WHY I DON'T USE MDF FOR SPEAKER CABINETS

[♔Chello]

WHY I DON'T USE MDF FOR SPEAKER CABINETS

There is a lot of talk about cabinet resonances and which materials are best suited.
The subject is limited to the resonances themselves; the extent to which resonances occur in the cabinet.

They forget one important thing:
Absorption capacity of the material.

This greatly affects the unit's Qts value, which stands for how quickly the unit stops after a supplied signal.
MDF has far higher absorption than, for example, chipboard, which results in the frequencies being absorbed and dragged out in time - the bass becomes less sharp and obscured.

An easy way to solve this is to use MDF that has a coating of veneer (on the inside..!), but I have not seen MDF that is veneered on both sides.

In sheer ignorance, everyone chooses to have the veneer on the outside, because no one sees what the cabinet is like inside.
But they can hear it.

I consider MDF to be the least suitable of all materials for sub-bass, because the bass becomes woolly and indistinct as a result of the material's high absorption.

Materials such as chipboard and hardwood are far preferable.

[⚅Graham UK]

Chello. Thank you for an article that was part of (long ago) my daily working life

The BBC Designs use Birch Ply .
BBC LS3/5A & LS5/9/9
Critically damped 12mm Birch Ply enclosure
Hardwood beech fillets
Balanced real wood veneers.
Also Spendor BC1 use Birch Ply. (Ex BBC Designer)
Speakers with to-die-for midrange and palpable 3D imaging qualities? Speakers which for their size create a soundstage with breathtaking depth, height and width and moreover have a natural tonal palette replete with the most subtle as well as the most obvious hues? Would you not covet speakers with the ability to disappear, leaving listeners with a realistic soundfield on a scale That's simply believable in small to mid-sized living rooms?  

[♔Chello]

Chello. Thank you for an article that was part of (long ago) my daily working life

The BBC Designs use Birch Ply .
BBC LS3/5A & LS5/9/9
Critically damped 12mm Birch Ply enclosure
Hardwood beech fillets
Balanced real wood veneers.
Also Spendor BC1 use Birch Ply. (Ex BBC Designer)
Speakers with to-die-for midrange and palpable 3D imaging qualities? Speakers which for their size create a soundstage with breathtaking depth, height and width and moreover have a natural tonal palette replete with the most subtle as well as the most obvious hues? Would you not covet speakers with the ability to disappear, leaving listeners with a realistic soundfield on a scale That's simply believable in small to mid-sized living rooms?  

Absolutely.
Nice comment, Graham.

I have largely succeeded in achieving all this, which in my opinion is the most important of all - the speakers should not sound like speakers.

Sometimes I actually imagine that the musicians are in my room playing.
3D sound in practice.

[⚅Graham UK]

Sometimes I actually imagine that the musicians are in my room playing.
3D sound in practice.
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My experience, very few people can detect image depth...Those that do (we) are the lucky ones.
When I reviewed my AKG K240 Mk2 I made a comment regarding the good image placement.
Ambisonics Sound comes to mind...I received replies on another forum that it was all in my imagination, fortunately my wife states she can also hear image placement.

[♔Chello]

Sometimes I actually imagine that the musicians are in my room playing.
3D sound in practice.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My experience, very few people can detect image depth...Those that do (we) are the lucky ones.

This is largely also my experience.
Few people have any idea what this is, and/or lack good enough equipment/knowledge.
Many things must be in order for this to be achieved.

I well remember a case in the early 90s, where I had rigged up a couple of small monitors on either side of a chair.
A visitor was placed in the chair, and he could not believe his ears, because he could "see" the musicians in front of him.
He would not leave his chair, and his experience of sound was never the same.

I have done many such experiments over the years, also made balloon speakers; I removed the membrane and glued on a balloon instead, with a bicycle valve at the top.
People looked at me strangely when I regularly pumped air into the speakers.



The experience of 3D (perspective as I usually call it) is the most important of all to achieve believable sound, but most people are completely unfamiliar with what this is.