Plywood

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

Watch video first. Will this hold up in car audio?

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[TheRadio]

I admit to only watching part of the video.

It seems reminiscent of Ikea furniture board or similar.

I question the extreme lightweight part. It seems like a polystyrene/wood veneer sandwich combo.

Audio enclosures need to be extremely rigid and the lightweight properties make me think this isn't a dense material and thus not rigid and prone to resonance.


Edit: had time to watch more. He said screws strip easily in it so the core material is close to balsa or polystyrene most likely.

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

I admit to only watching part of the video.

It seems reminiscent of Ikea furniture board or similar.

I question the extreme lightweight part. It seems like a polystyrene/wood veneer sandwich combo.

Audio enclosures need to be extremely rigid and the lightweight properties make me think this isn't a dense material and thus not rigid and prone to resonance.


Edit: had time to watch more. He said screws strip easily in it so the core material is close to balsa or polystyrene most likely.

Thanks for the insight. That said, might be interesting for some non car audio projects. Probably wouldn't be bad for speaker spacers.

 

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

Looks like a good "bendy plywood" for horn enclosures and flares. Too flimsy for the structure of the box. A thicker sheet would behave differently, of cours.

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

I looked up the wood and they won't say what the core is.

 

[TheRadio]

I looked up the wood and they won't say what the core is.

I searched all over this evening out of curiosity and there is no mention of the core material.

I am very skeptical, especially after the screws strip easy comment. It basically says the core is very soft hence the mystery. Imo that's a weakness and probably why they steer attention away from what the core is made from.

As the video said, make sure it works for YOUR project. You won't find it in my builds that's for sure.

Mdf is still the best value for most car audio builds.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Maybe for Pods?? Use T-Nuts or? To secure with. I wouldnt use for A sub Enclosure, if thats what you are thinking about?

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

inconsistent density, id stick to mdf

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

I'm just wondering if it could be used for small enclosures (2-6.5's etc.) with bracing. And only glueing the seams. I wonder if it would flex. I like the light weight aspect. I need to find it and see if its flimsy.

Mounting subs I would use t-nuts

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

I'm just wondering if it could be used for small enclosures (2-6.5's etc.) with bracing. And only glueing the seams. I wonder if it would flex. I like the light weight aspect. I need to find it and see if its flimsy.

Mounting subs I would use t-nuts

You'd have to brace the heck out of it for subs.

 

[mat3833 10+ year member]

I'd just go with some 3/8 sanded ply instead of this stuff for small enclosures. Hell, if you can fing it the 1/4" 6ply birch would be better. Anything with alot of power going to it needs a stiff enclosure.

This stuff might be useful for midrange enclosures or something since the inner layers COULD have some damping ability for resonance peaks and such.

Matt

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

I'd just go with some 3/8 sanded ply instead of this stuff for small enclosures. Hell, if you can fing it the 1/4" 6ply birch would be better. Anything with alot of power going to it needs a stiff enclosure.

This stuff might be useful for midrange enclosures or something since the inner layers COULD have some damping ability for resonance peaks and such.

Matt

I built a dual 6.5 box with 3/8 or 1/2 inch sanded pine top and bottoms to save air space and it didn't flex much with the 1500w going to the pair of subs though I did eventually add a brace near the middle out of curiosity. No noticable change that I found just more piece of mind.

They have expanded PVC board at most lowes and home Depot which makes excellent speaker rings but it's so expensive you are just as well off ordering PVC sheet off Amazon which is more manageable sizes and larger sizes for things like amp mounting boards

 

[mat3833 10+ year member]

I built a dual 6.5 box with 3/8 or 1/2 inch sanded pine top and bottoms to save air space and it didn't flex much with the 1500w going to the pair of subs though I did eventually add a brace near the middle out of curiosity. No noticable change that I found just more piece of mind.

They have expanded PVC board at most lowes and home Depot which makes excellent speaker rings but it's so expensive you are just as well off ordering PVC sheet off Amazon which is more manageable sizes and larger sizes for things like amp mounting boards

It's not nessecarily about the power going to the speakers, it's about the moving mass of the speaker and the air volume being displaced.

My single 18 on that same 1500w can very easily flex a 3/4 sanded pine baffle a solid half inch in both directions. Smaller subs like a 6.5 don't really play much below 50hz. My 18 will happily play down to its Fs of 26 or below. That's ALOT of energy being put into a panel.

Matt

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

It's not nessecarily about the power going to the speakers, it's about the moving mass of the speaker and the air volume being displaced.

My single 18 on that same 1500w can very easily flex a 3/4 sanded pine baffle a solid half inch in both directions. Smaller subs like a 6.5 don't really play much below 50hz. My 18 will happily play down to its Fs of 26 or below. That's ALOT of energy being put into a panel.

Matt

Lol small subs don't play much below 50hz? That pair of 6.5s could authoritatively okay to 30hz. Maybe not as loud as an 18 but they were subs in a low tuned box built around my cabin gain. They had no issue getting into the upper 20s.

This kinda crap is just false info. The box determines frequency range and bandwidth.

You may be right on the moving mass part but if a 6.5 sub can play down to 30hz it's not a sub it's a midbass. Hell my silverflutes can handle being ran with no hpf and play quite low.

 

[mat3833 10+ year member]

Lol small subs don't play much below 50hz? That pair of 6.5s could authoritatively okay to 30hz. Maybe not as loud as an 18 but they were subs in a low tuned box built around my cabin gain. They had no issue getting into the upper 20s.

This kinda crap is just false info. The box determines frequency range and bandwidth.

You may be right on the moving mass part but if a 6.5 sub can play down to 30hz it's not a sub it's a midbass. Hell my silverflutes can handle being ran with no hpf and play quite low.

OK, OK, OK. Yes, they can play down that low but remember SPL is logarithmic. If my 18 is doing 120db at 20hz and your pair of 6.5's are doing 100, there is literally 12x more energy in that panel.

My 7" drivers are crossed down at 60 and my sub plays everything below. But I can full range them without any real issues.

When you are talking about enclosures and stiffness, its relatively simple physics. The panels need to have enough stiffness to resist the increase/decrease in pressure inside the box as well as resist the forces of the cone/coil moving. My coil windings alone almost definitely weigh more than your entire moving mass combined.

Matt

Ps, yes a box determines frequency response and bandwidth. But you can only move so much air with 6.5" of piston area.