s the product link...
Utility Fabric-Black Speaker Cloth | JOANN
They almost always have discount coupons circulating online. I got an additional 20% off when I bought it a month or so ago.
Attached is a pic of the project so you can get an idea of the results. It stretches more in one direction than the other. The screens I made to cover the back of my slot loaded bass panels were stretched tight and the material still provided satisfactory cover. You can see the drivers slightly depending on lighting. I actually liked that.
Attachments
It was a project I started not long after Nelson published his Slot Loaded Open Baffle article.
I managed to get my hands on some Peerless W8-12p12t drivers that Parts Express blew out for a ridiculous $7-8 each back in 2012. There are 6 of these 8 inch 91.5dB rated drivers mounted in a push pull arrangement firing into a slot 1/3 the total Sd for each panel.
The project was put to the side half finished. I started working on it again this fall when I finally wrapped up several other things and got frustrated with only having a subwoofer to fill in the bottom end for my horns.
I obviously made a bit of compromise concerning the scale, but tried to maintain a panel that was similar to MJK’s experiments with FAST style OBs.
Pulling together the aesthetics was a bit of a struggle. I had started trying to just slap something together with some scavenged IKEA pine shelving I found out to the curb for the baffles. I was unhappy with it and eventually came up with the idea of wrapping the panels in some muslin canvas.
I knew I needed to be able to set my horns on top of the panels somehow, so I picked up some scrap cherry plywood and edge banding from a local cabinet shop to make a top and bottom. Afterward, it made sense to make some screens for the sides.
I’ve only been playing with them and measuring with my UMIK on and off for a week or two. They obviously needed more power to try and keep up with the horns. I’m having to take a bit of a “sledgehammer” approach and throw more power at them. I’m currently running them off of a pair of bridged Rotel amps putting out 180watts to each unit.
The horns currently have Lowther DX3s in them and are being driven by the pair of ACAs I put together last year. I have a B5 that I’m playing with to manage the signals and still have the subwoofer helping to fill in the bottom end below 50Hz.
I managed to get my hands on some Peerless W8-12p12t drivers that Parts Express blew out for a ridiculous $7-8 each back in 2012. There are 6 of these 8 inch 91.5dB rated drivers mounted in a push pull arrangement firing into a slot 1/3 the total Sd for each panel.
The project was put to the side half finished. I started working on it again this fall when I finally wrapped up several other things and got frustrated with only having a subwoofer to fill in the bottom end for my horns.
I obviously made a bit of compromise concerning the scale, but tried to maintain a panel that was similar to MJK’s experiments with FAST style OBs.
Pulling together the aesthetics was a bit of a struggle. I had started trying to just slap something together with some scavenged IKEA pine shelving I found out to the curb for the baffles. I was unhappy with it and eventually came up with the idea of wrapping the panels in some muslin canvas.
I knew I needed to be able to set my horns on top of the panels somehow, so I picked up some scrap cherry plywood and edge banding from a local cabinet shop to make a top and bottom. Afterward, it made sense to make some screens for the sides.
I’ve only been playing with them and measuring with my UMIK on and off for a week or two. They obviously needed more power to try and keep up with the horns. I’m having to take a bit of a “sledgehammer” approach and throw more power at them. I’m currently running them off of a pair of bridged Rotel amps putting out 180watts to each unit.
The horns currently have Lowther DX3s in them and are being driven by the pair of ACAs I put together last year. I have a B5 that I’m playing with to manage the signals and still have the subwoofer helping to fill in the bottom end below 50Hz.
Attachments
Empirical test: It may look silly, but I just wrap some around my head enough to cover my ears and listen.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.