Front baffle materials (cork ?)

[00940]

A few years ago, I quickly built a pair of speakers. Both the tweeters and woofers were surface mounted. They sounded good enough and I had no time to work more on those, so they stayed that way (with a quick painting job on the front baffle).

I'd like to properly finish the front baffle now, so that the drivers would sit flush. As both the tweeter and woofer protrude by 4mm, the easiest would be to glue on the front a 4mm thick panel with cutouts.

I was thinking about cork. It's rather widely available as floor tiles/rolls, easy to cut and some varieties aren't too ugly.

Is it a good idea or not ?

[badman]

It's a great idea. Cork is acoustically absorbent and will be very good for this purpose.

[pos]

you can also try neoprene, as in the JBL XPL200

[event horizon]

Or you could try thick felt, similar to the Acoustic Research blanket I'm fairly sure Wilson Audio use something similar with the Watt (Wilson Audio Tiny Tot) which is now on system 8 along with the Puppy.

I think the cork would be a tad easier to keep clean though

[Charles Darwin]

I'd go with cork, looks better.
Tannoy done that during the '80s on some of their domestic speakers and it looked quite nice.

[Brett]

Originally Posted by 00940

A few years ago, I quickly built a pair of speakers. Both the tweeters and woofers were surface mounted. They sounded good enough and I had no time to work more on those, so they stayed that way (with a quick painting job on the front baffle).

I'd like to properly finish the front baffle now, so that the drivers would sit flush. As both the tweeter and woofer protrude by 4mm, the easiest would be to glue on the front a 4mm thick panel with cutouts.

I was thinking about cork. It's rather widely available as floor tiles/rolls, easy to cut and some varieties aren't too ugly.

Is it a good idea or not ?

I am going to use cork for the side and rear panels of some of the speakers in the current builds. It's cheap, easy to apply, takes a stain well, can be polyurethane coated with a roller, will hide small panel movements that would be bleedingly obvious under paint, and I believe it will help damp what's left of the panel resonances.

[00940]

Allright, cork it is.

Now, I've just have to find some in Brussels.

PS: I've to say though that neoprene sounded intriguing. It isn't that expensive either. My front baffles are 25cm/93cm. It would have cost 38€, shipped: Fabrics : Neoprene : Neoprene 4 mm rubber without fabric / Shelby - Extreme Materials & Gear

[pos]

Neoprene is softer than cork, so I guess it will work better to absorb high frequencies.

[badman]

Originally Posted by pos

Neoprene is softer than cork, so I guess it will work better to absorb high frequencies.

Soft isn't the issue. Breatheable, aka acoustically absorbent, is what we want.