Necessary/excessive baffle thickness

[Mos Fetish]

The baffle is obviously important in retaining the woofers securely and dissipating their energy, but how thick should a baffle be for optimum performance?

Obviously the size of the drivers both in intended output and physical depth are important. Many people have mentioned that enough room has to be left around the rear of the cone for the backwave to move freely but how much is enough or too little?

On my Vifa M22s the backwave can't radiate directly out anyway it has to exit via slightly sidefiring gaps in the basket.

I'd like a thick (50mm/2") baffle both for damping and aesthetics.

I'm thinking I'd have to rout out a huge rebate on the back of the baffle to allow my woofers enough space to breathe.

Anyone got experiences with thick baffles?

Mos

[sreten]

Assuming your building the baffle in layers just use a series
of larger cutouts before laminating the baffle, easy way.

sreten.

[Gavinator68]

I built a set of northcreek Ikemo's that use the P13's and my front & rear baffles are both 2" thick. They are a sealed box and the sound is rediculously good for such a small driver. I rounded over the inside of the P13 hole with a 3/4" radius bit and my router. Then I sanded them smooth and applied glue to the area to ensure there were no air leaks due to the porosity of the Baltic Birch lamination. These enclosures are awesome!!!!

Gav