What material your car speaker enclosure should be made out of?

Finding the perfect car speaker enclosures can be a little challenging because there are different varieties of materials these enclosures are available in. Picking one can be a little confusing.

Ideally, the speaker enclosure should be very stiff so that it can easily handle all the variations in the air pressure of the box. Besides being stiff, it should also be very well damped. This helps in the situation where the variation in the air pressure causes it to deflect. If the material is well damped, it will not resonate and will come back to its original, initial position.

If the speaker enclosure has a very high resonant frequency (supersonic), the low frequency box air pressure will not cause the material to resonate.

Apart from the functioning, how the material looks matters a lot too. The material should be lightweight as well so that carrying it and fixing it is not that difficult of a task.

Keeping all that in mind, it is easy to say that no material is perfect. Every material that the speaker enclosures are made out have some pros and cons. The best way to go is to compare them and then decide which one suits you and your car the best.

Following are some of the many materials that have sufficient of the fine attributes stated above, to make good quality speaker enclosures.

Medium Density Fiberboard

This is the most commonly used material in speaker enclosures. The reason is because not only is it extremely rigid but it also has a good resistance to sympathetic vibrations. It also gives a pretty nice and smooth finish. The only con is that it is quite heavy otherwise it is the to-go material for speaker enclosures.

Polycarbonate

Although Polycarbonate looks great, it is not economical. Speaker enclosures made out of Polycarbonate are relatively more expensive than others. Some people also use speaker enclosures made out of Acrylic with is comparatively cheaper than Polycarbonate but it is a lot weaker and is not damped that well either. This material is not recommended at all.

Plywood with spacing filled with sand/lead shot

This is generally not recommended for car speakers because of its weight. With strong cleats and good gluing, it can be made very stiff. The fillers automatically make it well dampened. It is generally almost impossible to find a car speaker enclosure in this material.

Aluminum sheets with aluminum honeycomb fillers

This material is almost perfect for speaker enclosures but it is really hard to find it. It is normally used in airplanes to construct the flooring and it is not available easily in the market, otherwise it is the most perfect and light weight material for speaker enclosures.

Once you have decided what material you want your car speaker enclosure in, you should know that material Is not the only thing that you should consider. Other things that you should keep in mind as well are the overall cost, size, design and fitting. After all, car stereo installment is a serious business and you should be investing in the best thing out there that you can get within your budget.