Acoust-X and Dura-Tex.
 

So, I have probably bugged you guys to death with a project I am working on. Pic below.

The other night, and 4 gagillion o'clock in the morning, after doing about 5 hours of phase angle and resonant circuit calculations for homework, I ordered the wrong stuff for my cab.

I needed Dura-Tex, and I ordered Acoust-X. With shipping being what it is, I may as well keep the bucket of wrong goo. I'll just order the right stuff tonight.

Here's my question. Would it be worth the hassle to slap a coat of Acoust-X on the interior of this kind of cab? It's a sealed 4-10 built like a tank. I'm not really worried about weight one way or the other because the cab already weighs a lot, and the whole bucket of goo doesn't weigh enough to make a difference. But from a sound standpoint, will it do anything for me? Thanks.

It couldn't hurt. Someone's got to try it out!

I suppose. But just in case, I figured I would run it by the physics gurus in the audience to make sure it wouldn't (theoretically) do more harm than good.

Anyone?

Paint your practice room with it. Or the inside of the doors on your car. It looks like it's designed more for sound reduction, not damping boominess.

It is a good damping material, designed to be used inside cabinets.

Yep. I get what is supposed to do. I was just wondering if it really does anything for a sealed 80 pound (before speakers) built like a brick wall 4-10 cabinet. In other words, is it worth doing on THIS particular project?

Thank you for the input.

Don't know that I'd waste it in the cab. Do your car doors, or better yet, your rehearsal space, or better yet y'alls master bedroom. A nice, private (sonically as well as visually) master bedroom will give the missus an appreciation of the stupid stuff we talk about on here. You can take some of the same boring principles we read over and over and use them to improve her life. Sound is sound....it doesn't always have to come blaring out of the other end of a flapping piece of cardboard with a drunk guy attached to the other end.

Sealed cabinets benefit from damping to absorb sound wave reflections that can make it sound muddy. The cabinet is built like a tank, this prevents the cabinet itself from vibrating. Often you fill a sealed cabinet and line a ported cabinet with damping material to deal with internal sound wave reflections.

Will it work? I don't know. I have had a couple of cabinets with a treatment like this. One was a pair of near field studio monitors, the other was a 212 cabinet. In both cases it worked well.

If you want to experiment, one option is to fill your cab with polyester batting from a fabric store. It won't cost that much to try. Then remove the batting and paint on a couple of layers of the Acoust-X and compare what you hear. Most people use batting because it is cost effective. A treatment like Acoust-X is high tech and more expensive.

Baby! C'mere! We gotta talk!


Thanks for the input guys.

I have used it a few times. Mostly on BFM DR250's, where I make the curved throats from flashing rather than ply. It does an excellent job damping that.

I feel like that part is in English, but I don't get it. Ha! (The problem is me, not you.) But thanks for chiming in!

Bill FitzMaurice cabs are a rehash of folded horn designs.