To baffle or not to baffle

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kbuskill

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That is the question....

And it has me baffled to be honest as I have never used them before.

I know that Crutchfield recommends them for our trucks but that doesn't exactly give me a warm and fuzzy feeling when a company that is in business to make money, as they should be, tells me they recommend that I buy something they sell.

Could be honesty or it could just be marketing.

Anyway I would be curious to hear what you guys think, especially those of you that may have used them before.

Something like these...

rps20180417_190430_624.jpg

I researched on here with mixed reviews... some said they installed them but never gave a report as to how they sounded.

One guy, who said he had a recording studio and a good ear, said he had to cut a hole in the baffle to let the speakers breathe before they sounded right.

For those of you who don't know I recently installed sound deadener on my doors as such...

rps20180417_190944_317.jpg
rps20180417_191024_604.jpg
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rps20180417_191138_484.jpg

It helped quite a bit with road noise and I think it also improved the overall sound of the factory Bose speakers but its really hard to compare when you can't listen to the deadened VS non deadened back to back.

I am very seriously contemplating upgrading the speakers to some Infinty speakers I have been eyeing and was thinking about doing baffles at the same time but having no experience with them I wanted to ask beforehand.

I always hate changing more than one thing at a time because there are to many variables.

I thought about just installing baffles on the Bose speakers to see if there would be any improvement but it would be very difficult due to how the Bose speakers are mounted.

Any way.... any input is appreciated.
 
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kbuskill

kbuskill

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I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the new speakers and stuff.

I ordered the baffles so if they suck I guess I just blew $20.

Here is a link to the post in my build thread that explains what all I've got coming so I don't have to re type it all here.

http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/thre...rb-ltz-mod-thread.100141/page-20#post-1228415

I am still very interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on the baffles.

If no one responds then I guess I will just trial and error it.
 

NathanJax

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Like you said, it's mixed opinions. I use to use them. I don't anymore because most good speakers these days need more air behind them. I would cut the back off so it's still using the sides. I would also use sound deadner behind the speaker on that sheet metal. just a 12"x12" square (maybe 2 on top of each other) directly behind the speaker.
 

Meccanoble

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Thanks for the tip Nathan.

Also heard mixed reviews.. I would hope it wouldnt hurt the performance. There was this pad that went behind the door driver to help sound (similar setup to adding 2 sheets of sound deadening) . But same scenario as this and most other cars. Many tend to do these small upgrades when changing speakers so we dont get to test the difference of these small things alone. Even sound deadening doors normally comes with speaker upgrades together. But you are one of the few to help confirm if these small things truly matter.
 

04Huck

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I've never used the baffles, but I did finally put sound deadener all in my old truck and in the doors. I did a big square like dead center in the door and a smaller piece right behind each speaker. That made a pretty good difference
 

iamdub

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The way I see it, the baffle is like putting the speaker into a tiny enclosure. Inversely, the airspace of the entire door is too much volume. Just like one would size an enclosure for a subwoofer for a certain frequency response, the volume that the door speaker plays in should be optimized as well. I like the idea of cutting a hole in the back of the baffle. You can perform all kinds of calculations to determine the best hole size, but I wouldn't know where to begin with that. You'd have to consider the piston (cone) area, amount of excursion, tuning frequency, etc. just as you would with a subwoofer. I'd cut something like a 1/2" - 3/4" hole and let it fly.
 
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kbuskill

kbuskill

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The way I see it, the baffle is like putting the speaker into a tiny enclosure. Inversely, the airspace of the entire door is too much volume. Just like one would size an enclosure for a subwoofer for a certain frequency response, the volume that the door speaker plays in should be optimized as well. I like the idea of cutting a hole in the back of the baffle. You can perform all kinds of calculations to determine the best hole size, but I wouldn't know where to begin with that. You'd have to consider the piston (cone) area, amount of excursion, tuning frequency, etc. just as you would with a subwoofer. I'd cut something like a 1/2" - 3/4" hole and let it fly.

This ^^^ is the main reason I bought the deeper (4 1/4") baffles for the 6.75" speakers as opposed to the shallower (3") baffles for the 6.5" speakers. They actually sell a shallow baffle for the 6.5" speakers as well but my line of thinking is a little more "air space" in the baffle might work better.

I'm gonna do a little testing when I install this stuff.

My plan is to play the same song at the same volume for all the tests.

Test 1 will be stock Bose speakers with only the sound deadened doors... for a control.

Test 2 will be one front door with new speaker and baffle and one new speaker W/O a baffle. I will fade the stereo all the way to the front and then pan it left and right to hear the difference.

Depending on how they sound I will decide the next step.

If no baffle sounds better then I may try a small hole in the baffle and test again.

I will post my results once I'm done, although this sort of thing is very subjective because everyone has there own idea of what sounds good and also because people listen to different types of music.
 

iamdub

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I, for one, and I'm sure many others will appreciate you experimenting!

Yes- what sounds good to someone is subjective. But the point of the baffle is to increase bass response. Unless someone is deaf to those frequencies, the results will still be valid regardless if someone considers it to be "good" or "bad" sound. More and/or better bass response is is still a change in the sound, whether it's liked or not. Looking forward to your findings!
 
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kbuskill

kbuskill

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I, for one, and I'm sure many others will appreciate you experimenting!

Yes- what sounds good to someone is subjective. But the point of the baffle is to increase bass response. Unless someone is deaf to those frequencies, the results will still be valid regardless if someone considers it to be "good" or "bad" sound. More and/or better bass response is is still a change in the sound, whether it's liked or not. Looking forward to your findings!

I will be sure to turn off my Sub in the back when I do the tests. Don't want any interference with my test.
 

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