To baffle or not to baffle

[kbuskill]

Got my goodies delivered today.

 

[swat2380]

Those foam baffled will choke off the speaker and flex like a mofo. You did a great job sealing the inner skin of your doors which will result in a "chamber effect" for your speakers. I would add strips of foam spaced about 1/2" apart behind the speaker on the outer door skin to break up the standing waves and foam around the outer edge of the speaker giving it a "seal" to the grill holes directing the sound out and not getting caught in the door card. Great job on the dampner install BTW....

All my advice comes from 20+ years in the business and still doing it successfully to this day

 

[kbuskill]

So I got up early and dodged rain drops to get the speakers installed.

I did a couple tests while installing.

Honestly I really couldn't notice a big difference between baffles or no baffles. Same song, same volume, panned left to no baffle and panned right to the baffle.

I went ahead and installed them in all four doors because I had already bought them.

Perhaps it would have been a more noticeable difference if the doors hadn't been sealed up with the sound deadener... I don't know.

I will listen to it for a bit and if I decide to try it maybe I will open it back up and cut the bottom of the baffles some to allow the speakers to breathe a bit more.

The new speakers do sound really good though.

 

[kbuskill]

So after cruising around a bit and playing a plethora of different types of music...read everything from old country, classic rock, bluegrass, and ***** music, to the blues. I think I'm gonna pull the door panels and cut a hole in the bottom of the baffles to let the speakers breathe a bit more. I will leave the top, sides and back intact to break up the sound wave traveling backwards.

It is really kinda weird.... some songs sound good/normal and some sound like the background music is washed out... vocals and highs are there but the mids seem kinda quiet... like I have to turn the volume up more to hear it.

I don't know.... I hope it's the baffles causing it and not the new speakers.... I hate changing more than one thing at a time for this very reason.

 

[Meccanoble]

Wow those speakers look great. Maybe your not doing anything wrong. 320 peak watts sounds like a lot for door speakers. RMS probably a good 100 or so. Maybe they are just underpowered so you dont see their true performance yet? I know with subs, if you dont get to their RMS level, they dont flex like they should providing best sound.

Hey, I see you bought the brackets from online that hold the speakers. I was going to reuse the old like they did below after 6 minutes:

 

[iamdub]

Sounds like the speakers are being muffled, like what @swat2380 said. It's very much like subs are when put into too small of an enclosure. A flexing enclosure would increase the muffling and further reduce the lower frequency output. Also, those speakers really could use more power. I think a decent hole in the baffle would help, but don't be surprised if you end up taking the baffles out altogether. For a hole ("port") to be of any real help and no hindrance, you'd have to have it sized appropriately. The more I think about it, the baffles are over-complicating it. I mean, it's basically a free-air speaker so trying to put it in an enclosure will only reduce it's output unless it's sized appropriately. That size isn't possible in a door because you need the space for the window and tracks. It's designed to work in a door, you just need to optimize such an environment. Controlling the resonance through the sheet metal (staggered damping panels) and insulating ambient noise (fully covering exposed panels) is gonna be your best bet.

 

[kbuskill]

Wow those speakers look great. Maybe your not doing anything wrong. 320 peak watts sounds like a lot for door speakers. RMS probably a good 100 or so. Maybe they are just underpowered so you dont see their true performance yet? I know with subs, if you dont get to their RMS level, they dont flex like they should providing best sound.

Hey, I see you bought the brackets from online that hold the speakers. I was going to reuse the old like they did below after 6 minutes:

Yeah I have no way to verify what kind of wattage the Bose amp is putting out but they get plenty loud without any distortion so I am happy.

Also if you order from Crutchfield they give you the door adaptors and wiring harness plugs.

It is really not worth all the time it takes to modify the stock speaker housing.... even if I had to buy the adaptors ($25 for all 4) I would do that before spending all that time.

 

[kbuskill]

Sounds like the speakers are being muffled, like what @swat2380 said. It's very much like subs are when put into too small of an enclosure. A flexing enclosure would increase the muffling and further reduce the lower frequency output. Also, those speakers really could use more power. I think a decent hole in the baffle would help, but don't be surprised if you end up taking the baffles out altogether. For a hole ("port") to be of any real help and no hindrance, you'd have to have it sized appropriately. The more I think about it, the baffles are over-complicating it. I mean, it's basically a free-air speaker so trying to put it in an enclosure will only reduce it's output unless it's sized appropriately. That size isn't possible in a door because you need the space for the window and tracks. It's designed to work in a door, you just need to optimize such an environment. Controlling the resonance through the sheet metal (staggered damping panels) and insulating ambient noise (fully covering exposed panels) is gonna be your best bet.

I opened the door panels back up today and cut the bottom 1/4 of the baffle out. The speakers seem to respond better to having more air.

I left the top, sides, and back of the baffle intact and in place to hopefully break up the resonant sound waves coming off of the back side of the speaker.

As I said previously... if you had regular factory doors without any sound deadening done then these baffles might do some good.... maybe even if you did these baffles behind the stock speakers it might be an improvement but with my sound deadened doors with all the holes sealed up and the aftermarket speakers I think they sound better with a little more room to move.

 

[Meccanoble]

Its almost like your door is now a big baffle for the speaker.

 

[Mp619]

That is the question....

And it has me baffled to be honest as I have never used them before.

I know that Crutchfield recommends them for our trucks but that doesn't exactly give me a warm and fuzzy feeling when a company that is in business to make money, as they should be, tells me they recommend that I buy something they sell.

Could be honesty or it could just be marketing.

Anyway I would be curious to hear what you guys think, especially those of you that may have used them before.

Something like these...

View attachment 197111

I researched on here with mixed reviews... some said they installed them but never gave a report as to how they sounded.

One guy, who said he had a recording studio and a good ear, said he had to cut a hole in the baffle to let the speakers breathe before they sounded right.

For those of you who don't know I recently installed sound deadener on my doors as such...

View attachment 197112
View attachment 197113
View attachment 197114
View attachment 197115

It helped quite a bit with road noise and I think it also improved the overall sound of the factory Bose speakers but its really hard to compare when you can't listen to the deadened VS non deadened back to back.

I am very seriously contemplating upgrading the speakers to some Infinty speakers I have been eyeing and was thinking about doing baffles at the same time but having no experience with them I wanted to ask beforehand.

I always hate changing more than one thing at a time because there are to many variables.

I thought about just installing baffles on the Bose speakers to see if there would be any improvement but it would be very difficult due to how the Bose speakers are mounted.

Any way.... any input is appreciated.

Adding an amp to those door speakers? They had to re-use the bose speaker brackets to mount my afternarket speakers (memphis audio)