Which Is Better for Sound?

[@BioMedUSA]

Your comparison tests and montage of the dampening properties of each enclosure was at once brilliant and beautiful.

[@jakestanbro959]

I haven’t even gotten past the ad at the beginning and I’m liking this because I’m 100% certain it will be true

[@Bassotronics]

Damn!..this guy goes way more technical than I have ever had in my lifetime. Lol Thumbs up!

[@RacerXGTO]

Yes. I think alot of speaker makers who are making these miraculous cabinet claims of being superior, just went "oh sh!t".

[@justingillette8287]

Bill fitzmaurice, danley sound lab, system one, klipsh, Rat Sound, the list goes on and on man this guy is good but he is not at the point of the knife edge when it comes to state is the art.

[@josealfredfernandes]

+Bassotronics Nothing replaces birch plywood when it comes to sound! Not even 3d printers. Prove me wrong. Bass I love you.

[@justingillette8287]

@@josealfredfernandes Stand to close to the edge and into the rabbit hole I fall. First, we can't prove in a comment section anything related to physics and sound. Second, sound is subjective and our perception of it is effected my a million things, psychophysiological and other. Third, birch plywood makes no sounds, but a 3d printer makes all kinds of noises when it is running, so, I guess if you like the sound of silence better, than sure nothing can replace it. For the sake of having fallen into this silly rabbit hole though, if you build a cabinet out of 1/8in or 1/4in birch plywood and the enclosure is under braced or poorly designed, I am certain that we can agree that the "sound" would not be better than an enclosure that is sufficiently structural and properly designed regardless of the material used in its construction. A claim is not valid simply by saying it is unless we prove otherwise. You have equal need to prove to us that it is better. The obvious issue here is that your statement is overly simplified. Not all birch plywood enclosures are better than everything else no matter how they are constructed that is absurd and you know it. can someone toss me a rope, I jumped in and fear I can't get out!!!

[@AbsoluteFidelity]

@@josealfredfernandes you are making a claim that birch plywood cant be replaced by anything. Prove it or sod off.

[@JanvdLocht]

Hence the sound dampening effect is apparently linked to the mass of the printed object, I would be interested to see how a 100% infill 3D-print would stack up against the wooden enclosures. Furthermore, if that improves anything it could be intersting to try metal infused filaments, because of the higher densitiy.

[@DreamGaming12]

Im not an audiophile or into 3d printers but man your videos are so high quality I can’t stop watching them

[@hortonj63]

Listening using my Rotel RB-1050 amp on Fluance SX6w speakers Through Audio Card: ESS Sabre HiFi 9118 I can hear: Birch Ply: Deeper bass notes. Muffled upper section. Black Walnut: Mid-range is more pronounced. European Oak: Definitely stronger up top in the highs. Solid midbass Mahogany: drums are more pronounced compared the other materials. MDF: A lot boomier than the previous three choices. Mixed Material: Flatter response. mids slightly less pronounced than Black walnut. PLA20: Sounds a bit more hollowon the midbass notes. PLA50:More solid midbass notes extending down a bit. On my Sennheisser Momentum gen1 Marly editions Mic (used for headphones: SAnson G-Track Pro USB audio interface. Analog out): Birch Ply: the symbols are slightly muffled to me Black Walnut: Sounded a bit more solid onthe lower bass, but not as robust up top. European Oak: Much higher upper frequencies by far cleaerer and less muddyo nthe midbass. Mahogany: a bit more solid on the lower extension MDF: A lot boomier than the previos three choices. the middle frequencies seem more pronounced. Mixed Material: Solid midbass, but lacks the treble snap i like. PLA20: Sounds a bit more hollow on the midbass notes. PLA50: More solid midbass notes extending down into the bass section. Great comparison on how materials for the enclosure can affect the output. My setup has 0 modifications th the EQ on the audio card and the headphone mixer.

[@diegonogueira8222]

me: Struggling to notice any difference and perceive absolutely nothing reality tells me: "your headphones costs about 20$. What you've expected?"

[@stiles3711]

KZbin compresses the audio so much that you can't tell even if you have $400 headphones and a custom DIY amp.

[@botdamian5688]

I don't have a expensive setup but I can hear a slight difference on my modified AKG K701 and Fiio K3.

[@frankyvee1]

@@stiles3711 It's the same thing I tell folks when trying to evaluate photographic images on FaceBook. You can upload a 36-megapixel image but FB is going to compress any image above 2048 pixel on the long edge.

[@anuragbarhoriya3284]

No difference only size matter.

[@scottinWV]

I can hear some differences. But, I listen to music normally on my pc. I'm running JBL bookshelf speakers and a Visonik 15" sub in a custom enclosure.

[@thehifiwifiguy]

One of the best produced YT channels, period.

[@coppiceaudio1132]

We agree!!

[@mjodr]

I love how precise you are about everything. You don't seem to skip any steps like a lot of other people do. You take your time.

[@BartSliggers]

I would like to see 3D printed dampening structures!!!

[@Asmusei]

Seeing the two halves glued together felt like they where missing out on all sorts of different tests to try out later, including dampening structures that could be drop-in solutions. Maybe they'll contemplate a 2.0 print?

[@JoelHernandez-tz3vk]

Wonder if some light infill of the entire cabinet would add strength.

[@DS-uq5ks]

Perhaps I'm a little crazy, but I could tell slight differences! I'm wearing Bluetooth cochlear headphones (Trekz Titanium) and I could tell that the oak had a bit more of a natural sound, the birch and the MDF sounded tight, the 20% PLA actually sounded a bit dirty, and the 50% PLA sounded more like the MDF but with a small resonance.

[@KiraSlith]

Interesting. Considering the odd response from the 20, could different infill patterns can get cleaner responses? Time for some smaller scale experiments perhaps?

[@rompdude]

I would have thought it was more down to density

[@KiraSlith]

@@rompdude What's coming through in the Treble is *probably* resonance. Yes, it's affected by density, but it's also affected by the shape of the infill. A different infill could possibly get a cleaner sound without the expensive additional filament and time cost of printing at 50%.

[@rompdude]

Iirc higher frequencies do not penetrate the walls due to the wavelength. So if you have a specific frequency you could in theory tune it with wall infill design.

[@KL-tn1xc]

the study of this is called " meta materials" you can probably find something online about this exact use case.

[@BuriedAudioUK]

Acoustic metamaterials are currently under alot of research, 3D printers unfortunately sent really considered for this as the main aim is to create materials that can be scaled down for ultrasonics, EMF radiation etc... So they all follow structural effects. My university that I'm currently studying at are one of the epicentres of this research and headed the development of activated charcoal absorption.

[@FSXgta]

With 3D printing you can get diffusion shapes inside the box. Does these help from standing waves or affect sound? I mean a flat inner panel vs dimpled/diffused shapes

[@moondoggy17]

thats a good question ^^^^^^^^^^

[@vlrdngr4911]

One can also do that with wooden cabinets. That wasn't the point of the video.

[@NaturalBBler]

in a sealed enclosure it does not make a differrent

[@FSXgta]

@@NaturalBBler you can get standing waves in a sealed box so you are wrong. You won't hear the standing waves inside but it will affect the cone

[@NaturalBBler]

Use acoustic wool, way more affektive

[@psementalist]

Pete i missed you and missed seeing your KZbin videos on KZbin. Awesome video topic of choice for discussion very educational and knowledgeable

[@blankskater1]

DiamondBoxx M3, it was hard to tell a difference. But the hard woods (oak, walnut, mahogany) seemed to have a more full sound. MDF and 20% PLA seemed to lose some of the low end.

[@karicowo]

Kinda felt the same, listening on Fiio Q1 Mk2 and KZ ZS10 Pro's

[@ejrupp9555]

mahogany and the walnut were noticeable more expansive and rich (I liked the walnut just slightly better) ... mdf was tighter but not disappointing ... birch and the pla slight to distinct distracting ring above 4K or so. Shure SRH1540 / AE-5 Plus SABRE32

[@Loopyengineeringco]

What about casting an enclosure from cement? It has a super high loss modulus. Would absolutely love to see some testing and comparisons!

[@mrb.5610]

I fancy epoxy granite myself .... it's what diy cnc machines use.

[@Loopyengineeringco]

@@mrb.5610 yeah, epoxy granite would also be super interesting!

[@mrb.5610]

@@Loopyengineeringco It would seem to have all the right properties .... strong, highly damped....all the reasons it's used for CNC machines.

[@BogdanWeiss]

@AS Motion Lab how did you arrive @ “super high loss modulus” for cement ? you mean “concrete” ? It’s actually the opposite

[@Loopyengineeringco]

@@BogdanWeiss just from research I did for a milling machine I'm building, there are some good papers on the subject. The aggregate inside concrete (rocks) reduces the vibration absorbing properties of the material. Cement on it's own seems to be the best when not using admixtures. Polymer concrete/epoxy granite materials are even better (but much more expensive)

[@Inabottle]

I am currently working on a 3-Way 3D Printed Loudspeaker. Just finished printing version 2 over the weekend, took a week. I think I am going to try and fill the final design with resin, instead of going all-in on in-fill. That would be an interesting experiment with different resigns fill materials for 3D printed enclosures. I may do some minor experimentation once I get to that point in the design.

[@jjmmckinlay]

Love your videos and humor. Thx Pete.

[@Evilsizer82]

using a modi 2 dac feeding a Magni 2 headphone amp, into ATH-M50x's. it was hard to tell between walnut and birch but after MDF the rest sounded like they were missing low end.

[@Oystein87]

If you actually think you can listen to compressed audio on youtube and legit tell big differences in sound then you need to back to school... You can hear some differences but for a real comparison you have one option: Listen to it live.. Microphone colors the sound, compression colors the sound and what speaker you play back the audio on also has a huge impact. And I can assure you that MDF does not loose any low end compared to the other materials.. This is not a valid test in my book. Too many factors are ignored.

[@Evilsizer82]

@@Oystein87 clearly you need to reread my post, no school needed for that. After means just that, AFTER MDF the rest sound like they were missing low end. Im not arguing, even a compressed music file can still have the lowend removed. Are you now accusing hexibass of removing bass in the low-end of his recording, that is what it sounds like. Not only that if you actually watched the entire video he asked if we can hear a difference and I did on the low-end. I never said anything else about what I'm hearing. Every one on the internet is a expert apparently, if you are then go work for hexibass. Good day sir!

[@Oystein87]

@@Evilsizer82 Hah! Read a little too fast :P

[@jaredandcande11]

Once again, the info and details we really want to know without wasting our time and efforts. Thank you so much for fine tuning my dreams, giving them reality and texture is what makes them worth having. Just like the music does.

[@bassntruck]

I have an EVGA Nu Audio card pushing a set of Ultimate Ears Live in ear monitors. There was very little difference between them. It could have boiled down to offsetting the speaker to the mic a few millimeters as the photos show they move ever so slightly when watching. Maybe in person it could be different but based on this video I do not think anyone could accurately blind test saying what is better or different consistently across them.

[@af1548]

good choice of infill from a mechanical point of view, but why not fill the gyroid infill with sand or concrete or anything else? may use quite some vibration to get it more or less free of air bubbles, but at least it is an open infill enabling filling in first place and also delivering nearly isotropic mechanical behaviour.

[@lukesmith9059]

You could save a LOT of time on those prints by moving to a 0.6 or 0.8 mm nozzle on your printers. The stock 0.4mm nozzle is better at very small details, but you don't need that for large prints like this. Also as someone who has been printing with PETG a lot lately, I would be interested to see how it would perform as en enclosure! It is very strong, but less rigid than PLA, so I would guess it's damping properties are quite a bit better. I may just have to try this myself to see what I can do, I have a few leftover 6 inch subs laying around 🤔

[@Akusen_Arcade]

Have you done the PETG tests yet? very curious on the results

[@lukesmith9059]

@@Akusen_Arcade I have not had time to do any speaker builds unfortunately. As a relatively new home owner most of my DIY energy is going into home improvement projects.

[@Akusen_Arcade]

@@lukesmith9059 oh well, that's how it's supposed to go XD.

[@One_Guy]

i'd be curious to see what the 20% PLA would do if you applied some sound deadening material to the outside or inside of it :)

[@poman911]

I tried it with Noico sound dampening. didn't tame the resonance at all that much.

[@bleachstain9785]

@@poman911 noico is dogshit. Gotta use something like second skins, on both sides.

[@Widowmaker2828]

@@bleachstain9785 I used both and was more impressed with the value of the noico. The much more expensive second skin was barely more resonant resistant. I would rather go 2 layers of noico and it's still cheaper.

[@BStreet666]

I couldn't tell the difference but it may come down to my Logitech G432 headphones along with an un-trained ear. Thanks for putting all of the time into printing the enclosures and creating this video. They are always appreciated.

[@99Duds]

This makes some projects I had in mind much easier and possibly cheaper. Thanks for informative video.

[@RacerXGTO]

Hexi - I'm listening with Corsair HS45 surround headphones switched to stereo only with no graphic equalizer alterations, ie just raw headphone output. While these would not be regarded as studio quality, their output does reproduce music brilliantly. I've noticed with the Mahagony box output, with your audio, offers a slightly, and I mean slightly brighter sound characteristic than the rest. Hope this helps with any other data not disclosed on your video.

[@shaynakash4222]

listening to it via my digital amp and my altec lansing 16 inch drivers made it clear . mahagony sounded most natural no coloration other woods had their signiture to the sound thanks man ......

[@shaynakash4222]

didnt like the sound on pla 20 . less problem on the other

[@coppiceaudio1132]

Thanks for the feedback 👍

[@yitspaerl7255]

Very interesting! Maybe it is interesting to test a 100% infill and not only with PLA bat PETG as well. But that means so much work to do. And such a long printing time. Anyway, thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge! You teach me a lot!

[@Frietpan]

Fiio Q1 mk2 ~ Sony MDR-1AM2 balanced. i feel like some enclosures pack a bit more punch when that bass/kick hits but its kinda hard to compare as the test song has diffrent stages. the black walnut for example plays way louder then the birch ply, and some do seem sound a bit fuller with that synth sound. (i asume you keep distance and volumes the same)

[@dobrisanmihai2952]

I like that you are doing all the tests proper . I noticed some minor difference but only in the bass , on some materiales it has higher resonance .

[@marcusm5127]

Nice video. I think you need to fill the emty space in the box with the 3d printer. The best part about 3d printing is being able to add how many details you want. A triangle pyramid pattern inside the enclosure would stiffen it significanlty but I don't know if you would get drawbacks to. I am building a 196 L closed MDF speaker with Corfal flat 8 full range speakers.

[@stevenmarvin6087]

akg q701 : Couldn't really hear a difference between enclosure maybe Black walnut and Mahogany sound a bit different or it came from the music evolution

[@huayn2875]

But you should keep in Mind that 3d Printers are able to produce complex Structures without Milling Glueing or other means of substractive Manyfacruring. Thats why it is (especially for complex speaker designes and a Big Nozzle diameter) a viable canidate for producing Speakers...

[@steventedesco3418]

I noticed there are some comments about different infill patterns during my scrubbing through, but I didn't see the explicit mention of "open cell" vs "closed cell" infill. Gyroid is completely open cell, so all the airspace is shared. It is all open-flowing. Almost any other infill would likely be better. IMO in regards to sound isolation, the best would probably be Cubic (my experience is only with PrusaSlic3r admittedly, I'm not sure if all have Cubic these days) And further more I am not a sound engineer, but this makes logical sense to me through my 3d printing experience and taking note of how different infills perform for miscellaneous tasks. Hope this is helpful to some degree if it hadn't already been thought of, and maybe it is helpful to others in general. Happy printing!

[@ArduousFormula]

Answered every question I had about your designs so far. Thanks.

[@matteopozzobon1354]

Great video Pete, nice to see that there are still passionate and competent guys like you sharing their competence and experience. Next level would be sand filled 3d printed speakers ;) Differences are slightly noticeable in blind listening, I managed to catch some of them. Hope so see other videos from you, thanks for your precious contribution to the audio community!

[@patrickpredella]

Questions: If the stiffness is higher you should be able to move the material resonance towards higher frequencies, right? You should also be able to increase this stiffness by "tensioning" the material. Could you try a rig that allows you to pull opposite faces together in the center? The concept is to constrain the walls with internal stress, to reduce the degrees of freedom

[@coppiceaudio1132]

We used thinner material to help reveal the differences to help further engineer our designs

[@patrickpredella]

@@coppiceaudio1132 Amazing, my question is purely theoretical by a design standpoint: given a fixed material thickness do you think it's possible to improve the acoustic properties (remove non linearities and material vibration) by keeping the structure under tension?

[@CzornyLisek]

Now wonder if people would prefer heavily resonant enclosure (more than ones there) provided it would give them like a sound people tend to prefer. Like some random second harmonics that weren't in music and similar.

[@scottinWV]

I wish I had all that knowledge in my head. Everything he knows. My brain would probably go blue screen trying to handle it.

[@lukep7243]

Great video, great experiment. The thing is, using a 3D printer to print rectangular boxes isn't playing to the strengths of a 3D printer. It would be good to compare the ~2kg wooden enclosures to a ~2kg spheroidal printed enclosure. (Perhaps you are already planning something along these lines?)

[@dfcx1]

Can't tell a difference between any of them, even the 20% PLA. Driver, box design, room acoustics, recording set-up, wireless earbuds seem to dominate. This video is great content.

[@musca8803]

Much appreciated, thanks. Cavities in louspeker stands sometimes are filled with sand to make them less resonant: maybe this "trick" can be applied to the PLA enclosures.

[@Dracconus]

Black Walnut, and Mahogany seemed to have a bit more punch. Listening on Paradigm Titan V2's refoamed, and a paradigm defiance X10 powered by a custom TA3112 class D so admittedly not QUITE audiophile, but definitely close.

[@coppiceaudio1132]

Thanks for the feedback, Walnut and Mahogany seem to be very popular!

[@SunriseCrawlers]

Black walnut seem to have the warmest. I am listening with my mid end car audio with subs in my setting you really can hear the differences between them

[@coppiceaudio1132]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@michaelraykinney]

Keep the videos coming I always learn something

[@shaiksarmath9078]

Nice animations and editing at its best

[@noahkb80]

Would really like to see you design an under the seat box for a truck. Preferably a 07-13 silverado lol, but atleast some form of multi door truck that requires a box under the seat. Theres alot of us out here with the dillema of needing the cab room for hauling around offspring, but like to crank it once we get some down time.

[@sjenkauski5235]

Birch seems to be my favorite wile mahogany seems to be the most responsive and clear. Idk could be wrong though I'm listening on galaxy bud pros

[@TheCornishGingerOfficial]

i cant imagine they have a flat responce

[@Vibration_Crew]

Maybe try wood filament PLA or other particle added PLA just for the fun of it. Although 100hrs - 4 days printing sours that a little. Seems a lot of manufacturers use composite materials like different types of wood with aluminium or other metals in their builds. Top end B&W speakers do for sure. Great video as always and thanks for taking the time out to do this project. Can only listen via an ipad so can't contribute really on SQ.

[@lolaa2200]

As your measures confirm, absorption is about masse. So i wonder what about an enclosure where the walls are 3d printed shells filled with sand ?

[@BreezyFamily]

someone has mad a sand based material to 3d print a spiral enclosure, pretty cool

[@rhkips]

Very minimal difference between materials in the listening test. The MDF has a very characteristic sound to the bass frequencies; not quite "boomy," but slightly undefined, muddy and "raspy." It's something I've noticed when building MDF enclosures myself, and I usually treat the inside with rubberized coating and a bit of Acousta-Stuff. The 20% PLA had a distinct clarity issue with lower frequencies, very much in the realm of the "ringing" characteristic you'd noted in your other testing. The rest of the materials may have had slight variations, but without the side-by-side comparison, you'd be hard-pressed to notice. Awesome video, and great test! Thank you! :)

[@coppiceaudio1132]

Thanks for the feedback👍

[@V96Bence]

I'm curious about PETG vs PLA vs Wood the car temperatures in the summer might not be suitable for pla in my opinion and petg more flexible so that would definetly change the audio characteristics. pla is suprisingly close to the wooden ones for sure i can say Sennheiser HD518

[@M1America]

excellent video. My conclusion from your results is that I will have no qualm with doing 3d printed enclosures vs MDF. Furthermore the geometry improvements you get compared to home-made speakers probably makes them a winner. So long as your printer is large enough that you aren't making sacrifices there for your application.

[@Haellsigh]

This is a great way to show that a box is, in fact, a box! Isn't the whole point of using 3D printing in this case to make complex shapes that are not usually possible?

[@salvatoremilitello8490]

i would love to see some specs done with different filament types pla, pla+ , wood pla, carbon fiber pla, petg, pc, high temp pla, nylon, or something fancy like asa that is a lot of content if you do 20% and 50% and now you have a great base line of wood to compare to we could possibly do some eco line jessy pla ~ 19 a kg too and see just what is capable @ what price point

[@metallsimon]

Same. Some foaming Filament( like colorFabb LW-PLA ) would be interesting

[@maxs.8146]

Yeah Asa would be very interesting

[@MisterEE100]

If he started that today, he could have them all printed by summer 2021 :)

[@salvatoremilitello8490]

@@MisterEE100 wow maybe I asked for to much lamo

[@singulosta]

I would also be very interested to see what difference other 3D printing plastics can make. I'd like to see a comparison between PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, and maybe nylon (printing difficulty from easy to hard). You should already be able to print PETG, but you might want to invest in a enclosure to be able to print ABS and up.

[@techpriest4787]

What about metal?

[@SkashTheKitsune]

an American using metric in measurements? isn't that classified as treason among the community?

[@ZeFoxii]

Nope because he spreads patriotic energy by testing this to begin with as Americans have perfected music.

[@ZeFoxii]

Hell divers reference.

[@gregmorris2022]

This is an absolutely fantastic channel.

[@Xmvw2X]

It's nice to see so little difference. The only thing I noticed was the bass impacts seems slightly softer. The impact edge is softened. That's basically it. This might be more apparent if we compare mechanical flex. You'd need to look say something like bending stress and deflection. However, it's also easy to build in a lot of additional stiffness by even slightly increasing spacing between the outer and inner wall, adding in bracing, or binding the woofer with the back wall.

[@_vike5]

I was listening on my home build, smacked together system which consists of Two Jamo Compact 90s with some newly installed tweeters (JBL) and bass drivers (Cervinwega) and extended bass ports made out of plumbing tubes. MTX Black Gold 12 subwoofer the one with plexiglas. The speakers runs on a Pioneer SX-337 with no subwoofer output so i drive the subwoofer using a zone mixer and a car amp (600wrms). Could hear a slight difference in bass between some of them. My next speaker build is going to be out of brazilian rosewood. Great video!

[@troyadams4994]

The receiver/amplifier is the RCA 2781BE 5.1 2000W(claimed) 150W rms per also to power the subs 12 volt battery with 3 amp charger going to a Jensen 4 channel 160 w per channel bridge 2 at 3.76 ohms

[@blech71]

So much good data in this vid.

[@jovermars1920]

Just watched the Fifine T review and I hope your channel is still going. I really loved the quality of that video and everything you added into it. Keep it going, you're really close to becoming a mainstay of the tech scene.

[@Quetzalcoatl0]

I don't have expensive gear, listening on some headphones, couldn't hear a difference. So does this mean the audiophile companies that sell us expensive gear just because of type of wood they used are lairs ? At the end thickness and shape of enclosure changes the response the most. Additional info: This box is relatively small, so each material didn't change the response a lot because it can't flex. This could be different if the box was tower size where the walls will be taller and might flex more with different materials hence creating more resonances. That's why speaker builders put bracing inside speakers to reduce the cost of creating it 2x as thick. Or as B&W speakers, just make them an egg where the shape itself is just more ridged. (Well and glue multi layer sheets of plywood to make it harder and stronger than concrete :D).

[@DTXGaming]

Does a gold watch tell the time better than a plastic one?? In 99% of the cases not. The material almost always reflects status. OK, that's probably simplistic but you get what I mean. Also very good point regarding cabinet size, although proper bracing helps with any build.

[@fotopfanatic]

@@DTXGaming As a watch enthusiast, your example is a poor comparison. The tests being conducted were performed to determine if box material impacts the overall harmonics of the sound being produced (which they clearly do, albeit minimally). The outer case of a watch (the component which houses the movement inside) does not impact time in any manner. However, if we're referring to the mechanical movements themselves (which are predominately made of metals), then there is impact to the time. A prime example of this can be seen in the hairspring of the movement. The accuracy of a mechanical watch movement is determined by it's overall coefficient of friction, uniformity of material being used (as in the case of the hairspring), precision of gear cutting, gravity, and a few other factors. However, the watch case itself does not impact the accuracy of the timepiece.

[@justingillette8287]

KZbin audio is not lossless,it’s basically typical mp3 grade sadly

[@kenabi]

senn 598se's and eris e5's. can't hear anything notable with the erises, but with the senns there's... evvvvver so slightly a different tone. but i'd have to pay attention to notice for most of them. the pla20 got slightly boomy and had sustain, while the 50 maintained most of the boomy sound, while not having as much sustain. mahogany seems tighter. the rest sort of seem more or less identical beyond just a slightly different ... taste? i guess, to the tones. mmm, time to see if i can find a mahogany supplier locally.

[@coppiceaudio1132]

Thanks for the feedback! make sure you find a reputable supplier, we need to look after our Forests or better still look for recycled, a lot of out dated furniture is made from mahogany so can be bought very cheap but make sure it is not just a Mahogany veneer on some cheaper wood!

[@johnbrennan4987]

Could you do a video on passive radiators and how to apply them correctly

[@victortitov1740]

I'm still waiting for you Pete to try a thin-walled enclosure with sparse infill inside for reinforcement and sound absorption. This is where 3d-printing shines imo, and may outperform all classic enclosure-making technologies.

[@TheUnPlayable]

Wouldn't it be easier to just compare flexural modulus & wall thickness ? The problem would be resonant modes in the excited spectrum. With sufficient thickness &or high enough modulus it wouldn't cause any issue with any material.

[@nocturnal0072]

Audio-Technica ATH-M40x and Fostex TR-90. I can definitely tell a big difference in the mahogany with the foxtex, but i wasn't able to tell much from the rest. With the audio technica i can hear a big difference in the 20% pla, sound like plastic if you know what i mean, a bit shrill. The mahogany still stood out, but not as much. I think my favorites was the mdf and birch plywood. Maybe because it's what i'm used to hearing. P.S. That mahogany was interesting.

[@Topy44]

Hi, as someone who is always really right on cash I would like to see an ultra low budget build. Make the best possible speakers from cheap Aliexpress parts, within a fixed budget, lets say $40 or so. There are many pretty decent chinese speakers available, but usually they do not provide all of the necessary information to design an enclosure for it. Maybe you can give a guide on how to approximate values for unknown speakers?

[@jasonrodgers9840]

Imo: Black walnut is what I prefer to use for my own custom subs and woofs. White birch for woofs to mids. Mdf for everything else.

[@jasonrodgers9840]

@@HexiBase It would be interesting to see cherry's midrange qualities.

[@jasonrodgers9840]

@@HexiBase or in the future, maybe a few african or amazon exotics too. 😉

[@Oystein87]

In real life there is a HUGE difference between materials. Listening on a compressed audio recording on youtube.. Well.. I don't expect much from that. But in the damping properties test you need to be sure ALL enclosures are the exact same thickness and have the same design to get 100% valid results. And it's not quite the same just hitting the outside and messuring inside as it is testing the internal damping with a speaker in the enclosure.. But it gives a good pointer so that one is still valid. Most important is how stiff the enclosure is. If you feel the walls in the enclosure vibrate then it's not stiff enough ;P Damping itself can easily be handled with the right damping material.

[@JohnFryerInvisiblade]

You might do the same test with a wood PLA 3d print.

[@DJMoPhiya]

This is freakin' amazing!!! I'm getting super inspired!

[@doranw]

you should try wood filament. it changes the sound very noticeably (I'd say it sounds like 2/3 wood, 1/3 PLA)

[@PaulOtlewski]

I just printed a enclosure that is a remixed version of his bookshelf speakers out of 20% wood fill PLA at 50% infill. Im very excited to see how it sounds

[@gfyproductions9167]

I would like to see a large bluetooth enclosure. Incorporating your hexi box v3, your tweeter acoustic amplifiers, and maybe a couple of midrange speakers. A battery box to power it up. It could be large, small guitar amp size. Being 3d printed it would be light.

[@AgneDei]

Great test. Considering that PLA 50% infill turned out quite nice, I think it's safe to say that it might be a good idea to explore from the audio point of view how different filaments compare to PLA, like ABS, ASA, PC, Nylon, and perhaps some hybrids with mixed fibers and so on. Anyways with just this test it seems like it's quite decent enough, and with 3d printing it does give you the freedom to create some complex shapes, rounded internals and so on, that would be practically impossible to do precisely by hand (i mean like making the inner box chamber a sort of a egg like asymmetrical spheroid designed to have no standing waves of any frequency inside.

[@antonybrinlee8166]

Wood movement over time and the constant vibration may pose a challenge in the higher power base reflex boxes. That said... I will do a solid wood version of the TL dual speaker in your other video and let you know how it works out.

[@coppiceaudio1132]

We agree movement is more of an issue compared with sheet materials and a certain amount of care is needed with the environment where they are situated but we can achieve much stronger joints with wood and when comparing sub boxes in same thickness oak and mdf/ply the oak is much stiffer, I would compare it to walking on oak floor boards or plywood, the ply is more bouncy. We would also be very interested to hear how your project works out!

[@antonybrinlee8166]

@@coppiceaudio1132 Agree with strength/rigidity. Especially if you can do sliding dovetails for the internal walls of a TL driver. Loved those boxes by the way. Any chance those were hand cut dovetails? I am a Paul Sellers fan and he really got me back into woodworking.

[@antonybrinlee8166]

@@coppiceaudio1132 BTW... thank you for looking through all this just to find my post and respond. Nicely done.

[@mattfarrar5472]

Asus Z370E Optical out > SMSL DAC > Little Dot MKii with GE JAN5654W's > Sennheiser 58X's with Dekoni Elite Velour's. I could hear change.

[@avocatdelamusique9778]

Indeed I can hear a difference. Especially between first three materials in the beginning of the track. European Oak is really crisp sounding, Mahogany too. Starting from MDF and down, they sound pretty much identical lol. Oh, sound gear is Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro and the sound is sent through Galaxy Z Fold 3 with SSC codec enabled.

[@baklap141]

As your test graphic results show , not that of a noticable difference so PLA is good. I didnt hear any huge difference between materials (listining in my studio at home on Behringer umc404hd and krk 6s). Got myself an Ender 3 too for printing stuff , its amazing what you can do with these machines for so few money.

[@beefy256]

I couldn't tell a difference between any of the enclosures, and when I close my eyes I can't even tell when the materials are changing. Audio chain is Schiit Bifrost gen 1 (via Unison USB, with Multibit chip), Emotiva BasX A100 amp, Emotiva B1+ speakers, Schiit SYS preamp, and Rythmik F12 subwoofer.

[@aspenmallery]

Tech ingredients has some videos with a lot of really highly detailed scientific analysis on different materials acoustic properties. If I remember correctly, it is the higher the stiffness (not necessarily strength or other properties) of the material which causes less resonance will occur. Of course, there are many other things to consider such as side and rear reflections of the cabinet as well. But this is probably the main reason why the lesser 20% infill did worse than the 50%. I predicted this at the start of the video too. Its worth mentioning that of all the thermal plastics, PLA has one of the highest stiffness properties out there, besides some other more exotic filaments like HIPS or carbon filled. Price per performance, PLA is probably the best way to go considering higher infill will give better results.

[@bingoberra18]

Great video really dense information packed in this one, I appreciate the time spent to make it. But that driver though, it doesnt seem smooth anywhere? At 4:19 , its like 11db differences, arent full ranges supposed to perform somewhat well without tinkering with crossovers?

Where did you see 11dB differences?! And a full range speaker doesn't have a crossover... as the term crossover indicates; it helps cross the sound from one driver to the other; ex; reduce the high frequencies for the low frequency driver and vice versa. So with 1 driver, no crossover. Yeah so you're reading the graph wrong, it's almost +/- 0.5dB for the 10 measurements, so similar if you recorded 10x the exact same cabinet+driver you'd probably get similar results!

Ah ok you meant +/- ~6dB from 100Hz to 20kHz.... It's normal for a fullrange speaker, fostex's own data sheet will show similar measurements. as the name indicates, as it does all the frequencies there are some compromises vs a speaker which only has to do mids, treble, bass, etc., so yeah you'll get more variation than a +/- 3db speaker. Doesn't mean they sound 'bad' though... Plus yeah there will be some room interaction which will make measurements worse; most speaker measurments you see are smoothed anechoic measurements and on axis...

[@bingoberra18]

@ Yes I meant the general graphs, the room could be cause of the issues but the measurements were taken close to the speaker so not much problems should be caused by the room. What I meant with crossover was that looking at this graph I dont think it would sound very good, to bring down some of the peaks with a notchfilter would decrease the delta, but if I´m introducing a filter in the signal path I might as well do a 2-way. Not really sure whats so great about a +-6db "fullrange" as it doesnt seem to do even the midrange properly. Given 10 db is perceived as twice as loud, the bumpy line should be noticed in the sound.

[@EngineeringEssentials]

Awesome 👍 I was thinking of getting expensive plywood for my speaker build instead of MDF. But I am convinced that inorder to hear any difference, you need a great ear as well as dead silence which ofcourse doesn't exist in my case. Please correct me if I am wrong, also curious to know. Which is the best position for a port?

[@EngineeringEssentials]

@@HexiBase Thank you 🙏

[@GLaaZEDJDougHNot]

Watch your videos at 2160p on mobile with xFyro wireless earphones. I definitely noticed the difference between each enclosure. For this test, Mahogany took the win for me. My ears prefer a good smooth blend of treble and bass with minimal reverberation. Now I know what I need for my next enclosure. Excellent test, thanks!

[@crazylarryjr]

I have heard of some types of 3d print material that claims to have a density profile to wood. Not sure if it's real wood or what but the claim is it essentially wood like in it's density and especially it's sand-ability and staining abilities. Might be worth a look see

[@IVAN_ENT]

Do you think autobody primer and paint would effect the 3d print much? That's what I usually do with 3d prints

[@coppiceaudio1132]

We would be interested to know that too, we use the same on some of our designs

[@maxheadrom3088]

Does the dovetail change the characteristics of the box? Thanks! Thanks for the many classes!!!! Another question: wouldn't measuring a wood plank give better information about the structural absorption alone and remove the surface absorption? I understand you received the boxes already assembled and, perhaps, the correlation is high or what you really want to measure is how the box behaves. Thanks!

[@bayvanman]

Could the PLA enclosure be designed to use say a sand infill between inner/outer walls to reduce the 'ringing'?

[@Oystein87]

Or just encrease the thickness of the walls... But some damping materials are needed in all speaker enclosures to avoid resonance regardless of the material used to build the enclosure.

[@Bigalinjapan]

Very interesting. I'd say MDF is the hit, mixed mat not worth the effort, both PLAs have dirty mids, but still quite good. I am very surprised how big the differences are.

[@berkeleybruin1971]

Very interesting work! It would be awesome if you can design and 3D print something much smaller like an enclosure for micro speaker(s) - and make it sound good.

[@HexiBabe]

Sounds like you're new to the channel! kzbin.info/www/bejne/ooaXkHhuaLeqi9k

[@shawnbottom4769]

Maybe I can hear more bass output from the walnut and oak? I’m using Sennheiser Momentum (over ear version) being driven directly from an iPad Pro

[@572089]

the Birch and 20% infil both sound notablcibly "tinnier" than the rest to me. cant say i notice any difference between the other materials: perhaps i would with tracks in more familiar with. (listened with sony MX1000). id be curious to see this test with PETG. I prefer it to PLA for most of my print becase of better layer adhesion and low flexability: but its also far more rigid and brittle. i wonder if it would resonate too much?

[@impuls60]

Its less stiff so the resonant frequency will be lower. I have a feeling that it would stopp ringing faster too.

[@proffessasvids]

excellent vid pete! love the test track at the end xx

[@johndprob]

I would love to see a test on different filament mateials infilled stuff, abs etc.

[@descent8275]

eh I'm currently Designing a subwoofer box for my car. not sure if I end up with 16,5cm or 20cm woofers. (one left and one on the right side) the woofers should make use of some dead space of my 3 door yaris GR4 well the 3D print is designed with thiner walls and not much infill but with ALOT of ribs to give it good strengh. I'm super hyped, cant wait! :D

[@sigurdodinbraastad7484]

Very interesting, thanks for this! Did som simple knock testing on petg Vs MDF and didn't find much difference either, pretty sure I would fail a double blind if tested on these samples. Given the density of pla, it should be quite suitable enclosure, even if there is some resistance against using plastic in the dyi audio community. However when building enclosures in petg I find the price of printing fairly large enclosures is quite high compared to wood/MDF.. so guess the only way it can be justified is a complex design that would be otherwise difficult in wood... And the ringing/ridigty is fixable by design so I think we might see some really cool 3d speakers eventually.. like the stratsys prototype ;)

[@menchelke]

Have you done any similar tests using fdm wood filament 3d printed box, and compared it to whatever your go to is? I have some rosewood pla filament that prints really nice dark red wood, I love it for other projects that I want to have a wood like look.

[@androiduberalles]

You ought to try pouring concrete into the plastic like I've been doing. I'd be interested to see how that works. Just do a low infill (like 5%) and no bottom layers. Then you can pour it right in after you rip some of the excess infill out.

[@ricklynch]

I think what might even work better than that, is those high density foams. Go check out Smooth-On. They have different weights of foam for different densities.

[@colbylaro9361]

But if you've been doing it already why dont you know how that works? What does it sound like to you?

[@ricklynch]

@@colbylaro9361 Because I've used it in different applications. I've used it to dampen the aluminum extrusions for machine frames. This replicates the sand casting of full CNC frames to eliminate harmonic ringing within the chassis.

[@androiduberalles]

@@colbylaro9361 I don't have any kind of analyzing equipment like he has. It sounds good to me but that's just me.