Deflex Panel Impressions and Experiences

I installed the Deflex panels in a pair of sub woofers manufactured by Fosgate. These units employed the LE14 JBL drivers, and were designed to be downward firing. I was using these with two separate transistor mono amps, rated at 200 watts each. I took the woofer apart and installed the Deflex sheets on (as I remember) three of the five walls, and closed it up. The gain in performance at the frequencies that this sub woofer worked at was absolutely NOT worth the investment in materials and time. I should say at this point, that small reference monitor speakers are a better candidate for this mod.

Albert, your response mirrors the findings of someone else that i know that tried Deflex. He put Deflex inside of a full range floor standing cabinet and thought it sounded WORSE than with the factory installed damping material. After much experimentation, he found that removing almost ALL of the Deflex panels that he installed gave better results.

My conclusions on his experience is that the box was obviously contributing sound almost as much as the drivers were. While he might have minimized the resonances of the box to a point, he didn't like the sound WITHOUT the contribution of the box. In other words, it is / was strictly a matter of "personal taste".

Something else to consider is that the amount of internal stuffing and its' placement might have a LOT to do with the "voicing" that the original designer was trying to achieve. Altering this might alter the speakers' sound and performance to something completely different due to apparent box volume that the driver sees.

If your going to "mess around" with stuff like that, try to make detailed notes of where, how much, loose or tightly packed, etc... damping material is at from the factory. This way you can always back-peddle if need be. Never "assume" that a "modification" will result in "better performance" unless you've done it before in a very similar situation. Sean
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Totally agree Sean, and accurately stated.

Thank you Sean and Albert for the information. This is not the sort of project I would attempt without extremely positive and enthusiastic endorsement of knowledgeable audiophiles. Albert, I did try Walker HDL's on my N.E.A.R. 50Me II's at least partly because of your endorsement and have been very pleased with the results. My next question is about Marigo Audio Labs VTS Dynamic Driver Bands. I will start another thread regarding these. God bless.