Speaker Upgrade...kinda

[brad10281]

On my 2005 185 the speakers are mounted here:

I'm not exactly an audiophile but I'm pretty sure that speakers sound better and give better response when mounted in an enclosure. Given the limited space behind this panel I came up with this:

This is a plastic bowl that I found at a dollar store...perfect fit. Here it is installed:

I found out that the bowls are a bit on the brittle side, we'll see how long they hold up. I used "Liquid Nails" to seal the bowl to the wood.

As for the sound; it sounds a bit better and can be turned up louder than before without distorting. It's good enough for me. We had some 50 degree weather here in Michigan so I just had to find something to do on the boat. Not bad for $2.

 

[papogator24]

interesting ...

 

[brad10281]

I'm still on the hunt for a better enclosure or a more flexible/sturdy bowl. depends on how well they hold up over the boating season this year. Both of the bowls cracked during installation...we'll see how long the Duct Tape will hold up. :lol:

I did some research before installing to see if there was a good reason why I need an enclosure...I found this:
The major role of the enclosure is to prevent the out-of-phase sound waves from the rear of the speaker from combining with the in-phase sound waves from the front of the speaker. Such mixing results in interference patterns and cancellation, causing the efficiency of the speaker to be reduced, particularly in the low frequencies where the wavelengths are large enough that interference will affect the entire listening area.

After the installation the sound is more crisp and not as muffled as before.

 

[edbaughman]

I was thinking about doing something similar when I do my audio upgrade this spring. I saw these in the Crutchfield catalog. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_237XT52/XTC-5-1-4-Speaker-Baffles-Slim-line-2-1-2-depth.html?tp=2809

 

[brad10281]

Sweet! Thanks, that's just what I've been looking for.

 

[rktktpaul]

I use the baffles from Crutchfield when I add/change speakers in the doors of my vehicles; usually you get some water getting inside the doors, and I've experienced more than one paper speaker cone getting wet from rain water. The baffles are very good at keeping the speaker from getting wet, but they are very thin compressed foam. They are not very effective at keeping the sound wave from radiating from the back of the speaker.

One possible way to circumvent that would be to pack the baffle with fiberglass insulation; this would fill the void behind the speaker between the baffle and provide some density making the sound way move forward.

 

[H2ONUT]

FYI, They have the baffles in WalMart, PepBoys, AutoZone and AdvanceAuto... Same as the ones from Crutchfield.