What kind of wood?

[neazoi]

Is every kind of wood suitable for loudspeakers?
I want to make a back feeded horn speaker.
Is it best to use MTF or better a more solid and expensive wood?
Thank you

[Cloth Ears]

You should probably try the Full Range on this site, as horns get more discussion there.

And, here and here are 2 discussions on what to build out of. This response is one of the most succinct... in my opinion, of course.

[planet10]

Originally posted by Cloth Ears
And, here and here are 2 discussions on what to build out of.

Those 2 threads are a required read. A lot of "discussion". For a horn you are best to use void free plywood.

If you can't get reasonablly priced plywood, a laminate of particle board & HDF will work (ie low budget, make it yourself, 2 ply-wood). Avoid MDF.

dave

[Cloth Ears]

Originally posted by planet10
Those 2 threads are a required read. A lot of "discussion". For a horn you are best to use void free plywood.

dave

And, if you're going to make one of those swoopy, curved-surface type horns, then building your own 'ply' from thin pieces of wood/hdf and strong glue will give you a pretty good start.

I'm trying to locate a local business that makes 'moulded ply' at a reasonable price so that I don't have to do this. It makes the curved ares very strong and they don't require much bracing - I used a childrens' bench (in moulded ply) to build a small TL and this worked quite well.

[neazoi]

Ok, I have read most of the thread... It seems to compare MDF and ply.
I do not see anyone comparing these with pure heavy wood...more expensive though...

[Pano]

Originally posted by neazoi
I do not see anyone comparing these with pure heavy wood...more expensive though...

There are a number of discussions of this. No one seems to agree (of course). Search for "Solid Wood".
Most advise that solid is not a good idea for a beginning woodworker.

[Cloth Ears]

Originally posted by neazoi
Ok, I have read most of the thread... It seems to compare MDF and ply.
I do not see anyone comparing these with pure heavy wood...more expensive though...

The consensus of most (but do search to confirm it) is that there are problems associated with solid wood that do not generally make it good for speaker building. Unless it's stable (I think Stradivarius used very old, slow grown wood from the previous "little ice age", good Japanese flute makers use bamboo that's been aging for 100 years), then chances are that it may split or develop cracks during periods of high and low humidity. Depending on the type of wood, it tends to 'sing' or reverberate at various frequencies, whereas the various fibreboards and plys are more 'dead' - which is better for a speaker to reproduce recorded music.

But there's no consensus on this, and there are more threads out there to read. The simplest idea is to get some cheap wood (ply or MDF), cut it carefully (don't breath in any wood dust) and build your first speaker. The trials and tribulatiojns you go through will mostly be with design/crossover/damping/driver parts. If you reasonably happy with the result, you can always build another box and transfer over the parts - that's the easy bit...

[planet10]

Originally posted by Cloth Ears
The trials and tribulatiojns you go through will mostly be with design/crossover/damping/driver parts. If you reasonably happy with the result, you can always build another box

And beware... the addition is strong, you usually can't build just 1 pr

dave

[MJL21193]

Originally posted by planet10


And beware... the addiction is strong, you usually can't build just 1 pr

dave

I'll second that.

[Cloth Ears]

Originally posted by planet10

And beware... the addition is strong, you usually can't build just 1 pr

Awww! You gave it away. I was going to let him find out all by himself...