Lycra vs. Fabric billed as "acoustically transparent"

Rafi Singer

Rafi Singer

Freshman
May 17, 2011
62
0
6
Waltham, MA
www.singerproduction.com
Hey all,

So, in the ongoing battle of aesthetics with equipment that splits time between corporate and music worlds, I've been thinking of getting form-fitting covers for some of my speakers, which in theory, would eliminate having to break out the sharpie on corporate gigs. What I'm wondering is if lycra would be acoustically transparent enough to not have a great effect on the speaker's sound, or if another material might fit the bill. I've also seen fabrics marketed as "grill cloth." Would that be a better alternative?
 
Re: Lycra vs. Fabric billed as "acoustically transparent"

All fabrics will affect the HF response of the loudspeaker, although open weave fabrics (such as grill cloth) tend to have less effect than tighter knits. Me, I'd probably pick whatever fabric was easiest to work with and wash (or do a mockup with some similar material, perhaps an old T-shirt?)
 
Re: Lycra vs. Fabric billed as "acoustically transparent"

The outdoor covers from UnderCoverNYC do a decent job hiding the ugly. Although, they are not exactly form fitting. They are a vinyl material with a fine mesh material on the face. Easy to keep clean. It still looks like a cover over the speaker though.

Best bet is to create a policy that no speaker gets moved until it gets bagged. I used to not do that and speakers ended up banged and beat up. Since I implemented that policy, the speakers stay looking like new. Some of my SRX cabinets are a decade old and all of them still look like they came out of the factory box. It's amazing what such little effort does over the life of the product.
 
Re: Lycra vs. Fabric billed as "acoustically transparent"

Rob Timmerman said:
All fabrics will affect the HF response of the loudspeake
Click to expand...

I'll add that grille cloth also can affect low frequencies if it covers (or is near enough) the port of a vented box. The increased acoustic resistance will lower Qb (the enclosure's ratio of acoustic energy stored to acoustic energy dissipated per cycle) changing the tuning.

I ran into this on some wedges I built that had the requirement of being rodent resistant, met by having a grille over the port. I'm still thinking about approaches to a solution :?~:-?~:???: Maybe a cat?

--Frank
 
Re: Lycra vs. Fabric billed as "acoustically transparent"

Frank Koenig said:
I'll add that grille cloth also can affect low frequencies if it covers (or is near enough) the port of a vented box. The increased acoustic resistance will lower Qb (the enclosure's ratio of acoustic energy stored to acoustic energy dissipated per cycle) changing the tuning.

I ran into this on some wedges I built that had the requirement of being rodent resistant, met by having a grille over the port. I'm still thinking about approaches to a solution :?~:-?~:???: Maybe a cat?

--Frank
Click to expand...

If it needs to be rodent-resistant in storage, there are several options. If it needs to be rodent-resistant in operation, I'd suggest running power through the port on spaced bare wires.
 
Re: Lycra vs. Fabric billed as "acoustically transparent"

Rob Timmerman said:
If it needs to be rodent-resistant in storage, there are several options. If it needs to be rodent-resistant in operation, I'd suggest running power through the port on spaced bare wires.
Click to expand...

Well, it's kind of storage and kind of operation. But it's not a "powered" speaker, in any case :razz:

I use the wedges, among other places, at a pretty remote site up in the Sierra Foothills. Once we set up (outdoors) we leave the gear out over a couple of nights. Given all the other rodent problems (mostly mouse but also woodrat) I've had there, critters getting into speakers is a very real concern. As an aside, I spent several hours last weekend on a creeper under a front-end loader repairing wiring damaged by mice. They not only chewed through several wires but actually carried off an ~10 inch long section not to be seen again.

As for the electroacoustic situation, the wedges use a 12 in. coax (BMS 12CN680) with a circular ducted port (3" ABS DWV) on the speaker baffle. My (not so clever) idea was to cover the entire front with the common ~65% open area perforated steel backed with grille cloth. There is about a 1 in. space between the baffle and the grille, so it's not quite as bad as blanking off the port directly with the grille. Nevertheless, installing the grille has a large effect on the impedance curve around Fb. I don't have good measurements of the effect on the actual response, but they're coming. If it's too bad, I may relocate the port to another surface and keep the mice out with 1/4 in. hardware cloth, or the like, which I hope will cause less resistance. I want to keep the cloth-backed perf steel over the driver to help keep the usual monitor detritus out of the horn. It's a project...

--Frank
 
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