# Lets Talk Speaker Baffles



## helmetface00 (May 29, 2011)

Sorry if this has been beaten to death, I did a few searches with little direction:

I have 6x8's currently in my front door locations and I'll be installing a set of 6.5's"

With that said, I'll be fabbing(or purchasing) a set of baffles to make up for the size difference. I've been looking into materials; whether it be fiberglass, foam, MDF, dense(er) wood, etc

I'm curious to know how their qualities affect sound.

I'll be running (Hybrid Audio)Imagine I61-2 Components 


Thanks for Any Direction on the Matter


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## pbasil1 (Mar 4, 2011)

Mdf is going to be the most solid and absorb the most vibration from the driver. Also more importantly is going to be the enclosure the woofer is in, and staging of the tweet/woofer.


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## helmetface00 (May 29, 2011)

pbasil1 said:


> Mdf is going to be the most solid and absorb the most vibration from the driver. Also more importantly is going to be the enclosure the woofer is in, and staging of the tweet/woofer.


Enclosure as in, the speaker housing itself or the door?

Thanks Basil


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

The imagine is designed for infinite baffle, putting it in the door will be just fine, as long as the door is nice and deadened. As far as the baffle, mdf is fine, but seal it with something, fiberglass resin or wood glue. Water will destroy it otherwise. 

Have imagines in my dads truck, in a deadened door with a plastic baffle from tacotunes, and it blows away the stock speakers.


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## jrgreene1968 (Jul 7, 2008)

i have always used mdf, but just swapped my L6,s out for a set of Focal k2p,s and used them plastic type cutting boards..worked great and thinner. Main reason i tried the cutting board was the thickness, and dont have to worry about water damage


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## boogeyman (Jul 1, 2008)

One thing you may want to consider, is decoupling the baffle from the door, and decoupling the speaker from the baffle.


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## blueatlanta (Feb 10, 2011)

I used 1/4" MDF, sealed with resin, then painted over with truck bed liner.

I will be using non-hardening modeling clay to seal around the back/sides of the baffle and prolly fold in some bb's. I'll have deadening on my doors, so I'm going to put a layer of ensolite on the back of the baffle. 

I haven't though of decoupling the speaker from the baffle, so I'll prolly just put a layer of ensolite on the front of the baffle too.


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## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

pbasil1 said:


> Mdf is going to be the most solid and absorb the most vibration from the driver. Also more importantly is going to be the enclosure the woofer is in, and staging of the tweet/woofer.


What enclosure, they are going IB into the doors......what does that have to do with the staging of the speakers?


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## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

If the baffles you're getting are made of a wood product spray them with some type of bed liner to seal them


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## blueatlanta (Feb 10, 2011)

trojan fan said:


> What enclosure, they are going IB into the doors......what does that have to do with the staging of the speakers?


you can build baffles that aim the speakers at different angles?


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## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

blueatlanta said:


> you can build baffles that aim the speakers at different angles?



Try to aim a midbass driver behind a stock door card....LOL


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## underdog (Jul 5, 2011)

You made me smile
The first time i did a real install i wanted baffles bad.
My installer friend tried to warn me.
Orderd some of those foam crutchfield baffles.
Ever hold a playing card up in front of a fan?
Them things hummed so damn loud i could not hear the speaker playing

use the doors or fab up some enclosures as the others have posted.

Thanks for the smile


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

thats not the type of baffle we're talking about. We are talking about a piece of hardwood or stiff plastic to more solidly mount the speaker to the door. Just bolting the speaker to the door is a bad idea in any case, and it wont work in his, since hes using 6.5's in a 6x8 hole.

the speakers in question are designed for infinite baffle, so unless you made an enclosure huge, it wouldnt be any better than using the door as an enclosure.


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## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL said:


> thats not the type of baffle we're talking about. We are talking about a piece of hardwood or stiff plastic to more solidly mount the speaker to the door. Just bolting the speaker to the door is a bad idea in any case, and it wont work in his, since hes using 6.5's in a 6x8 hole.
> 
> the speakers in question are designed for infinite baffle, so unless you made an enclosure huge, it wouldnt be any better than using the door as an enclosure.


x2...exactly, but sometimes baffles are not needed depending on the car


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## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

boogeyman said:


> One thing you may want to consider, is decoupling the baffle from the door, and decoupling the speaker from the baffle.


Would adding a layer of dynamat between the speaker and baffle be considered decoupling? I just redid part of my install today and tried this and it seems to have cut down on vibrations pretty well.


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## Aaron'z 2.5RS/WRX (Oct 24, 2007)

If you are making simple "baffles" or spacers, MDP no longer has a place in the door of a car... a simple baffle can easily be made from plastic (cutting boards come to mind)


Yeah, MDF near water... 










VS











(use your head)


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## 94VG30DE (Nov 28, 2007)

HPDE. There's no way I will use anything else from now on for small baffles. 

USPlastics.com


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## gnesterenko (Mar 17, 2011)

Agreed w/ Aaron - ABS plastic sheets are cheap (Mcmaster.com), rock solid, you'll never have to worry about damage, and is very easy to work with.

Or, if you don't want to actually do that part yourself, this  is a great place for no hassle drop in baffles for most cars out there.

Posting from work, so need this disclaimer:
"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."


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## jimbno1 (Apr 14, 2008)

Related question. How do you decouple speaker and still have it mounted? The bolts still have to be used and don't then transfer vibrations? Non Hardening Modeling Clay seems to be the decoupler most use. Do you just bolt the speaker down through the modeling clay? What thickness is required?


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

Your 100% right, as long as the screw goes through the part thats directly bolted to the car, the speaker is not fully decoupled.

Heres a link that shows how to fully decouple the speakers. Link should take you right to the post that shows it.

Buwalda Hybrids International Bulletin Board • View topic - bmw e46 goes under the knife - kick install


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## gnesterenko (Mar 17, 2011)

A bit overkill that last one IMO. As your screwing the speaker to the baffle and the baffle to the frame, you're already in a position to decouple without using sealant. A layer of sound dampener on the outer skin, maybe with a layer of CCF to boot before mounting the baffle will go a long way to decouple that - so long as you don't torque it down too tightly and over-compress the CCF. A ring of the Extruded Butyl Rope from SDS or the speaker caulk from PartsExpress between the speaker and the the baffle will decouple it even further. This is standard door sound deadening/speaker install steps and are effective for vast majority of applications out there.

But if you really want to overkill your install, I still wouldn't go the sealant route. There are better alternatives out there designed for this application, specifically.

Posting from work, so need this disclaimer:
"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."


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## jimbno1 (Apr 14, 2008)

Nice thanks. So the Silicone Sealant does not transfer the vibrations or at least dampens well? Hmm looks like a pretty simple solution to me.


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## gnesterenko (Mar 17, 2011)

jimbno1 said:


> Nice thanks. So the Silicone Sealant does not transfer the vibrations or at least dampens well? Hmm looks like a pretty simple solution to me.


Note that he used a large amount CCF (closed cell foam) on the door. That is the true vibration decoupler, again, as long as you don't over-compress it. Silicone does have vibration absorbing properties, but its marginal next to the foam. 

Remember, you did realize that it was the bolts that transfer the vibrations, because that is the contact point with the outer skin. That is the point that you should be decoupling, rather then what they are attached to. It's much easier as its a smaller area to cover. Some of the grungebuster washers at the bolts (as well as some of the Butyl rope in the bolt hole) will achieve what you are after. Likewise with the decoupling rivet nuts that I linked above.

The issue with the install shown below is the 1.5" thick baffle surrounding the speaker! That much material around the woofer essentially suffocates it - not allowing it to push air as efficiently as its supposed to and the result is a diminished mid-bass response. If you DO decide to go this route, what you'll want to do is whittle out cavities around the woofer on the inside face of the baffle, leaving only the screw locations intact. Basically free up the air around the woofer as much as you can without compromising the integrity of the baffle or the mount.

Also, don't forget to install rain guards.

Good luck!

Edit: Let me backtrack a little bit. In the above install, the speakers were going into the kick panels - a sealed enclosure. I don't know what kind of speakers they were, so don't know if they were designed to shine in sealed enclosures or not, but most car audio woofers are designed for infinite baffle installs - such as your door skin or rear deck. If the speakers in the install are the of the former variety, then they are far more tolerant of being confined then I assumed when writing the last paragraph above.


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

His kicks were vented into the rest of the frame, they were HAT L6SE's, designed for infinite baffle.


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## rain27 (Jan 15, 2009)

Guys, how easy is it to cut the HDPE or cutting boards that you're using?


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## Syaoran (Jun 27, 2011)

rain27 said:


> Guys, how easy is it to cut the HDPE or cutting boards that you're using?


Depends on what you're using to cut it. I didn't have anything but a dremel with a pilot hole bit on it so I had to perforate the plastic and then drill out the lines in between the holes. Took me 3 hours that way.

Use a jigsaw and get it done in 10 minutes.


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