Speaker Baffle Alternatives

[djmadfx 10+ year member]

I'm just starting to look at this plastic mount that goes with my car for the speaker and it looks like I might have installed it upside down. That would explain a whole lot.

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

Nice, freebee.

I just got my speaker baffles, which i purchased solely because of my lack of midbass, and i just realized my drivers side midrange was wired in reverse //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

$25 wasted

 

[Kicker1984 10+ year member]

What baffles are you talking about the Mdfs ones (wood) or those protective foam things that go on the back of the speakers?

Will something like this help my midbass? (this is not my truck) But my speakers are drilled to the doors right now. Will the mdfs used the wood baffles help?

I dont think those foam ones from Crutchfield would do anything but keep them from getting wet.....Right?

 

[esco 10+ year member]

supposedly the foam ones from crutchfield help with mid bass i just ordered a set of em for my speakers ill let ya know how they work out

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

I just got done installing the foam ones all around in my car, i left them "sealed" as in didn't cut any holes in the back, just poked tiny holes in the bottoms to feed my speaker wire through.

Like i reported ^^^ i found out one of my drivers was wired in reverse polarity, and that definitely has something to do with it, but there's a tremendous difference in sound! It probably has more to do with the phasing problem, but my other problem was that my speakers weren't sealed to the door very well, there was space for the sound to come back into the cabin, so was getting a lot of cancellation from that as well.

But def. a night and day difference with my midbass. The speakers don't extend as low anymore, but they hit the 80-100hz range with AUTHORITY, and it also made my subwoofer sound 1000000% better (maybe just 100% better) because before sometimes the notes the sub was hitting seemed like they didn't go with the song/sometimes just plain wrong, but now i know it was because the other freq's that went with those notes weren't getting played/were being cancelled out, and the midbass now gives me that 'pop' that really makes the beat stand out.

Before i liked my system, it was pretty good. But now i KNOW hands down, that this is def. the best system i've ever had in my car. I'm not crediting it all to the baffles, the wiring had a LOOOT to do with it, but if i didn't get the baffles, i would've never figured out that the wiring was wrong, so WOOT WOOT for baffles!

HAhaha.

Oh ya, the baffles make it pretty hard to get the speakers back in the holes, and put quite a bit of pressure on the screws as you're tightening them back onto the doors, so i would def. advise anyone doing them to tilt your speakers 5 deg's or so and make new holes. But overall, installation was a snap, took me about 45 minutes including a rain delay 1/2 way through.

 

[Kicker1984 10+ year member]

should have took pictures man. **** mabye my setup is backwards too hmmm. But mine need a better tight fit. There drilled to the metal. Ill see if the MDF baffles help out first before getting some foam ones from crutchfield. But the wiring has alot to do with it man. Those foam baffles probably didnt do much but protect the speaker. So what hz are you running your midbass at?

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

Crossing over between my midbass and subs at 80hz right now, with a 18db/octave slope.

Definitely will be playing with different settings over the next few days/weeks till i get it perfect.

Had everything tweaked way out of whack to try and get some bass out of my components, and now that i fixed them, there's way too much midbass, and even at 80hz, they're extending a little lower than i'd like. Maybe i'm just not used to the way a midrange is supposed to sound, tho. Seems like those notes should be coming from the sub.

Sounds daaamn good, regardless.

And yes, i really doubt the baffles had too much to do with the improvement, i was just excited, hehe.

The problem i was talking about with not sealing to the doors was understated a bit, i think. My factory drivers were like 2.5" deep, and my new speakers are over 4" deep, and the factory speakers were mounted in the door panel itself, not the actual metal door, so the installers actually had to build a mdf pod to mount the speakers on, and they just left gaps between the door and the pods, like i could literally look down and see the basket of my speakers, no seal whatsoever. So i think in my border-line unacceptable situation, the enclosure created by the baffles may have actually helped over and above fixing the phasing. I certainly can't say they'll help that much, or make that much of a difference for everyone.

 

[Decipha 10+ year member]

believe it or not most people don't like the way midbass sounds, if you turn off the mid range, then turn it back on, 9/10 of most people will say it sounds odd when it first comes on, then a few seconds later you notice it actually improves the sound

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

It just seems like the hardest range to reproduce with decent fidelity.

I'm impressed, tho, it really does make the subwoofer seem a lot more like it belongs there, rather than just fun noise.