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Speaker appearance verses musicality.

Every one of the hi end speakers has a great finish on the outside. Some like a car finish others like fine furniture stains. There are some beautiful speakers out there but at what cost to the quality of sound? To approach the very best attainable sound shouldnt the speakers be covered with acoustic dampning material? Maybe so you could take it off in pieces to tailor your sound. DJ speakers and car subwoofers are covered. One reason maybe it wont show scratches like wood. Has anyone ever tried enveloping their whole speaker except for the drivers? I have a top firing speaker with 3 drivers on top and I cut out some auto acoustic damping material for the top and it smoothed out the sound along with a pair of Grado earphone replacement pads attacthed to my front firing tweeters. I attached them with double sided tape. Looks nice except my front grill wont fit. The top grill fits. Clarity of bells and cymbels was enhanced. Here is my point. Or question. Has anyone wrapped their whole speaker in acoustic carpeting or foam. OK I know it might sound ridiculus. But shouldnt room tuning start with the speakers? How much impact would a dampened speaker have? Ive only tried a little of the way. Anybody done their whole speaker and what results did they get? Not many people would chance ruining their finish or resale price. I guess it would be room dependent on how much you would get out of it. Oh, that tweeter tweek was in Stereophile several months ago. The writer puts foam around his tweeters and he said manufactures are reluctant to do so because of attractiveness. He believed in that tweek. I do know Signet speakers had foam cut out like a star around their tweeters. B&W places their tweeter on top away from the encloser! Mike
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tom6897's avatar
tom6897
1,484 posts
 
Why would you want to mess with a speaker that has already been designed to sound the best it can by the designer at a given price point? Speakers are usually braced internally to protect against standing waves and there effects. The drivers are projecting the sound wave into the room and will not be absorbed by the enclosure.

What you see being done in the auto or marine world has little to do with what you are trying to achieve at home do to the harsh environment found in automobiles and recreational boats. (Yachts and motor homes excluded).

Save your money and energy and buy more music to enjoy.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,012 posts
 
In the mid '80s, I was using a set of large TDL 4way floorstanding speakers. They baffle had a frame around it like many speakers of that time so that the grill could be inset. I had the same idea as you, based on suggestions in magazines. I carefully applied dense but not too thick acoustic felt around the tweeter, the midrange, and at standing edges of the frame near those drivers.
I also experimented with more, less, different combinations etc. The result in each case was that the blending of the drivers was lost and the sound became disjointed and incoherent.
I think the lesson is that the manufacturer may have considered the issue in the design process. It is still a good idea to try it if it is reversible.
There are speakers that are designed with felt type baffles. Gershman Avante Garde, Ensemble PA-1, and Tannoy Dimension are a few that come to mind, but they were surely voiced with that in mind.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
ESP speakers were wrapped with foam. The larger the speaker the more this can affect the sound. Speakers like Duntech, Dunlavy or any large box speaker should be placed as far apart as possible to stop the cabinet itself from becoming a huge reflective surface that affects the quality of the sound.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
My guess is that, for the most part, appearance is at least 50% of the buyer's decision. This hobby is not purely about sound quality.
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
Appearance often trumps performance in most things. In 22 rimfire rifles the maximum velocity is developed in a 19" barrel but most are considerably longer because manufactures learned that the average buyer would select the gun with the longest one. [No cracks about male buyers, Elizabeth].
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