Anyone Damp the insides of your Speaker Cabinets?

Speakers are usually voiced for a cabinet. Placing dynamat or any other similar material can change the sound and not for better.

"Do most speakers sound best in cabinets that resonate as little as possible?"

I'd say the answer is yes.

Most but not all. Some speaker designs (Tonian comes to mind and a few others that I recall investigating) make cabinet resonances (as opposed to minimizing same) an integral and key part of the sound design along lines analogous to how a string instrument does the same.

My opinion is that designing a speaker and designing a string instrument are not analogous so I am not sure how well the analogy stands. I do not doubt however that speakers designed this way can sound very good indeed, at least in subjective terms at a minimum. its one way to get something more and/or different out of a similar box compared to others. Is it better or worse though? Dunno. I suppose it depends on the talent and ears of the designer more so than anything else.

I suppose one way to look at it is that resonances always occur and a designer can chose their approach on they are managed or controlled as needed to get the desired results. How much is right or best is something of a subjective determination, part of managing the science in order to deliver the art in a pleasing manner. But there is no single one piece of art that works best for everyone all the time. Like most things audio, in the end, it all depends. There is no single right answer. Like wine, ice cream, and all that. If you buy a nice bottle of wine and are not 100% happy with the flavor, there are many ways to tweak it to make it "better".

I added dampening to my wine tonight; it tasted awful, but it does sound better;-)
Sorry Mapman, my jokes get worse as I get older, lol.

I've been reading a little bit on-line and trying to educate myself a little more on the topic. I'll report back as I learn more and experiment with my own speakers (frankensteined in wall speakers mounted in a phase tech speaker box).

If anyone has done this, and achieved a good result please chime in and let us know where you applied the dampening material and what you used.

Thanks everyone!

Correct term is "damping". Damping reduces resonances, dampening wets something. I'm pretty sure you'd never want to wet the insides of your speakers...

-RW-