I have been reading many posts and articles on the merits of mdf vs plywood in building speaker cabinets and am just as confused as when I started. I have modest wood working skills so I could work with mdf or plywood.
Assuming bracing is the same in both scenarios, which would sound better? The cabinet is a bass reflex ported design - 24"Tx11.25"Wx13.5"D - using an Audio Nirvana 8" Classic full range speaker.
Scenario 1: 3/4" mdf layered with 1/2" birch plywood (NOT baltic birch).
Scenario 2: 1/2" birch plywood (NOT baltic birch) layered with 3/4" mdf.
Based on reading posts, sounds like mdf has a 'dead' sound though dense and solid and plywood is much stiffer. Are there benefits by combining the two materials? The result would be a heavy speaker which is a good quality in a speaker cabinet.
Any and all opinions are appreciated!
Assuming bracing is the same in both scenarios, which would sound better? The cabinet is a bass reflex ported design - 24"Tx11.25"Wx13.5"D - using an Audio Nirvana 8" Classic full range speaker.
Scenario 1: 3/4" mdf layered with 1/2" birch plywood (NOT baltic birch).
Scenario 2: 1/2" birch plywood (NOT baltic birch) layered with 3/4" mdf.
Based on reading posts, sounds like mdf has a 'dead' sound though dense and solid and plywood is much stiffer. Are there benefits by combining the two materials? The result would be a heavy speaker which is a good quality in a speaker cabinet.
Any and all opinions are appreciated!
Being as your admitting to modest woodworking skills (As most of us)...I do a very simple & straightforward ONE inch MDF, Two inch wood-screws, pilot holes, spaced five inches, butt joints w wood-glue. As I write this I have one of my bare MTM towers just five feet away from my feet, built almost twenty years ago that I'm reconfiguring. It is built in the noted construction type, aside from a very little "rounding" of the corners on the bottom, it is still quite solid.
In 1980 I had a pair of decent commercial speakers (Radio Shack Nova 8B) atop my car one day.....the damn things fell off the roof from the vibration & broke apart into their component panels. Fast forward ten years, an experimental enclosure of this type of construction, I tested to destruction by throwing it into the air(not very high with 1" MDF) dropping it onto its corner, I couldn't break it...my silly test.
_______________________________________________Rick........
In 1980 I had a pair of decent commercial speakers (Radio Shack Nova 8B) atop my car one day.....the damn things fell off the roof from the vibration & broke apart into their component panels. Fast forward ten years, an experimental enclosure of this type of construction, I tested to destruction by throwing it into the air(not very high with 1" MDF) dropping it onto its corner, I couldn't break it...my silly test.
_______________________________________________Rick........
there will be no controversy on this subject 
No doubt that many lower priced mainstream commercial speaker enclosures are built to the level of structural integrity that Richard described - i.e virtually not much sturdier than the cardboard shipping box (hyperbole? - maybe), but unless you're planning on his level of destructive testing, you could probably meet half way.
A competently built enclosure of either material should be capable of withstanding normal domestic handling and abuse - unless you're in a frat house, in which all bets are off.
More important though would be the question of the sonic effects of different materials and construction techniques, and that is where the real arguments will ensue.
FWIW, a short personal anecdote to explain my own approach, which is to use decent grade high density (ply count) plywood such as "Baltic" birch, Apple Ply, etc. About 10years ago I built two pairs of same design enclosure from 3/4" MDF and 18mm Russian Baltic Birch. It was a bipole TL using CSS FR& WR125 http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/club...ouver-island-diyfest-2005-a-8.html#post713026
I personally preferred the sound of all plywood version, - "faster" bass and cleaner over all is the best way to describe it - and have used it exclusively on a wide range of enclosure designs and sizes since - saving MDF for jigs, spacers and occasionally when a bespoke customer insists, for mass loading panels. The fact that it's lighter and easier to move during building process and when completed is a bonus, but not my primary reason for its use - and the decent stuff certainly costs at least twice as much per unit of measure as MDF.
What shouldn't be assumed is that the choice of any particular material, bracing scheme, panel damping, etc will alone ensure "best" performance and can be universally applied to all builds.
As I said earlier, don't be surprised at heated conversation on the subject, almost like a Senate floor debate.
Gentlemen, start your engines ...
No doubt that many lower priced mainstream commercial speaker enclosures are built to the level of structural integrity that Richard described - i.e virtually not much sturdier than the cardboard shipping box (hyperbole? - maybe), but unless you're planning on his level of destructive testing, you could probably meet half way.
A competently built enclosure of either material should be capable of withstanding normal domestic handling and abuse - unless you're in a frat house, in which all bets are off.
More important though would be the question of the sonic effects of different materials and construction techniques, and that is where the real arguments will ensue.
FWIW, a short personal anecdote to explain my own approach, which is to use decent grade high density (ply count) plywood such as "Baltic" birch, Apple Ply, etc. About 10years ago I built two pairs of same design enclosure from 3/4" MDF and 18mm Russian Baltic Birch. It was a bipole TL using CSS FR& WR125 http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/club...ouver-island-diyfest-2005-a-8.html#post713026
I personally preferred the sound of all plywood version, - "faster" bass and cleaner over all is the best way to describe it - and have used it exclusively on a wide range of enclosure designs and sizes since - saving MDF for jigs, spacers and occasionally when a bespoke customer insists, for mass loading panels. The fact that it's lighter and easier to move during building process and when completed is a bonus, but not my primary reason for its use - and the decent stuff certainly costs at least twice as much per unit of measure as MDF.
What shouldn't be assumed is that the choice of any particular material, bracing scheme, panel damping, etc will alone ensure "best" performance and can be universally applied to all builds.
As I said earlier, don't be surprised at heated conversation on the subject, almost like a Senate floor debate.
Gentlemen, start your engines ...
How much bass kinda depends on the program material and the driver(s)
As for "fast", that's obviously a lousy term to describe the lack of smear and speed at which the cabinet dissipates low level panel resonances. When I place my hand on the cabinet, you may feel slightly more energy on the plywood, but it stops sooner.
As for "fast", that's obviously a lousy term to describe the lack of smear and speed at which the cabinet dissipates low level panel resonances. When I place my hand on the cabinet, you may feel slightly more energy on the plywood, but it stops sooner.
Dear God, that sounds like quite some project!
And for those who like me were not intimately familiar with the shape of a lute, here is a picture of one
Band saw? Vacuum bag press? Some have all the luck...or rather all the right gear. I only have the lowly table-saw.....and not the big 300+ lb cast-Iron old-school version nether .....but the cast Aluminium "toy" version.
____________________________________________________Rick.......
I use 3/4 inch plywood, the baltic birch would be the way to go if it was available and cost effective but until your wood working skills improve a good furniture grade oak, maple or birch ply wood works just fine. Birch is hard to stain and very soft so you need cardboard on your work surfaces.
Dry fit everything, if you like the fit then clamp and glue. I prefer brads over screws but a proper glue job is stronger then the wood.
After the box is built caulk the corners.
I usually 45 degree the boards then using the strip I cut off glue that in the corners.
Extra bracing helps even if it is just a flat piece cut and glued down in the center of the boards.
I haven't done any laminating yet.
MDF there are a couple of kinds. Furniture grade MDF is hard on tools but very solid, it looks like small squares glued together, most of the MDF I see is a powdered form and it sucks but some people swear by it.
Dry fit everything, if you like the fit then clamp and glue. I prefer brads over screws but a proper glue job is stronger then the wood.
After the box is built caulk the corners.
I usually 45 degree the boards then using the strip I cut off glue that in the corners.
Extra bracing helps even if it is just a flat piece cut and glued down in the center of the boards.
I haven't done any laminating yet.
MDF there are a couple of kinds. Furniture grade MDF is hard on tools but very solid, it looks like small squares glued together, most of the MDF I see is a powdered form and it sucks but some people swear by it.
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