Speaker Cabinet Baffles

I'm building a pair of speaker cabinets and had a few questions about the baffle and way that it interacts with the rest of the cabinet. Every speaker deign I've seen has the baffle sitting on top of all other cabinet parts (top, bottom, sides). I don't think that I've seen a design where the baffle has a dado down the middle connecting it to the internal bracing. Is there a reason why? I fell like it would help deaden the baffle. But also may make no difference or may be terrible. Any ideas? Just one of those random thoughts I had and thought I'd see if anyone knew. Thanks!

Knotty said:

I'm building a pair of speaker cabinets and had a few questions about the baffle and way that it interacts with the rest of the cabinet. Every speaker deign I've seen has the baffle sitting on top of all other cabinet parts (top, bottom, sides).

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Huh? You seem to see different things than I do. Most of the cabinets I see (that's professional PA speakers) have the baffle panel recessed, because it offers physical protection.
A drawback is that diffraction effects are much more sensitive.
Actually, for HiFi/monitoring purposes, yes the baffle is not recessed because it helps with the diffraction problem?

I don't think that I've seen a design where the baffle has a dado down the middle connecting it to the internal bracing.

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Many professional subwoofers use a reinforced construction. Line-array speakers nearly always use a reinforcement in the middle.

Is there a reason why?

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Cost-cutting mainly.

  I fell like it would help deaden the baffle.

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Quite.

But also may make no difference or may be terrible.

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Absolutely no perverse effects.

Sweet thanks for the response! I figured most stuff was cost cutting. I haven't seen too many cutouts of well designed hifi speakers except maybe B&W which are their own animal. I'm building a pre determined design, but was wondering since everything is going to be CNC cut if i should re-enforce the cabinet more since it takes literally no extra time and the internal detentions are exactly the same as the original design. I'll probably try it out and just see how it goes haha thanks!