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Is damping material necessary for a speaker having such a small cabinet volume?

I installed a 6 -1/2 inches 2 way "wall speaker" in a 18-1/4 " by 14-1/2 " by 3-1/2 inches deep... just wondering if the sound could be improved by adding some damping material in an enclosure that size....
rayloaudio
audiokinesis
2,719 posts
 

In my experience, damping is a two-edged sword.  Too much can reduce bass impact and subjectively suck the life out of the sound in the midrange (and no, I don't have a technical explanation as to why the latter happens). 

Imo you want to use no more damping material than is necessary.  And in some cases, that ends up being zero damping material.  Yup, I've had designs that sounded best in the midrange without any damping material at all, particularly if the internal dimensions do a good job of staggering and/or minimizing internal standing waves. 


bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,451 posts
 
GR Research sells a cabinet wall damping material named NoRez. It has a thin layer of mechanical damping material, with a 1" layer of acoustical foam, and attaches to the interior cabinet walls with self-sticking adhesive.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Generally speaking most speakers have way too much fiberglass or polyester, whatever stuffed into them, who knows why? It might be a case of monkey see, monkey do. Excellent results, in terms of bass performance, dynamics, and open transparent sound, can be obtained by removing all stuffing save for a small grapefruit size ball, depending on volume of the speakers. For small speakers I would give consideration to removing all (rpt all) stuffing. Hollow fiber wool is the best material for such applications.
elevick
2,636 posts
 
A-did you glue or caulk the 2x4 studs so no air leaks?
B-is the drywall double layer and taped on the seams?
C-is the drywall glued or caulked?
D-What's on the outside wall
E-Personally I would have used double layer drywall, liquid nails and decking screws to build the wall before even trying it out.

Box construction is vital.  You may have just made a big bass drum.  Also, if it's leaking, that will wreak havoc on the sound and probably leak noise to the rest of the house.  This is why most quality in-wall speakers come built into aluminum enclosures.  The manufacturers can easily design a speaker if the cabinet is a known source.
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