Sealing Speakers

[Skooter 10+ year member]

I have NeoPro V2's in my doors, and the doors are sealed, as well as the baffle of the speaker itself, but I was looking to seal the speaker itself from the rest of the door to improve upon my midbass. I have seen people use Great Stuff to make pods behind the speakers, but I have also heard this can cause the sheet metal of the door to warp. I have a pretty decently nice car, so I wouldn't want this. How may I go about sealing them, without spending tons of money on special products. Looking for a good cheap DIY alternative.

Thanks!

Skooter

 

---------- Post added at 11:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:27 AM ----------

 

The baffle for the speaker is made of MDF, and they are sealed to the door and speaker by weather stripping, by the way. Left that out.

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[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

Making a small enclosure will interfere with the window and choke off mid bass response a bit.

I used PVC encased fiberglass batt insulation in my doors to improve mid bass response.

Sounds like you have adequate seals. What is your crossover settings? Try reversing phase on the sub(s)?

 

[Skooter 10+ year member]

Making a small enclosure will interfere with the window and choke off mid bass response a bit.
I used PVC encased fiberglass batt insulation in my doors to improve mid bass response.

Sounds like you have adequate seals. What is your crossover settings? Try reversing phase on the sub(s)?

Do you have pictures of what you used? I'd like to see if you have them.

My crossovers are set at 60Hz and 4kHz, as I'm trying to cross them low on the low end to mask the subwoofer and have every possible sound come from the stage.

And I do have them sealed up pretty good, and they sound great as is, but I'm simply looking to improve. I believe in overdoing it, even for a slight increase in quality, simply because I'm a huge audiophile on a small budget. I've tried playing with phase and it sounds best in phase, without any correction. My window has enough clearance to make nearly anything behind the speaker, so that's not an issue.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

My build log has my door treatments.

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

seal off the access holes behind the door skin and dynamat

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Do you have pictures of what you used? I'd like to see if you have them.
My crossovers are set at 60Hz and 4kHz, as I'm trying to cross them low on the low end to mask the subwoofer and have every possible sound come from the stage.

And I do have them sealed up pretty good, and they sound great as is, but I'm simply looking to improve. I believe in overdoing it, even for a slight increase in quality, simply because I'm a huge audiophile on a small budget. I've tried playing with phase and it sounds best in phase, without any correction. My window has enough clearance to make nearly anything behind the speaker, so that's not an issue.

Do the fiberglass insulation, it's one of the best things I've done to my doors.

Getting your bass to sound like it's coming from the front of the car is largely dependent on level matching the midbass speakers to the subwoofer. If you can use time delay the midbass speakers should be delayed, assuming the subwoofer is the farthest speaker from your ears. It's also extremely important to prevent any noises coming from the rear such as buzzes and rattles. Another factor that can kill the up-front bass illusion is harmonic distortion playing from the sub. I would imagine that's not much of an issue with Sundown E8V3s.

 

[Skooter 10+ year member]

Do the fiberglass insulation, it's one of the best things I've done to my doors.
Getting your bass to sound like it's coming from the front of the car is largely dependent on level matching the midbass speakers to the subwoofer. If you can use time delay the midbass speakers should be delayed, assuming the subwoofer is the farthest speaker from your ears. It's also extremely important to prevent any noises coming from the rear such as buzzes and rattles. Another factor that can kill the up-front bass illusion is harmonic distortion playing from the sub. I would imagine that's not much of an issue with Sundown E8V3s.

I'm probably going to invest in a DEH-80PRS as a birthday present to myself on the 30th, so time alignment will be possible at that point. The E8V3's mask pretty well, but for some songs you can still feel my sub stage drift back towards the rear, so I'm trying to completely rid myself of the moving sub stage. I haven't completely finished deadening, but there are very few audible rattles, mostly from my dash, which I plan to fix with a bit of dynamat and weather stripping. I haven't gone full haul on deadening, simply because I haven't had the money, so I found all the little sounds, rattles, and flexes and treated the problems I could find first. As far as harmonic distortion goes, to my decently well trained ear, I sense nothing.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

I'm probably going to invest in a DEH-80PRS as a birthday present to myself on the 30th, so time alignment will be possible at that point. The E8V3's mask pretty well, but for some songs you can still feel my sub stage drift back towards the rear, so I'm trying to completely rid myself of the moving sub stage.

You can solve the subwoofer localization by turning the sub level down when you begin to hear it behind you. You will never have a one-shot solution to that. I used to have my sub crossed at 50 Hz and I had 6.5" subwoofers in the doors trying too hard to get up-front bass. That was a total failure. I understand not every subwoofer/box setup can play well past 50 Hz, but for me it was a total waste of an excellent sounding subwoofer to cross it that low. I have different 6.5" woofers and a different subwoofer now, and they're both crossed at 80 Hz, 24 dB/octave. My processor helps quite a lot to get the bass at the front of the car, but I have to adjust the sub level if I want the subwoofer to disappear.