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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
rayloaudio OP
5 posts
 
My question is : is it necessary to add some damping material in an enclosure that small.. there are many opinions saying that it could help to improve the sound quality while some others would say that a small speaker enclosure does not need any damping material.. where should i draw the line between a small and a BIG speaker
erik_squires
15,807 posts
 
Wait.. Is this something you bought designed to be wall mounted? if so, follow manufacturer's recommendations. 

In a speaker enclosure, damping material lessens reflections, but also increases internal volume, so it depends.  I have seen some delightful, tiny speakers use internal wadding, to good effect. 

Best,

E
audiokinesis
2,722 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
9,471 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.
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