Certainly, drywall board (essentially paper faced baked gypsum paste) has the first 2 characteristics you describe, and as to damping, that could well be, but it lacks any degree of structural integrity, and I'd be very wary of attempting to build an enclosure without a rigid metal or wood skeleton - thereby negating the attempted frugality?
But then again, perhaps folks have had success using it - with careful fabrication, a "functional" enclosure could probably be made from rigid styro-foam insulation boards, or 3 ply corrugated cardboard and duct tape, but how to you securely attach the drivers? - all of these materials are infamous for fragility anywhere near the tight margins that are generally found on loudspeaker drive units' mounting flanges.
of course, I could be talking out of my a$$, so feel free to jump all over the above
I reinforce the driver mounting screw holes with chipboard glued to the foam core board for screws to have force spread over larger area. Gypsum board speakers could be built with low cost metal framing that drywallers use, can cut with tin snips. The cabinets would be fragile and dropping them would be bad, but look how durable most walls are in homes, you have to hit it pretty hard to break it as we all know if you have punched a wall before with bare knuckles. All techniques used by drywallers can be applied, like spackling compound to smooth joints, painting, etc. Can also make very large architecturally integrated speakers that blend in well.
Yes, metal studs are light and easy to work with, but the few times I've used them for wall framing (great for initial "tacking" of floor / ceiling plates) they needed a lot of extra work to be as structural secure as a 2x4 wood stud wall. I'd be concerned that without the rigid coupling to house structure that a wall enjoys, a "drywall framed" enclosure would move in all the wrong ways - and as anyone living in an earthquake zone has experienced, it takes not much flexing for taped and mudded seams to crack or blow out completely
good evening,
here in germany we have a speaker damping polyester padding called sonofil.
one packet (fluffed out about ~20l) is enough for two tml. half of a pack (not fluffed) goes in one speaker, filling the first 2/5, a little past the driver. if you feel the bass overpowers the mids + highs some stuffing can be added in the end of the line.
hope this explains it. any more questions feel free to ask.
2x4 framing makes sense, pretty cheap still but requires a handsaw at least! Xacto knife is not enough here.
5" celestion
Parts express has a celestion 5" speaker with what seem to be exceptable parameters .cost for each is $8 and the build is very good. cone area is not much larger than the 4" .would it be worth a try ??
Parts express has a celestion 5" speaker with what seem to be exceptable parameters .cost for each is $8 and the build is very good. cone area is not much larger than the 4" .would it be worth a try ??
That's a nice looking inexpensive driver. It has a lower top end than I would like (12 kHz) and has only 1.1m xmax, but may be really good with lower Fs and nearly 90 DB efficiency - loud!
I may give it a try for only $8.
Thanks for pointing it out.
IF you want to use this in Tabaq:
Bjohanessen made the Tabaq cross section equal to 4 x Sd so you may have to make cabinet slightly bigger. The vent cross section may have to be calculated again though. What about the upper freq being only 12 kHz - is that enough for you?
If you want to use this for the wall hanging tml it is not as critical, model with hornresp if you have time but I think it would work fine as is since the dimensions are very wide.
Bjohanessen,
Can this design be taken to the limit of very wide, a flat box for wall mount, say 2.38 in deep x 8.34 in wide to maintain same area? Thus the speaker can skip BSC as there is essentially no baffle step? One thing I like to do with single driver designs is to avoid adding anything between the amp and driver electronically. This will boost available amp power too. What are your thoughts?
Thanks,
Xrk971
I've been thinking exactly the same. It would get the driver up to any hight you'd want and would make BSC redundant. Toe-in could be handled with four hinges to swing it slightly out from the wall, if necessary.
You could invert them, put the port on the top, closest towards the wall and get wall and ceiling loading to further enhance the bass (like a BIB).
You could invert them, put the port on the top, closest towards the wall and get wall and ceiling loading to further enhance the bass (like a BIB).
I did something similar to this with my wall hanging TL suggested by Sayrum by flipping it upside down and resting it on a shelf (a mini refrigerator actually) with ports firing up at ceiling. The shelf puts the drivers at ear height. The bass rocks with this configuration! I still have yet to try the TABAQ in a full size and am thinking a wall mount makes sense for me as I have no floor space for a speaker.