Placing speakers inside of a cabinet

Yup.... most definitely. You will get all kinds of reflections and resonances that will muddy the sound indeed. They were not engineered and designed for placing them in a cabinet. So, they will not sound their best when doing so.... *COUGH* man lessons *COUGH*

Agree with John 100%. You paid good money for a good speaker. Don't hamstring them by putting 'em in a cabinet.


Scott

+1

Confusious say: You pay good money for good speaker. But happy wife much bigger investment.

Having said that ... I must say I just went through the same senario and "we" decided to forgo the speaker in the cabinet idea. But I was looking at those same Padadigm speakers and my Paradigm dealer thought it would work sufficiently. Being front ported helps alot and you can put a piece of sound board in the back of the cabinet to help with the reflections and resonances. He says people do it all the time. And I don't think this dealer was just trying for get a quick sale. They've been in business a long, long time.

Matt

The 20v3's are FRONT ported??? Wow, I didn't know that.... That helps a LOT Bryan. If you could make ABSOLUTELY certain that the speakers are at the VERY FRONT of the ET center and even have the baffle extending past the front of the ET center, then you might be ok.

I would even take it a step further if possible and line the "cubby hole" where the speaker sits with some sort of absorbtion material like Sorbothane and or possibly stuff the area around and behind the speaker with a polyfill or similar to help absorb any resonances from the cabinet itself.... it might just work out ok.

I would at the very MINIMUM decouple the speakers from the cabinet itself using IsoNode rubber anti vibration feet or Aurelex isolation pads....
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Paradigm Studio is a highly thought after speaker, and easy to sell. You might want to consider this option. PSB makes an In-Cabinet series, which is specific for this application. Be advised that they are not cheap, as a lot of research & development went into this, and it is very specific, therefore not many sold like their regular speakers.

John, you are killing me. That's the 2nd time I've seen that in five minutes.

If you have to place a speaker inside a cavity, make sure all the open area around the speaker is displaced with thick, open-cell upholstery foam. Problem solved. You may want to dress up the foam by flushing it out to the front of the speaker and maybe attaching fabric to it, or framing the speaker and covering the foam with cloth.

Then you get your Man Card back.

Not sure where to get open cell foam, but for the amount you would need, it shouldn't be terribly expensive. And, you could build a small frame very easily and cover it with speaker cloth from: www.partsexpress.com

You might also see if they sell the magnets so that you could even magnetically attach your home made speaker grill covers.

I would definitely remove the grills from your Paradigms if you did this though. "Double grills" are only good if they're from Burger King.

If you go to an upholstery shop, you can get all the remnants and scraps you'd need for a few bucks. Or, go to a place that sells upholstery supplies and buy one or two 3' x 3' x 4" pieces of dark gray foam. Even if you stuff foam behind the speaker, that will help.

Kidding about the Man Card.

I know this is an old thread but I'd thought for future users I'd add my 2 cents worth. I have my Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1's in cabinets on top of two ULW10's. You can imagine the vibration and reflections that you'd expect. I started by isolating the subs and all the gear with isonode feet and they really took the vibration out of the system. I placed the LRC Sierra's on Auralex Superdude which isolated the speakers from the sub and cabinet. Because I have the subs I set the Sierra's to small which made the rear port less of an issue. I even had advice to plug the port and may do that also. Next step is to pick up some 3/4" foam from a fabric shop and line the cabinet section holding the subs and L/R speakers. The foam will be covered in speaker clothe or some other dark fabric. I'm pretty picky about my SQ, especially after laying out the $$ for this setup. I have no problems where I am right now. I might add the Sierra's do extend outside the cabinet face so the drivers are all outside the edge of the cabinet by 3-4"s, which I think is important.

I decided to try this material to line the cabinets to reduce the vibrations generated by the subs and to deaden the cabinet for the Sierra's. I was going to get some open cell foam and wrap it in speaker clothe and attach it to the cabinet, but this stuff comes with a finished surface and adhesive applied. It costs about $5/sq. ft. which is high but I only need 6 pieces to finish the cabinets. I'll see how it goes and if I think its worth while I'll do the upper cabinet. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=260-530

Hey Paul,

I have a similar situation except I have the s8v3. they are front ported. I just wanted to clarify,

if my cuby is 34in W X 21in D 7ft height, I should build a frame around the speaker dimension and fill the rest with foam?

Or could I build around it with drywall, leaving like a 4 inch gap around and then use the foam, I was planning to use OC703.

-Rahul G

If they are front-ported and you can put them right at the front, or maybe a llittle beyond so the speaker cabinets sit a half-inch or inch in front of the edge of the cabinet you'll probably be OK. Putting foam or some sort of damping material around the speakers, or at least isolation feet, will help control cabinet vibrations that could cause audio and video (from shaking the TV) problems.

IMO - Don

Because more than 50% of the sound generated is at the mercy of the environment speakers are placed in. Speaker engineers are only guessing what rooms their products might be placed in.

Few ever guessed a hole in the wall. Having said that, people buy speakers on line on here say , do nothing for the rooms they're placed in and from day one claim they have the greatest sounding speakers in the world. After a while you get use to the coloration.

Maybe you'll get use to placing them where your wife wants. They may even sound better/different to you in an acceptable way. Forget "flat response". It's grating to some. Experiment with the EQ settings on your receiver after heeding the previous suggestions.