What makes a cabinet sound boxy?

[kurosawa]

I wish I could describe it better, but some cabs sound boxy, and I hate it. What makes them sound that way and how can it be avoided?

 

[Munjibunga]

Sealed cab.

 

[two fingers]

You're going to have to describe "boxy" a little better. That could mean different things to different people.

 

[seamonkey]

Plenty of "boxy" sounding cabinet impulse responses.
http://www.redwirez.com/
Link Removed
Even Ampeg SVX

If you take a good transparent cabinet, like say a FOH cabinet, and play one of these modeled cabinets through it, it will exactly sound "boxy"
The opposite of boxy is transparent. If you have a good accurate, flat, transparent cab you can always degrade the sound when and if you want it.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Internal reflections and/or resonances can make a cab sound boxy, and so can a glitch in the frequency response curve. Let me give an example:

Over in the home audio world, there was a dipole (boxless) speaker that actually sounded boxy. I measured a hump in the frequency response curve that, when filtered out, eliminated the boxy sound. I don't remember exactly where the bump was anymore, maybe 300 Hz ballpark, anyway offered to help the designer with the crossover but he cut me off in mid-sentence, so that never happened. Look up Gilmore Audio, if you want to see what a boxy-sounding boxless speaker looks like.

 

[Arjank]

Boxiness occurs when there's a hump in the 250-750hz frequency range.
There are several reasons why this can happen, it can be one or a combination of the reasons mentioned below:

*badly choosen cabinet shape(creating standing waves / flutter echo's)
*no damping or lining inside the cabinet
*baffle step
*thin cones
*a resonance of the driver (mostly due to bad surround dampening)
*badly choosen port dimensions(which may create unwanted portresonances)

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Somewhere out there is one of those official audio terms glossary where things like boomy, boxy, honky, etc., are called out and assigned frequency ranges.

 

[Right_Butterscotch64]

What makes a cab sound boxy? It'll say MarkBass on it

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

Cheapness = boxy

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

What makes a cab sound boxy? It'll say MarkBass on it

completely agree. I never have gotten the appeal of MB.

 

[KickingBass]

FWIW Ive noticed lowering the mids on my basses preamp or the amp itself tends to help with that, but im sure theres plenty of other reasons or ways to fix it, sometimes mids sound great.

 

[Rick James]

I wish I could describe it better, but some cabs sound boxy, and I hate it. What makes them sound that way and how can it be avoided?

If the cab isn't lined with foam or polyester or fiberglass, or if it doesn't have enough lining, you get resonances from the soundwaves reflecting off the panels inside the cab.

 

[JimmyM]

Sealed cab.

Bah. None of my sealed cabs sound boxy.

As Duke said, not enough lining/stuffing or a weird frequency response in the mids. I find the cheapest of cheap budget cabs are often culprits.

 

[Munjibunga]

Bah. None of my sealed cabs sound boxy.

As Duke said, not enough lining/stuffing or a weird frequency response in the mids. I find the cheapest of cheap budget cabs are often culprits.

PLPLPLPLPLPL ...

 

[pacojas]

our MarkBass cab sounds amazing to me! i guess we can make anything sound good. with the PROPER ADJUSTMENTS!

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

Bah. None of my sealed cabs sound boxy.

As Duke said, not enough lining/stuffing or a weird frequency response in the mids. I find the cheapest of cheap budget cabs are often culprits.

Thank you. My sealed cabs sound great - but I spend stoopid money on them. My older, cheaper, sealed cabs were all *meh* sounding... which is why I finally threw down.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

our MarkBass cab sounds amazing to me! i guess we can make anything sound good. with the PROPER ADJUSTMENTS!

It's also a matter of taste. You like how they sound, then you should play them even if they sound boxy/nosy to everyone else.

 

[AdamR]

Thank you. My sealed cabs sound great - but I spend stoopid money on them. My older, cheaper, sealed cabs were all *meh* sounding... which is why I finally threw down.

What cabs are you using

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

What cabs are you using

currently... epfani 2x10s and a, for small gigs, a berg 1x12 neo

 

[Jim Carr]

currently... epfani 2x10s and a, for small gigs, a berg 1x12 neo

Harry—your Epifani 210 is sealed? I've had a UL1 210, an NYC t-210, and UL1 410. All ported. I've never seen a sealed Epifani with 10's. Is it new?