So I know that the standard thickness for an enclosure when it comes to constructing bookshelf speakers is 3/4", as woofer sizes are usually four, five or six inches. In the near future I'm going to attempt a portable speaker made from birch ply that uses no bigger than 2.5 inch woofers, and is of similar size to a JBL charge. Considering the limited excursion of these drivers, is a 3/4" thick enclosure really necessary? Would 1/2" or thinner suffice? I'm just trying to maximize cabinet volume so I can get the most bass out of this thing, so I want to go as thin as possible without compromising sound quality.
Personally have never built portables to be stronger than the abuse it's likely to endure, so your call IME. 😉
Well that was decades ago when I did boomboxes for the kids, so typically 1/8" plywood along with some Masonite pegboard if wanting a ventilated box for cooling, driver protection, dipole loading.
My smallest builds are desk speakers under a liter. For those I normally use 1/4 inch MDF because it's readily available, reasonably dense/dead, and every mm seems to add up when trying to make a really small, internally complicated, attractive speaker. If the panels have free spans under 3-4 inches resonances are usually up in the midrange where my woofers aren't playing significantly anyway. The midrange/full range driver is in an even smaller sub-enclosure, so the largest free span there is typically around 2 inches and panel resonance seems irrelevant.
If your panels get long/large, bracing can be added instead of extra thickness.
And, sometimes aesthetics are more important than ultimate fidelity for speakers like this, since they're inherently limited designs being used in compromised locations/environments to begin with.
If your panels get long/large, bracing can be added instead of extra thickness.
And, sometimes aesthetics are more important than ultimate fidelity for speakers like this, since they're inherently limited designs being used in compromised locations/environments to begin with.
