One of my friends works for a kitchen countertop business. She sells this solid surface product called "high pressure laminate". Appartently she claims that it could be used for speaker enclosures because of it's strength and acoustical properties. I checked it out and it's about 1/2" thick and incredibly strong and dense. Not to mention there's all kinds of colors. The only drawback is that it's pretty expensive at retail prices.
Despite the cost. Anyone think that this can be used for building subwoofer enclosures?
Despite the cost. Anyone think that this can be used for building subwoofer enclosures?
Only as far as adding a chunk to the top of the woofer.
For a woofer you want a very stiff cabinet with all potential resonances above the woofers stopband so that it will not produce any signal that might excite a resonance. Stiff becomes the key ingredient. Dense is counter-productive and in this case does not bring extra stiffness.
Using 12mm quality plywood (well braced) would give a better box than the 12mm solid surface material. I would suggest 15mm minimum and if you can a pair of push-push woofers to actively cancel the reactive force and drawmatically reduce box-load.
dave
For a woofer you want a very stiff cabinet with all potential resonances above the woofers stopband so that it will not produce any signal that might excite a resonance. Stiff becomes the key ingredient. Dense is counter-productive and in this case does not bring extra stiffness.
Using 12mm quality plywood (well braced) would give a better box than the 12mm solid surface material. I would suggest 15mm minimum and if you can a pair of push-push woofers to actively cancel the reactive force and drawmatically reduce box-load.
dave
Dense lowers a panel's resonance which is exactly the wrong direction to go. Light and. stiff is better than dense and stiff, but really stiff materials are often dense (ie stranded bamboo plywood) so people often think dense is good.
dave
dave
I see what you mean, dense can be quite ambiguous. Dense implies heavy, when I'm not sure that's necessarily so? Anyway, I see what you're getting at
Density is a measure of mass/volume, and says nothing about stiffness.
Carbon fibre would be a good exotic material for a sub box… and it aslo lends itself to non-rectangular boxes.
dave
Carbon fibre would be a good exotic material for a sub box… and it aslo lends itself to non-rectangular boxes.
dave
Yeah, need to know its MOE, which isn't listed in any of its technical specs. The pressure bonded laminate will increase it, but doubt it would raise its HDF? panel high enough without needing double thickness, though bracing could, so for folks that can do good 45 deg corners it might be worthwhile to use instead of adding laminate to an MDF/whatever cab.
GM
GM
Maybe this will help .....😉
You should consider the material of the kitchen furniture as MDF, I suppose .....
12.21 What is the best material to make speaker boxes out of? Why?
You should consider the material of the kitchen furniture as MDF, I suppose .....
12.21 What is the best material to make speaker boxes out of? Why?
High resonance?! It's low enough to fall below a 500 Hz horn's pass-band, so not for any woofer pass-band alignment without significant bracing [think 'Birdcage' Maserati framework].
GM
GM
I do not understand ....:confuso: I think that each material has its own frequency in which it comes into resonance, but it depends on the size of the panels, the shape of the box, etc....
6 Materials for Building Subwoofer Boxes | DoItYourself.com
Yes, the averaged sum of its assembled parts and having long ago been exposed to seismic testing of a variety of box shapes, materials, construction it became obvious that MDF required its weight in bracing to get anywhere near the stiffness of unbraced 3/4" no-void marine grade plywood required for high power woofer apps; ditto Baltic Birch, ApplePly.
That said, unbraced it's good for high Qt speakers, mids-up horns.
GM
That said, unbraced it's good for high Qt speakers, mids-up horns.
GM
Ok, thanks for clarifying.
Anyway, my current project will not be subjected to any kind of seismic test, neither experimental nor accidental ..... luckily where I live there are no geological faults nor is it an area with earthquake possibilities....😀
Anyway, my current project will not be subjected to any kind of seismic test, neither experimental nor accidental ..... luckily where I live there are no geological faults nor is it an area with earthquake possibilities....😀
raw formica sheets can be an attractive finish material laminated, but the pre-laminated stuff like kitchen counter top or bar top material is not easy to cut and finish for box construction, all panels need to be cut with 45 deg miters (no butt joints) and clamping without caution to pressure and or relief pads can cause cracking and chips! been there (done that, and got the tee shirt) and the 1/2 or 5/8's backing doesn't play well with screws.
i was given "free" off cuts to play with from a cabinet installer and after much toil in my attempt to use it i came to the conclusion the extra work to pre scribe cuts to avoid surface chips and the need for highly accurate mitering to get nice finish results was not worth the trouble!!
i was given "free" off cuts to play with from a cabinet installer and after much toil in my attempt to use it i came to the conclusion the extra work to pre scribe cuts to avoid surface chips and the need for highly accurate mitering to get nice finish results was not worth the trouble!!
HPL is not 1/2" thick. It is normally 0.030" to 0.060" thick.
It makes an excellent material to finish a speaker cabinet in. It adds lots of stiffness to the panel without adding much mass. The main downside to it is that you must finish the interior surface of the panel with something that keeps the panel from absorbing water. If you don't do this, the panels will warp and eventually come apart at the seams.
It makes an excellent material to finish a speaker cabinet in. It adds lots of stiffness to the panel without adding much mass. The main downside to it is that you must finish the interior surface of the panel with something that keeps the panel from absorbing water. If you don't do this, the panels will warp and eventually come apart at the seams.
+1 When I was 'forced' to do nice custom finishes other than paint, I 'laminated' high quality wallpaper with of course 'you know who' 😉 making the choice
GM
I use quality plywood an dbrace it. I don’t think MDF is an appropriate speaker building material, but for woofers it is decidedly the wrong stuff.
dave
For those of us who simply cannot afford Baltic Birch plywood high density chipboard glue-laminated to MDF is an attractive option tho. The problem here in Oz is that here there are many sellers of cheap chipboard and fewer people who sell HD and there is a huge difference between them in regards to stiffness
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