Trying to figure out optimal enclosure size for 4x6 speakers.

[jdraughn 10+ year member]

I bought a pair of Pioneer TS-G4642R 4x6 coax speakers to use as laptop speakers. Seems like all computer speakers **** so bad, so I want to make my own. I ordered a wireless bluetooth stereo receiver and plan on making the speakers totally wireless to get rid of the wire clutter.

Anyway, while I will probably end up making the enclosures 10x smaller then recommended, I am curious as to what the optimal size would be. I would consider going a bit bigger if I could get a bit lower frequency response out of them.

Here is the link to pioneers website I found through googling. There are no specs at all listed.

Since these are so small, and won't produce too much pressure, I am wondering if I could build some kind of collapsable enclosure that I could pull apart to enlarge when I want to use them, and when im done push them back together to make the box small and fit in my backpack.

Thanks for any help.

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[406er 10+ year member]

ahhhhhh, most car audio speakers are ment to run IB. i would have to say making a box so that it fits the speaker its self would be enough, and then pack it with polly fill. so basicly i would do a 5X7 box thats 2.5 deep. all you realy want to do is isolate the front and back waves from each other. the speaker realy isnt goin to be dropping bottems so, i dont think size will have a huge effect. well, i mean if u had em in .01 cu ft to .5 cu ft, there would be some sort of differnace im sure, but .01 to .02 i dont think there would be a diff

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

get something round

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

ahhhhhh, most car audio speakers are ment to run IB. i would have to say making a box so that it fits the speaker its self would be enough, and then pack it with polly fill. so basicly i would do a 5X7 box thats 2.5 deep. all you realy want to do is isolate the front and back waves from each other. the speaker realy isnt goin to be dropping bottems so, i dont think size will have a huge effect. well, i mean if u had em in .01 cu ft to .5 cu ft, there would be some sort of differnace im sure, but .01 to .02 i dont think there would be a diff

He's kind of right.

Kind of...

The point of any speaker cabinet is to isolate the front waves from the rear waves. When there's no isolation, there's basically no bass response. It kind of cancels each other out. Depending on where this speaker goes, is what differs in terms of enclosures.

406er is wrong in the sense that he isn't really defining IB. IB basically means no enclosure around it. However, a door kind of acts like a ported enclosure, or a shelved enclosure (if you know about DJ equipment or Guitar cabinets). It provides some isolation, but not complete. By isolating, it produces a better bass response.

If they're going in your doors, the best thing to do is deaden the inside of the door, cover all the holes in your door (Holes from the inside of your door to the outside of your door) with cardboard, plexiglass, or even tape. Then cover the outside skin (Between the door and the door panel) with more sound deadener.

This will increase the bass response of the speaker, but the high end response won't differ.

A cheaper alternative is the use of Tupperware. People have melted the tops of said Tupperware and then flattened the top to allow them to screw the driver on it.

But, as he said, the enclosure size doesn't really matter.

 

[406er 10+ year member]

He's kind of right.Kind of...

The point of any speaker cabinet is to isolate the front waves from the rear waves. When there's no isolation, there's basically no bass response. It kind of cancels each other out. Depending on where this speaker goes, is what differs in terms of enclosures.

406er is wrong in the sense that he isn't really defining IB. IB basically means no enclosure around it. However, a door kind of acts like a ported enclosure, or a shelved enclosure (if you know about DJ equipment or Guitar cabinets). It provides some isolation, but not complete. By isolating, it produces a better bass response.

If they're going in your doors, the best thing to do is deaden the inside of the door, cover all the holes in your door (Holes from the inside of your door to the outside of your door) with cardboard, plexiglass, or even tape. Then cover the outside skin (Between the door and the door panel) with more sound deadener.

This will increase the bass response of the speaker, but the high end response won't differ.

A cheaper alternative is the use of Tupperware. People have melted the tops of said Tupperware and then flattened the top to allow them to screw the driver on it.

But, as he said, the enclosure size doesn't really matter.

but this is for a home audio use. IB is used with car audio, home audio, we need cabinates. i didnt elaborate on IB casue, well, its not used for his aplication. and IB still isolates the waves, wich is whats need here.

 

[jdraughn 10+ year member]

Thanks for the responses. I was pretty much going to go with something very, very small. I am going to make some rings out of some 1/8" board I have and fiberglass it so I can make the back curved. I would like to bondo them and paint them black so they match my laptop. Thanks again.