Quote Originally Posted by stevem
Would enclosure walls of Plywood/MDF be a better choice for DIY speakers than veneered MDF? I'm thinking of using 1/2" veneered plywood glued to 1/2" MDF instead of 1" MDF. What's your opinion?
First of all, not all plywood is the same. Typical American plywood uses 5-7 layers of fir. More and more I am finding imported plywoods with a much lighter and less structural core material. If you use a veneered birch plywood (face veneered in the wood of choice with an all birch interior) you will have the best results. Basically you want a very stiff outer constraining layer. For the inside, I'd stick with 3/4" MDF. You will end up with a wall thickness of 1 1/4", but I think it would be worth the weight and extra size. If they are small speakers say L100 sized or smaller, then I suppose 1/2" MDF would be fine... still with adequate bracing.

Quote Originally Posted by stevem
Another question. My box program doesn't seem to make any adjustments to Vb to compensate for braces. Is this because the "virtual volume" created by the fiberglass stuffing offsets the volume taken by the braces? If this is so, it seems a little inexact to me. How do you compensate for the bracing?
I use BB 6Pro. It does allow for bracing as well as differing amounts of fill. It is still imprecise. All of these programs give you is a very good guess. Ultimately I measure the results and tweak. Of course a few years ago, before I had my Clio rig... I took the results from BB 6Pro and was satisfied.


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