Who makes the most solid bookshelf enclosure?

[Postlan]

Who makes the most solid bookshelf enclosure?

I have Dynaudio, which is pretty solid, I think. Focal, not as solid as Dynaudio in my impression. Very thin wall.

Any experience with the other speaker brands?

 

[Ninjastar]

KEF LS50 Meta?

That cabinet is like a brick.

 

[Beave]

First, you must define "solid."

Then, are you talking generalizations about different manufacturers, or are you looking for one single speaker model that has THE most "solid" cabinet?

 

[xaviescacs]

I have a pair of Dynaudios X14A, but I'm not sure if I want to test if the cabinet is solid....

 

[sweetchaos]

Enclosure material, damping inside the cabinet, etc.

Let's compare 2 studio monitors:
Genelec 8040B has a 6.5" woofer, and 20.7 lb in weight.
JBL 306P MKII has a 6.5" woofer, and 13.4 lb in weight.

Genelec Materials:

Recycling & Materials - Genelec.com

Genelec designs are created to give you many years of trouble-free service, whether you are using them in demanding studio or AV installation applications, or simply enjoying them in your home.

www.genelec.com

If you drop a Genelec, the chances of it being damaged is less likely than the item it falls on.

 

[Ultrasonic]

Are metal or concrete speaker cabinets more 'solid'? Both exist.

I'm left wondering what you really had in mind to try to find out @Postlan ?

 

[More Dynamics Please]

Do you mean the most inert speaker enclosures with the least resonance?

 

[theyellowspecial]

LS50 from the passive bookshelves I've handled.

I've read users referring to ATC monitors as tanks, but I've never handled one myself.

 

[dfuller]

ATC, Barefoot, Genelec.

LS50 from the passive bookshelves I've handled.

I've read users referring to ATC monitors as tanks, but I've never handled one myself.

ATCs both have super heavy cabinets and ludicrously heavy drivers. The motors on their dome mids weigh more than most woofers.

 

[LearningToSmile]

Magico comes to mind, their A1 is a over 40 lbs(48 according to their website, 45 according to some reviews) for bookshelf speaker with a 6.5" woofer. The cabinet is made out of 3/8" aluminum. And this is their entry level series.

Magico Q1 has a 7" woofer and weighs a whopping 60lbs, in addition to the aluminum cabinet it has a lot more bracing. But I think it might be discontinued, as I can't find it under Q series on their website anymore, just by googling directly.

 

[Frgirard]

I remind you that a speaker is not made for playing football. What is the obscure meaning of your quest?

 

[dasdoing]

Enclosure material, damping inside the cabinet, etc.

I think the driver magnet is big part of the weight. A big magnet with plastic enclosure might weight more than a small one with a solid enclosure

 

[Postlan]

ATC, Barefoot, Genelec.

Ah, yes. Their enclosures are very solid in my impression as well.

 

[Wolf]

Kaiser uses Panzerholz aka tankwood aka phenolic resin impregnated birch plywood.
Wilson uses cast phenolic resin in their cabs, known as X or Y material.
Magico with their copper and aluminum billet bolted structures. I think YG Acoustics does this too.
Polymer Audio Research uses an alloy of steel to slab their enclosures together.

There are more...

 

[Wolf]

Rockport has an outer carbon fiber shell over an inner aluminum chamber, and the voids are filled with high mass modelling clay.

 

[shorewalker]

Who makes the most solid bookshelf enclosure?

I have Dynaudio, which is pretty solid, I think. Focal, not as solid as Dynaudio in my impression. Very thin wall.

Any experience with the other speaker brands?

Bought my son a pair of old maple-finish Dynaudio Audience 52 SEs last year and was startled by their carved-from-a-single-block-of-wood feel. Heavy and completely rigid.
Eerily good sound, too. I'm now hunting for another pair in a darker colour.

 

[mightycicadalord]

On The budget end the behringer 203x stuff is insanely well built. 3/4" mdf with doubled up on the baffles, cnc'd brace that spans the whole cabinet. Makes a lot of the lower stuff look cheap, especially this new trend where the baffles are plastic.

 

[More Dynamics Please]

On The budget end the behringer 203x stuff is insanely well built. 3/4" mdf with doubled up on the baffles, cnc'd brace that spans the whole cabinet. Makes a lot of the lower stuff look cheap, especially this new trend where the baffles are plastic.

This is what noaudiophile had to say about the B2031A's enclosure:

Prepare for more insanity. MDF quality is very nice dense stuff, not the usual chinesium crap. The front baffle is a complicated heavily machined piece which is 1/2 inch behind the tweeter, and 1 1/8" behind the woofer which is precision flush mounted to the surface. The center brace is a solid 3/4 inch piece and all of the cabinet walls are covered in a thick carpet padding type material. This is a better box than the Infinity Primus, which was over built massively for the price point. I would say that only the B&W 686S2 beats the Behringer Truth's in cabinet construction quality of reviewed speakers.

 

[tvrgeek]

Easy. I do.
People like Wilson make wild claims about their exotic whatever. Got to make an excuse for the price somehow.
Now, why do you think that matters? Why not be asking what speakers are well constructed to not have spurious cabinet resonances that are audible?

As a woodworker, I know there are many grades of fiberboard, LDF, the crap sold in big box stores as MDF, cabinet grade MDF, HDF etc. An engineer will choose the appropriate material for the job and apply it well. I have seen cabinets made from 1/8 Masonite that had no cabinet resonances, Other extreme was the good old double layer sonotube sand filled all the rage in the 70's. I think Tannoy even produced one. HDF is better for baffles due to it's machining quality, but cheap MDF I find better for boxes. You can get lighter weight, more rigid and still use a "dead" material by putting it under stress, curves, laminations. whatever.

In other words, your, or some magazine's hack's gut feeling probably has nothing to do with the speakers sound. Go listen. If you like it, buy it.

 

[RoyB]

KEF LS50 Metas...... In the hundreds of speakers I've handled over the years, I've never seen any as nonresonant as the Metas. They seem like a solid block of unobtainium.