Foam Speaker Baffles

[fearthepand 10+ year member]

Do They Work? Why or why not?

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[Raven 10+ year member]

Are you referring to the XTC baffles from Parts Express that speakers fit into to prevent them from getting wet? If so, yes. They keep the speakers out of the elements just like they advertise, but they also do a good job of killing off midbass (act like tiny enclosures).

... Other than that, I got no idea what you're asking...

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Are you referring to the XTC baffles from Parts Express that speakers fit into to prevent them from getting wet? If so, yes. They keep the speakers out of the elements just like they advertise,

Agreed.

If you're worried about it "acting like an enclosure", just cut the bottom of them out.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

not to threadjack, but do these things help for sound deadening at all?

 

[fearthepand 10+ year member]

Just wandering if they really kept your speakers dry. I was refering to the ones at crutchfield.com So they can cause your speakers to loose midbass? If they did all you would have to do is cut the bottoms out? Would they still help keep your spekers dry if you cut the bottoms out?

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Just wandering if they really kept your speakers dry. I was refering to the ones at crutchfield.com

Doesn't matter where, they're all pretty much the same thing.

Anyways....a sealed foam cylinder that completely encompasses the speaker. Not really much that can go wrong there in terms of the product not performing as described.

So they can cause your speakers to loose midbass?

In theory, they possibly could.

If they did all you would have to do is cut the bottoms out?

Yes, as that would allow the speakers to "breathe freely" again.

If the baffles were sealed tight, then they could essentially act as a very small enclosure. Considering most car audio speakers are specifically designed to work in an infinite baffle alignment (i.e. no enclosure), this is not desireable. Thus simply cutting the bottom out would bring them back to being infinite baffle and keep the baffle from acting as an enclosure.

Would they still help keep your spekers dry if you cut the bottoms out?

Unless you intentionally keep a pond in your door where water would be splashing around uncontrollably....yes.

The main "problem" with speakers getting wet comes water dripping on them (from the window seals not sealing perfectly tight or somthing like rolling your window down some during a rain, etc). Thanks the this wonderful gift we call gravity, water can't drip upward, only downward. Thus cutting the bottom out is going to have no effect on keeping the speaker dry.

And your doors have holes in the bottom of them to prevent water from pooling in the bottom.

 

[morgan]

hey squeak do you also have to cut the back of the baffle too for the sound waves to travel or what not or it won't make a difference as long as there is an open potion somewhere.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

I wouldn't worry about the back. Given most are made out of foam, reflections wouldn't really be a problem. Just the bottom would be fine.

 

[63mopar 10+ year member]

This might be a good place to post this. The other day I had to pull one of my midbass drivers out of my door. When I pulled it out I saw the backside was wet. Not just damp but had droplets of water all over the magnet and the back of the cone. At first I wondered if water had gotten inside the door some how but the rest of the door was dry. So it left me wondering what had happened. So I sat back and thought about it for a minute and figured it out. The night before it was about 40 degrees out but the humidity level was right around 85 to 90 percent all night. When I started working on my doors it was about 50 with 60 percent humidity. The door I worked on was facing the sun so the outer side of the door was warm and the air inside the door had warmed up also. The woofer was still cold so it acted just like a mirror in the bathroom when you shower. All of the warm moist air condensed on the magnet and cone. I thought about baffles but I think this would just take longer for the speaker to dry out since there was not an air movement around the speaker keeping it wet longer. I post this here because I think the most water comes from situations like this and not actual rain or snow.