Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Baffling Material

I'm adding a perforated screen to my theater room. The speakers will be enclosed in boxes behind the screen. I was advised to build the boxes approximately 3" larger than the speakers and then install a foam baffling material which apparently resembles egg carton bottoms. This material would be stuffed into all gaps on the sides, top and back of the speakers. Unfortunately, the person who advised I do this doesn't know the formal name for this product, which puts me at a bit of a disadvantage since I don't know how to order it. Anyone have any idea what he's talking about?

If the speakers are going to be behind the screen; What's the reason for placing each speaker inside a box ?

The screen will be mounted flat against a wall; the speakers will be recessed into the wall. I have a large "crawl" space behind this particular wall, so I need a means to support and further protect the speakers, hence the boxes. I will also then be able to access the speakers from the back side of the room, which will keep me away from the rather delicate perforated screen I am purchasing. I could, of course, hang the screen from the ceiling and place the speakers on stands behind the screen, but then I'd be losing about 20" off the length of the room.

Hello Bruce,

If you are planning on using Axiom speakers, I'd advise you not to place them inside boxes of any kind. Speakers already have their own enclosures, and placing them inside additional cabinetry or boxes of any sort will degrade the speaker's performance and dispersion characteristics. The idea of stuffing the additional enclosure with sound-absorbing material makes no technical sense whatsoever. It would totally degrade the bass performance of any reflex enclosure.

Regards,

Thanks for your input, Alan. Given that I want to recess the speakers into the wall, how would you recommend that I do this? Or would you recommend that I do this? I'm thinking that I could simply build platforms in between the 2x6 studs and set the speakers on the platforms, but only the fronts of the speakers would actually be facing into the room, with the sides and rear in a 9'x10'x8' crawl space. If I were to place the speakers in front of the wall and hang the screen in front of the speakers, I'm afraid that I would be losing too much of my room space, assuming that I would have to not only give up the depth of the speakers, but also distance them from the wall a bit (12"?).

I'm guessing we're only talking about the center channel here, right? L+R floor-standing on either side of the screen? If so, then what about one of the architectural speakers? They're designed to be built-into a wall and only protrude a couple of inches.

-Brian

Actually, I wanted to place all the front speakers behind the screen. What I'm beginning to think is that I might have to go with in-wall speakers, since those in boxes aren't really designed for anything but floor (or stand) placement. So now I've got to figure out if I want to dump a fine set of speakers and start over. Feeling a headache coming on....:)

Just reading through this, it seems that the audio portion of the HT experience is going to be noticeably compromised. While I understand what you are trying to do, I hope you have considered other alternatives, including losing the 20" of room and not enclosing the speakers.

After having enjoyed my setup over the last three years, I can't imagine stifling the audio because it is almost more important to me now than the video portion of the HT.

Have you considered smaller speakers that you can place on the floor (M22s versus M80s)? Even a set of M3s hung on the wall near the ceiling. Anything but embedding the speakers.

Alan's advice is sound (no pun intended about killing the audio. I'm also not sure that in-wall speakers will perform any better than boxed-in speakers.

I appreciate your comments, Ray. As I've further researched this with an acoustical engineer as well as a theater room designer, I've learned that the in-walls would not improve my situation any more than placing the speakers in boxes as originally proposed. Exactly what you said. The theater room designer seems to think that because the speakers are front ported, the box issue isn't as bad as it could be. He recommended that I could still place the speakers in baffled boxes (his idea originally) and extend the fronts of the speakers 1/2" into the room. If I were to place the speakers in front of the screen I would actually lose more than the 20", since that assumes placing the speakers up against the wall and I'd probably want to allow at least 12", so my loss would be closer to 3 feet. I should also mention that I'm pretty much invested in the set of Paradigms I own, having spent almost $3,000 on fronts, center, surrounds and rears. I have one other option and that is to move everything back into the old media room, which measures 13'x22' (it's now my exercise room). It has problems in that it has a large window (which I could cover) and I would have to do some serious re-wiring as it originally just held a large TV. Also, I love the isolation of the new HT room. Decisions, decisions.....I would appreciate your further inputs and Alan's inputs as to whether the front porting really makes that much of a difference.