Foam Core Board Speaker Enclosures?

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I screwed the driver to the foam and cardboard as a sandwich with the cardboard acting as the “nut” for the screws. The glue was to seal the edges so that they are air tight and don’t vibrate. Yes, to remove would require destroying at least the rear cardboard mounting ring, which is replaceable. The drivers are connected using soldered wires to removeable Arduino style PCB pins and header sockets. So speaker cable is detachable.
 
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I am doing a bit more listening with the Flower OB using just the Amazon "Echo Input" and it sounds amazingly full and rich. You just would not believe the sound from these cheap looking flimsy little flower baffles. The sub really makes it come alive and sound bigger than it is. I would say that this little project is right up there with sound quality rivaling that of the Karlsonator, almost. I think anyone can go out and get a cube shape 8in or 10in subwoofer and achieve the same thing I am doing with the XKi sub. A basic 2.1 amp from eBay/Aliexpress for a handful of dollars will get you setup nicely.
 
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Hi Folks,
It’s been a long time since I made a foam core speaker. Had a few hours to make one today and they turned out rather nice sounding. Super easy. Following the idea by Mattes in Jeshi’s thread on EVA speakers. It’s a flower petal shaped open baffle. The flower shape reduces edge diffraction effects. It’s about a 12in diameter 5 petal flower with a support base. Using the FR58EX drivers which have an excellent flat response. Paired with a TPA3116 2.1 amp driving my own XKi sub fitted with dual 5.25in Tang Band sub drivers.

The spatial imaging is great and vocals are nice and clear. There is good top end reach on these too like an aluminum dome tweeter.

Almost any 2.5in to 3.5in full range driver can work here. TC9FD, PS95-8, 3FF25, etc.

Plans for the XKi dual driver sub are here:
XKi - X's ab initio Karlson 6th Order Bandpass

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Excellent sounding sub, btw.
 
Finally Got show 'n tell pix.
Cobbling together stands was far more complex/time consuming than making the Daisies.
Stands are a tight friction fit onto the Driver's magnets, intent being to have them removable and ultimately adjustable.
Sound is amazingly good... using 10$ drivers no less.
 

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I have a question about foam core board which is probably already answered somewhere in this thread, but cannot find it within the 300 pages, sorry!

Does building out of foam core board lead to any inherent sonic weaknesses? Specifically with base response- I have recently built a Pensil design with some of the new Markaudio drivers, and the bass response is noticeably lacking.

I've stuffed the enclosure as recommended, I've braced internally using window cutouts. But I can feel there is still a fair bit of movement on the enclosure walls in use, and am wondering if this explains the anemic bass response. This predicated on nothing more than some very simplistic thinking along the lines of "lots of bass makes stuff around... if I can feel the speaker enclosure walls moving around, maybe that's taking energy away from the sound".
 
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No, not really. You need to brace the foam core walls more since they are thin. Their movement actually transmits bass like a musical instrument sound board. The bass should come from the aero-acoustic design.

On your Pensil, is it made of foam core? On MLTL speakers, too much damping is one source of lack of bass. Pinhole air leaks is another. And finally, not having a baffle step correction circuit to attenuate treble is another.

In general, foam core speakers can make a lot of bass (I made subwoofers with them) and can sound great - better than wooden speakers of the same design.
 
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Yes, a Karlsonator made out of foam core has natural panel damping abilities that make it sound better than a wooden one. Testament to this is by 4 builds in wood by different people who found that a lot of extra damping material had to be placed on the walls of a plywood cabinet to make it sound as good as a foam core box without all that damping. Panel flex can actually absorb those vibrations that you don’t want. Flex by itself is not bad for certain applications.
 
Yes, a Karlsonator made out of foam core has natural panel damping abilities that make it sound better than a wooden one. Testament to this is by 4 builds in wood by different people who found that a lot of extra damping material had to be placed on the walls of a plywood cabinet to make it sound as good as a foam core box without all that damping. Panel flex can actually absorb those vibrations that you don’t want. Flex by itself is not bad for certain applications.

Hi, I have a question to ask:- is it possible to find foam board that can be composted? I like the idea of using foam board, but not if it has a negative effect on our environment. At present I am working with recycled paper, and is a very effective medium for speaker building. My reasoning about using foam board is to try and combine the two together.

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