Golf III carbon fiber build (SQ car)

[Haakon]

On this subject I've had many long talks with fellow competitors (from european champions and down) and audio builders in other areas (both PA and home speakers).

Any build material has its advantages and disadvantages. MDF is only "dead" when it's in the appropriate thickness and braced accordingly. The same goes for basically any build material, like plywood, fiberglass (and other composites like carbon fiber), plastics (like acrylic/plexi) and metals like steel and aliminium.

A dead box is a dead box, regardless of build material. You have to adjust build method/thickness/bracing/damping accordingly though, to the build material of choice.

It's only when it's improperly built you can really hear differences. A thin/flexing MDF box and thin/flexing fiberglass box may colour the sound differently, but if both are solidly build and dead/free from vibration/resonance, they will sound the same (since they don't colour the sound).

In PA speakers, plywood/birch is favoured, since it's stronger than MDF, meaning you can use thinner walls for the same stiffness. Resulting in lighter speakers (meaningful when they are both lugged around and shipped).

So basically, a totally dead box will sound the same (or rather, not "sound" at all) from a variety of build materials. You just have to build it with regards to the properties of the material itself

[Krakin]

Gotcha man, thanks for the response!