When you go to build a subwoofer box, wood is the most common choice. When it came to his project, though, [Startup Chuck] decided to go a different route entirely. Rather than the usual plywood or MDF, he decided to try Trex decking instead. Why? He had some lying around, and he suspected it might just sound good.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, Trex decking is a composite material made of recycled materials like reclaimed wood and plastic film. The best part, though? Trex decking is twice as dense as MDF. That makes it good for speaker box use because it flexes less and thus absorbs less energy from the subwoofer. [Chuck] walks us through cutting out the parts for the box and the subsequent assembly. Ultimately, it’s not dissimilar from building a speaker box out of wood; the material is simply not that different—just denser.
[Chuck] also puts his new sub through some quick little tests, demonstrating that minimal vibration is passed through to the enclosure itself. He reports that the final build has a “nice, deep sound.” Meanwhile, if you don’t like working with your hands, you could always 3D-print your speaker enclosures instead.
MDF isn’t exactly wood. It’s wood flour and glue, basically.
I banned MDF from my shop years ago, because the dust from cutting it is so pervasive. I don’t know what the dust from cutting this deck material is like, but I bet you want to do all your cuts outside.
Not bad slightly cleaner than cutting plexi or abs. Don’t know about not flexing, my deck boards do move using standard beam spacing Trex recommends
I do all my cutting outside.
I’m pretty sure that a core sample of the patch of lawn directly in front of my house would come up at least 50% saw dust.
You probably need to upgrade your dust extraction. But you also solved the problem through elimination, which is better.
I used leftover Trex to build a stock rack for my Horror Fraught trailer. It is heavy, but no sign of rot, unlike the 3/4 plywood I used for the trailer deck.
You can get 12″ square ‘samples’ from EG Home Depot. If you were making some shelf monitors it might work out.
subwoofer has a “nice, deep sound”.
Yes.
Cone sag with age is a problem with almost any compliant speaker when facing up or down. Even in Leslies. I’ve seen where a non-tech put in a hifi type 15″ and months later it bottomed out and started buzzing. Some of those stiff heavy suspension inefficient monster cones may work, but good design places them facing horizontally and out of daylight.
I can’t watch any video with sudden fast forward not edited out completely. By clicking on the timeline stills it isn’t clear to me what glue is used and the important parts in one screen view not the example shown.