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I'm just wanting some thoughts on this small project. My front coax's require more mounting depth than is provided by the stock holes in my 2k2 EX coupe. I currently have 3 small spacers that I mounted on top of the 3 holes that currently exist by using some copper dowels that I simply bent up to keep the spacers in place, and then screwed the speakers into those. My midbass response is lacking to say the least.

The solution I came up with is this: Intstead of buying or making a round spacer, I am going to make an oblong/rectangular baffle out of 3/4'' mdf (amount of spacing I need) and screw it into some new holes I'll drill in the door. I'll make sure this baffle covers the existing mounting hole (which we all know is not exactly a circle) and then seal it with some caulking. Just curious what you guys think of this idea.


-Kent

 
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another way to get better midbass would be by sound deadoning your door panel, i have 30 sq feet of fat mat in each of my coors, oops my doors, it made a difference for me. that's why they say car stereo is 90 percent install 10 percent components.

 
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if i used a spacer, id make sure that it were sealed to the spacer so no air could escape between the spacer and the doorframe.

my spacers and many others are all wood and silicone sealed to teh frame to ensure no airleaks.

that should greatly help midbass

 
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Thanks for the replies Sound deadened already, 2 layers of fatmat on metal 1 layer on panel. Definitely going to seal the spacer against the door, will report on how much it helps later.

 
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also sealing the door as much as possible from the air in the cabin will help. like fatmat on not jsut the metal, but teh gaps between, not as a mass loader, but to kind of seal the air inside the door from the air inside the cabin.

every little bit helps jsut a little bit...

 
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i was wondering if maybe taping some shrinkwrap/saran wrap across the gaps and then taking a hair dryer to it wouldn't be a cost effective way. i know you can just tape over it, but this idea seems to be a little cheaper/cleaner. just an idea.

 
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Are we talking about sealing up the gaps in the metal of the door panels?

 
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yeah, to try to enclose the space as best as possible. Its impossibe to seal the space fully, but by using AP enclosures and by using deadener to lay across the holes, we can can seal it up best as we possibly can.

saran wont work becuase it wont keep in pressure or air. it'll let waves through as if there were nothing there.

but if you can think of any cheap alternative to a sheet deadener that WILL block the bakc wave (fiberglass comes to mind) go for it! sound deadener is definitely by far not the only potential solution!

 
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Personally, were I trying to do this, I'd do as rabbit said, and make the baffles out of mdf and siliicone them to the doors. This does two things. It provides a seal to keep the two waves isolated, and it also keeps the mdf baffle from vibrating against the door frame (the silicone). Once that is done, I'd mat everything I could. Once it was all matted, I'd tape off the things I didn't want deadened (ie the windo, controls, wires, etc, and use a spray deadener, or a rubberized undercoating spray to fill the gaps between the panels, seal it as best as possible, and deaden it all at the same time. It takes maybe 5 minutes to cut the baffles, or it does for me using the rotozip and circle cutter attachment.

 
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i cut out the speaker part of the stock speakers.. mounted my new ones to that.. then hotglued all the spaces shut... then put a bit silicone on the back and mounted them up... they sound amazing and so far no rattle..

i felt like martha effin stewart... cept i wasnt in jail..

 
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Not exactly sure what your reffering to when you say AP enclosures...can you please elaborate on that?

Also, what I would do (this was a suggestion from Rick from RaamAudio), use peices of sheet aluminum to cover the holes (you can either weld them on or if you wanna take the easy way out, I'm sure JB weld would work, or you can get some 3M panel adhesive). After you have the sheets in place, the deadener would have a solid backing to attach to. This is what I plan on doing when I finnally get around to deadening my car.

 
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not a bad idea! id preter to make them removable, myself, for access to the latching and the like. screws and silicone for me!

AP stands for aperiodic. using an foam XTC baffle is a form of aperiodic enclosure, which merely refers to restricting the backwave of the speaker.

audionutz had a great analogy. inhale and exhale 2 or 3 times real quick. then do the same with your shirt covering your mouth. feel the resistance? thats an AP membrane at work! so not as sealed as a sealed box, but not totally open. less backwave gets out to cnacel with the front. just like using those those aluminum plates to better seal off the door chamber. better seal off that backwave.

 
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Ok, what if I were to just make an oversize plate and use foam to seal it instead of siliconing it? What do you think about that? Do you think it would be pretty good at sealing things? (I would think so, especially with the deadener on top of the plate to seal it up better, the foam will just keep the two peices of metal from rattling against each other.) Also, waht do you recommend on deadening of the plastic panel itself? Anything at all? Rick was talking about just deadening anything that is not acoustically sound, but I was just wondering what your experience is with deadeners on plastic panels?

 
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my experience is that I havent been able to tune my stereo good enough to hear resonance issues with the door panel, as long as it doesnt rattle against the frame

 
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What has your experience been with the XTC baffles? I've read on the sounddomain forums that they can actually hurt speaker performance, yet others swear that they increase performance, specifically midbass. Have you experience that at all?