Exceedingly Rigid

[JohnnyBoy]

I've made enclosures out of MDF and Baltic Birch but IMO stainless steel is far superior to both. It's not cheap and it's not the easiest thing to work with but it is far more inert than wood. The curved baffle makes it even stronger.

[Jussi]

Yep. It's a shame how rarely commercial manufacturers really explore the rich world of materials. Mostly they just settle for good old MDF which is easy to finish and handle but far from the best in acoustical mathers. I guess at least very expensive speakers could have some effort on that issue as well.

Jussi

[Eva]

Doesn't steel ring like a bell?

[sdclc126]

I second that question - if metal drivers have ringing issues you'd think that metal cabinets would present similar characteristics.

[phn]

I think a bigger problem is the sheer weight of steel. Krell uses the compromise material aluminum.

[JohnnyBoy]

Originally posted by Jussi
Yep. It's a shame how rarely commercial manufacturers really explore the rich world of materials. Mostly they just settle for good old MDF which is easy to finish and handle but far from the best in acoustical mathers. I guess at least very expensive speakers could have some effort on that issue as well.

Jussi

No kidding. It boggles my mind that you can spend astronomical amounts of money for a pair of speakers and yet they are made with MDF. For a manufacturer to ask the equivalent of what a car costs for a product made of the most common materials shows a lot of audacity.

Originally posted by Eva
Doesn't steel ring like a bell?

If you shape it like a bell and hit it as such, perhaps if it is properly designed.

Originally posted by sdclc126
I second that question - if metal drivers have ringing issues you'd think that metal cabinets would present similar characteristics.

I haven't heard many metal drivers and I don't believe there are that many on the market. But this is the one that I chose...

Jordan JX-92s

Ted Jordan has been very successful making metal drivers for over 30 years. The highly regarded JX92s is by far the best driver I have ever heard second only to the Visaton B200.

As for the metal cabinet, I borrowed inspiration from a few different sources, those being people who have tried many types of wood in search for the most inert material that would exhibit the least amount of interplay with the vibrations coming from the driver. Thus far metal has no equal. Wood colors tone plain and simple. That is why the artists’ craftsmen of musical instruments are very selective in their choice of wood. And isn’t it curious that nobody manufactures a guitar or a violin out of MDF?

Originally posted by phn
I think a bigger problem is the sheer weight of steel. Krell uses the compromise material aluminum.

Weight isn't nearly as much as a factor as cost and the difficulty of fabricating metal in comparison to wood. The average speaker made from 10 gauge stainless steel will weigh about double of its counter part in 3/4" MDF. The picture of the mini monitors at the top of the page weigh a little more than double of the Totem Model 1 (about the equivalent in size and volume).

[ShinOBIWAN]

Originally posted by Eva
Doesn't steel ring like a bell?

ATC use aluminium enclosures that ring like hell without the baffle on but with them on, they are dead.

Maybe it has something to do with one end being open and not bracing the rest of the material and that's why it rings. Fixing the baffle to the enclosure certainly seems to back that argument up, whilst simultaneously killing the audible ringing and producing a fairly inert enclosure.

[soongsc]

Here is a site that compares different material. Aluminum seemed to be the best.
http://www.audio-resolution.com/zhorn/jordan.html

[Cal Weldon]

Originally posted by JohnnyBoy
And isn’t it curious that nobody manufactures a guitar or a violin out of MDF?

Not at all. The violin is producing the music. The colouration the wood adds is part of the appeal.

Loudspeakers are asked to reproduce and should add as little colouration as possible.

[noah katz]

"it is far more inert than wood"

It's not inert at all (compare the ringing of a piece of steel vs. a piece of wood), but it is very stiff.

That makes the resonances higher in freq and easier to damp.