Sound Dampening Material - how much should you use and why?

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So i took one of my pairs of speakers apart the other night and found that the cabinet was stuffed full of sound dampening material - this was no big surprise. However, it did get me thinking about why they use this stuff... I mean why go to great lengths to create an eloborate cabinet shape/design only to fill it with material? does it matter how much material is used - is it a case of the more the merier? please help.
 
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Anonymous

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Hi,
it supposedly absords /cancels out standing waves and goodness knows what else that can cause interference with the sound. There is a school of thought amongst hi fi boffins that if a speaker is properly designed it should not need the dampening wadding. That is probably true but it would likely cost a lot more and we might end up with coffin shaped speakers. No thank you!
 
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Anonymous

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thanks fraziel for the info. i guess what im really wondering id whether or not it is possible to "tweak" your speaker by adding/removing some of the material inside?
 

Anton90125

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[quote user="Fraziel"]it supposedly absords /cancels out standing waves [/quote]

Yes to dampen and absorb sound waves so they don't interfere with the action of the speaker cone. A speaker driver produces two sets of sound (pressure) waves when it moves. One in the front which we hear and one behind it.

The waves behind are exactly 180 degrees out of phase with the front. If they were allowed to move back into the speaker then reflect of the back of the speaker, they would interfere with the movement of the speaker cone. This would cause distortion.

The infinite baffle speaker need this out of phase sound "killed" as much as possible. Other speaker designs like bass reflex, bass radiator,transmission, horn etc.. utilises this sound in a different ways to positively enhance the sound coming from the front.

I remember in the 80's a hifi reviewer called Jimmy Hughes recommended removing the inerds from the speakers. He was not taken too seriously however.
 
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Anonymous

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hey guys thanks for the replies - i managed to find a picture (cutaway view) of the inside of my speaker - T+A Spectrum ADL III's.



These were pretty "high-end" speakers back in their day (1,000 DM per speaker back in 1985) and i absolutely love them. However, there is always that annoying urge to see if i can make them sound better - guess i might just have to bite the bullet an experiment a bit... :-/
 

Anton90125

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[quote user="ifitsoundsgoodlistentoit"] i might just have to bite the bullet an experiment a bit.[/quote]

You could try bi or tri wiring

One of my friends got that stuff they put in car door panels (is it bitchumen?)
from a garage. It came in sticky sheets. He cut and pasted the inside walls of a number of speakers. It made a big difference giving a tighter bass.

You could also rewire the speaker with some think cable.

You could even hard wire the cross over, instead of using the circuit board
 
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Anonymous

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hey anton - thanks for the info. although it looks like you can bi-wire these speakers you actually cant - they have two sets of terminals but one set is for stripped speaker wire while the other set is for banana plugs - bizzare huh!
what do you mean by tri-wiring?
when you say "rewire the speaker" you mean the wire going to and from the crossover yeah? i was thinking of replacing the stock stuff with solid silver wire which can be purchased quite cheap ( about 8 quid a meter) would this be a good option?
would this solid silver wire also be a good option for hard-wiring the crossover?
thanks again for your help.
 

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