Are cardboard enclosures any good?

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Mr. Faheys comments are a huge incentive to make it better. I will be progressing from junk to greater things. It's called prototyping, the throw away type.

Talk about criticism:

I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.

Johannes Kepler

https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/criticism-quotes

and/or

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.

Frank A. Clark

https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/criticism-quotes

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

Elbert Hubbard

https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/criticism-quotes

Thanks for all the comments, I will reply them.
 
If we're doing quotes with weather themes: "Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

But from the other side, there's also a much older one from the Bible about pearls and certain animals.

I think we're all generally trying to find the right balance between the two :). And maybe help someone else in the future that might stumble on this thread and pick up some ideas, even if the original poster decides to go a different direction.
 
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It's not. Maybe it sounds better to you because you happen to like the added distortion, or maybe because things you make yourself always sound better.


It's well known that louder sounds better. Just turn the volume up rather than altering the source files.
I am limited to what volumes I can achieve with my micro amplifier. The point is that different types of sound files make the speakers sound better. So might as well change the sound files to do that. Increase the volume in Audacity and then compressing seems to be an option, discussed elsewhere.
 
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Maybe somebody can simulate this cabinet to please the OP? :rolleyes:

Suggest port diameter and length?
Suggest a passive radiator which will enhance Bass?

Would LOVE to see results.

Funny you should say that. In the following video Danny creates almost exactly the same thing out of cardboard (for illustration), an his advice:

Don't do it! The sides must be of unequal sizes. I think he is for MDF.

Another example, can't say too much about the design. Why doesn't anyone cover cardboard?

https://www.instructables.com/Home-Theater-System-Using-Cardboard/
 
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I have never come across insects in cardboard boxes...

What about arachnids? :eek:

1675271265378.png
 
I still say that a layered or stackable cardboard enclosure has the best potential.

However, this technique demands greater effort in design and execution than simply folding a sheet of carboard.

Layering worked a treat for building this playable cardboard ukulele, and could well be utilised to produce a suitably rigid loudspeaker enclosure.

1675292761640.png


1675293080102.png
 
Isn't paper honeycomb used to stiffen aircraft? Also a 747 has to stand outside for about 30 years, withstand being blasted by rain at a few 100 mph, lightning strikes, a large differential between internal and external pressure, and if it fails people die; quite different to a loudspeaker.
The Celestion sL600 had a lightweight enclosure.
I think using cardboard as a frame to hold a soft, dead material (mass loaded vinyl for example) has possible merit.
 
Sure enough.
Pity this one just holds air.
1675165733010-png.1137013

Not even so, being open on 3 sides does not qualify as "holding", as an open hand with open fingers or a bottom less cup does not "hold" water.
But who am I to even mention ... ugh! ..... "Reality"???

I´d still LOVE to see some measurements (fat chance) or at least simulations.

Showing the influence of ports, for example.

Bonus points for showing the choice and influence of a passive radiator.

However, this technique demands greater effort in design and execution than simply folding a sheet of carboard.
Amen Brother. :)
 
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The Celestion sL600 had a lightweight enclosure.
I think using cardboard as a frame to hold a soft, dead material (mass loaded vinyl for example) has possible merit.

Thanks for the information on the Celestion. Aluminium... well one would think it would sound metallic.

I love the irony. Light but sounds heavy.

It even sometimes tends to sound heavy, especially when reproducing male voices.

http://www.hifi-classic.net/review/celestion-sl600-505.html
 
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Again I spend an hour or so listening to the latest L - shaped minimalist cabinet if you could call it that, a cut-down version of the 'holds air 3 sided' speaker pictured above. The driver was closer to the supports and the floor, and so I thought I heard some reflections that did not sound very nice. This one was open on 2 and a half sides but I closed it off to three sides, and was only 26 cm high.The configuration resulted in a very bright and forward sound, I thing 'shouty' is the term for it, without EQ. I will spare you the image.

Nothing that some blindfolded EQ settings could not cure. So I EQd and listened.

Some of the songs I listen to date back to 1984, and in those intervening years I have listened to these songs over good headphones, cheap headphones, a personal stereo, a rack Hi-Fi system, and other systems.

The songs sounded great, all the sounds were there in the pleasing proportions they were heard in before. I enjoyed listening to these: without EQ I could barely listen a minute to these speakers.

Here are the EQ settings.

1675391562570.png


These drivers were meant for enclosures, so next thing is to build a box and reduced the equalization. Of course it will be finished in high gloss oak veneer, but later.