Would 1/2" birch plywould make a good vented sub enclosure, or should i stick to the normal 3/4" mdf.

the half inch birch ply seems to be more rigid than the mdf, so i would think it would make a better box.

i would like to know because the box is going into a small space and i need to make up for the lack of space in any way that i can

thanks

 

id say 3/4" mdf only cause that is what ive seen about 80% of boxes made out of. i have yet to see any birch plywood, let alone any plywood boxes. so i say stick with 3/4"

 

I use 5/8" MDF for 90% of the boxes I build. It's only 1/8" thinner than the usual 3/4", but a full sheet weighs about 20% less. Until spans get to 18^2 inches unsupported, it works just as well. Whenever I get to bigger panel areas (which is seldom), I just internally brace.

Birch plywood is an excellent material, but not the birch veneer stuff they sell at Home Depot, etc. That stuff is 7 plies at most, and tends to splinter when you screw/nail it. If you're using Baltic Birch (which can be 20 or more hardwood plies in a 19mm panel) then go for it. It's an awesome material, and can weigh 50% less than common MDF (not including ULMDF or all softwood MDF).

Rigidity is only part of it-- birch will resonate much more than MDF, which is about as acoustically dead as you can get without going to concrete. MDF also has the big leg up in cost factor-- a sheet of 5/8" is $23, and that's at Cali prices. A 5' x 5' of Baltic Birch can go $60.

 

Polycarbonate is the best way to go although not the friendliest when it comes to cost. But you dont need Polycarb to be 5/8 thick either and it resonates better than anything.

 

But... for most subwoofer applications, you don't want the enclosure to resonate. The deader the better. Acryic/polycarb also flexes badly.

 

I cant imagine polycarb flexing at all unless what you used was to thin. It definatlly has a much boomier sound than mdf. Different strokes for different folks. You can still deaden it with deadeners though.

 

def flexes a lot more than mdf. mdf is awesome and you can't go wrong with it. you don't get the boom from different materials but honestly i like tight clean bass.

also if fiberglass is done right it can sound really good but is much more expensive and a pain in the ___ to use

 

mdf > plywood

ftw.