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I was wondering if a 3/4'' russian birch ply is just as well as using mdf? My plan is to have a grain finish on the outside without having to apply vaneer. Will the thickness of the front wall where the drivers are installed have an affect on sound if it's 3/4'' or 1 1/2'' ?
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Is it 13 layer birch ply void free? Or at least almost void free? If so then yes it would be very good. -
Even if it's not 13 ply, it will more than likely be OK if properly braced and damped. I've even built small MTMs out of solid oak (with an MDF baffle) and they sound just fine to my ears.Comment
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K, I was just wondering if the thickness of wood around the inside of the driver's cone affects the Vas.
Does a vaneer finish look as good opposed to applying a layer of finished plywood?Comment
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Veneers can look much better than the plywood.
The birch that you have is Baltic Birch (hence from Russia), which is just about the best plywood to use and unfortunately typically comes in 5x5 sheets.
Besides the fact of getting more exotic veneers than you can get on plywood, applying your on veneer gives a better look because of the way the grain can flow from side to side. For example wrapping a single piece of veneer around the front and side panels.
You can acheive a similar look with plywood, but all joints must be mitered and you cannot give them a roundover (to reduce diffraction) since you will then show the internal plys.
Having a thicker front panel is great as it will reduce vibrations. It is recommended that after you cut the hole for the woofer that you turn the panel over and chamfer the back of the panel to allow the woofer to breath easier.
JoshComment
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The thickness of the front baffle is dictated by the design. If you are building an existing design, the baffle thickness will be dictated (if it's greater than 3/4" you can get the thickness you need by laminating two piece together). If you are designing your own - you'll want a baffle thick enough to prevent it from flexing.Originally posted by Pat.MComment
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My sub, Khanspires, and Lineup D4 have all been built with Baltic Birch ply. I like using it over MDF, because there is less dust. For both my sub and the D4s, I just stained the baltic birch plywood. I think they look good - if you like the look of stained plywood edges. You can see a photo of my D4's in the first post of the LineUp thread.Comment
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Yep, thicker is better, due to greater stiffness in front baffle. It cuts down the vibration, and any box vibration is not good, we want only the driver cones/domes being the moving, sound producing parts. Anything the box is making will be out of phase with the driver's output, adding to and subtracting from the normal output and generally screwing with your hopefully flat frequency response.Originally posted by Pat.M
Now, it can have a negative effect, in that with a thick baffle you create a sort of short tube behind the driver. Especially with a large magnet, you can get pretty restricted back there and that will alter things, possibly cause reflections, etc. What you do there, is use a roundover, or better, a 45deg chamfer bit, and carve away the back side of the driver hole. See numerous pics out there on doing this, Jon's Modula and related build threads have good pics.
I like BB a lot more too... much nicer to work with. Did a set of Modula MT's with 5/8"ths BB (or the metric equiv) with the baffles made of two layers laminated for 1.2" thick and 22 layers. Was very solid. I veneered over them, but if you find some with a nice top layer, they can look very nice as is. I also like the look of the layers on the ends, especially when rounded over...Comment
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