How much does cabinet material effects sound?

[Pearljam5000]

I noticed I mostly like speakers /monitors with a metal cabinet when I listened to them.
Obviously not all speakers with metal cabinets sound good, but I think it does effect the sound a little bit.
Clarity is a little better and bass is tighter vs wooden cabinets ( if that makes any sense).
Am I completely wrong, again? Lol

 

[dfuller]

Sort of, but not completely. Aluminum is much denser and more easily made stiff than MDF, but MDF can absolutely make for good boxes.
As long as it's inert enough, the cabinet shouldn't make a huge difference.

 

[richard12511]

I noticed I mostly like speakers /monitors with a metal cabinet when I listened to them.
Obviously not all speakers with metal cabinets sound good, but I think it does effect the sound a little bit.
Clarity is a little better and bass is tighter vs wooden cabinets ( if that makes any sense).
Am I completely wrong, again? Lol

Metal can have thinner walls(which means more internal volume) and be just as inert. Another factor is the cabinet shape. Rounded is usually better.

 

[Chrispy]

Curious, what speakers/monitors with metal cabinets have you experienced?

 

[Pearljam5000]

Curious, what speakers/monitors with metal cabinets have you experienced?

Genelec and Neumann
Also heard Magicos(only on YouTube though so it doesn't count )
Somehow they all sound "cleaner" to me.
Also I wonder why would sennheiser use metal on the HD800 which I owned, if it had no sonic benefits

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Make out of metal and jack up the price. Bunch of nonsense.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Make out of metal and jack up the price. Bunch of nonsense.

Lol
I'm not sure how much more expensive is aluminum vs wood
I bet that if you would put the same drivers of a speaker in a wooden cabinet in an aluminum one it will sound better.

 

[Chrispy]

Well the overall design and build/execution would be important, too and right now wood could be kinda pricey I didn't realize all the Genelecs and Neumans were built this way, tho....but I've not seen one in person either.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Lol
I'm not sure how much more expensive is aluminum vs wood
I bet that if you would put the same drivers of a speaker in a wooden cabinet in an aluminum one it will sound better.

That is why music sounds so much better in a 747. Bet you were suckered. I'll put a tweeter in a beer can.

 

[preload]

If metal is such a great material then why do we need to apply dampening sheets to the thick steel panels for car audio installations? I’d be curious what the resonance properties and magnitude are for aluminum vs 3/4” braced mdf.

 

[thewas]

Like always (and similar also to driver membranes) its all about engineering and final measured results in the end, you can have a metal cabinet which rings like a bell and on the other hand well engineered damped and braced MDF one that is very silent:

(source of image: https://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-ls50-meta-loudspeaker-measurements )

I personally find that the radiated coloration from suboptimal enclosures is often underestimated and that I can often hear such like for example on my Kali IN-8 compared to my LS50, Genelec and Neumann but its not easy to prove directly. The well-known loudspeaker engineer Karl Heinz Fink says that someone can test it by placing heavy books for example on the top of a loudspeaker, although on the other hand you slightly also change the baffle (step) radiation with such.

 

[Frgirard]

Lol
I'm not sure how much more expensive is aluminum vs wood
I bet that if you would put the same drivers of a speaker in a wooden cabinet in an aluminum one it will sound better.

Unit cost price.

The black hole for audiophile.

So
New design.
New manufacturing.
New tools,
new subcontractors.
New supply chain

And
why with soffit mounted speakers?

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Ideas for more threads you could start:
...
- MDF, wood or aluminum?
...

Thanks I wrote all these ideas for future threads, it's hard thinking about them on my own.

1 down, 8 more to go

 

[More Dynamics Please]

Believing for whatever reason that speakers with metal cabinets sound better would likely affect sighted listening impressions.

 

[Pearljam5000]

1 down, 8 more to go

Your list is pure gold

 

[Katji]

Something I saw earlier...

Quote from a Floyd Toole post in AVSForum (source).

...
Putting an accelerometer on the wall of a cabinet is not a reliable indicator of the audibility of a resonance (sorry John Atkinson). For example, some panel resonances radiate sound effectively and others do not, but both exhibit vibration at a point on the panel. Harman and other advanced designers use scanning laser vibrometers to reveal patterns, polarity and amplitude of panel movement which guides the placement of structural reinforcements to reduce acoustical radiation from the resonance. When it is below the audible threshold in the anechoic frequency responses all is well (see the paper, or my books). It is not necessary to have foot thick concrete enclosures to eliminate audible resonances, good engineering can do it in rectangular wooden boxes.
...

 

[Ericglo]

As Katji referenced above, it is about engineering a good cabinet.

Brandon(Augerpro) has done some testing as of late.

I haven't seen it talked about lately, but there used to be DIYers who would glued MDF and baltic birch together.

I don't think anyone has done it, but reinforcing a box with concrete wouldn't be to difficult. I made my countertops out of concrete and it was pretty straightforward.

 

[dfuller]

I personally find that the radiated coloration from suboptimal enclosures is often underestimated and that I can often hear such like for example on my Kali IN-8 compared to my LS50, Genelec and Neumann but its not easy to prove directly. The well-known loudspeaker engineer Karl Heinz Fink says that someone can test it by placing heavy books for example on the top of a loudspeaker, although on the other hand you slightly also change the baffle (step) radiation with such.

Yes, I think it matters more than people give it credit for. I've heard speakers where the cabinets rang loud enough that you could tell it wasn't coming from the speaker - probably the most famous of which is the NS10, but also some others like Adam AX series speakers.

The thing is, the box resonances like that are tricky to measure - they don't really show up on spins, at least so far as I can tell.

 

[Wes]

If metal is such a great material then why do we need to apply dampening sheets to the thick steel panels for car audio installations? I’d be curious what the resonance properties and magnitude are for aluminum vs 3/4” braced mdf.

those are thin steel panels

 

[preload]

those are thin steel panels

The steel panels in an automobile are definitely thicker than the ones I see in the Genelec disassembly.