Anyone Damp the insides of your Speaker Cabinets?

There's damping of a speaker's interior, like adding wool or fiberglass insulation. If judiciously done it really helps a speaker resolve itself and avoid ringing. If overdone it is readily audible as a lack of micro dynamics.

There's damping of a spekers internal cabinet walls to reduce cabinet vibrations, generally using Dynamat or automobile door daming materials. This can make much sense overall, but there's no replacement for a sturdy, thick, well braced cabinet to starty out with.

Then there's Black Hole 5, which effectively damps the cabinet walls while making the interior of the cabinet seem larger to the speaker, enhancing bass and mid-bass characteristics. However this too can be overdone.

Any or all of these might require an adjustment to the crossover to compensate for the different Q you will achieve, perhaps as easy as altering the tweeter resistor value, but it could need more tweaking. No way to know for sure unless you try it and listen.

If you want to add material to suppress vibration one of the better materials to use is polyester batting.

It comes in different thicknesses and can be found on the web or at a local haberdasher.

It will hold it's shape and thickness compared to other materials.

Google fatt batt :-)

I own a pair of Allison CD8s. I have always liked the way they sounded. I read in an issue of Audio Basics Magazine about applying plasticine to the interior of the speaker housing and to the speaker frames. I figured 'why not' if I didn't like the results, it was easy enough to remove. I am pleased with the results as I notice an improvement in the bass response....the bass had been tightened up a bit. I have since left it in the speakers.

All loudspeakers sound best when they are as close to inert as possible. Vibrations just cause "fuzzy" sound. Before you go stuffing the insides--1st seriously consider reducing/eliminating vibration by bracing the walls.
Adding stuffing material will affect the bass response whereas bracing simply eliminates resonances. I have used "well seasoned" i.e.- old- coffee table legs of oak and mahogany to excellent effect. Use PL Premium glue and a snug fit. You can't go wrong by minimizing vibrations this way. It's well worth it.. You will end up smiling with the enhanced clarity and dynamics.

Ptss, if building a box from scratch (or even retrofitting), whats the best way to brace it? I was thinking it would be most effective to put shelves throughout that fit snug on all corners of the cabinet and then either cutting a bunch of small circles out of the shelves or even perhaps just one big one in the center of the shelf (to allow air to pass through). Also, would this approach impede free air flow and degrade sound quality?