Some Thoughts on Plastics for Speaker Enclosures

Discussing speaker enclosures, this article examines all the different options for plastic applications and the implications for loudspeaker driver design in general. Enclosure characteristics, construction features, advantage comparisons between wood and wood particle board cabinets, and production techniques are some of the topics explored. This article was published in Voice Coil, March 2022.

Known for its high-end, responsibly produced audio equipment, thinksound has launched its first over-ear headphones — the ov21 — using Eastman Trēva engineering bioplastic that contains more than 40% bio-based content derived from sustainably harvested trees. The new ov21 reference headphones from the Toronto-based company can be preordered online now and will be in stock in October 2021.

In this report, Klasco once again shares his knowledge with loudspeaker enclosures and reports on the progress in enclosure materials and technologies in 2020. And if someone has interesting things to share about wood enclosures, composites, plastics, improved plastic-based formulas, ABS/PA (polyimide), thermoset and thermoplastic resins, bulk-molded and sheet-molded thermosets and more, it's certainly Mike Klasco. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2020.

In the first part of this article, Mike Klasco discussed the contribution of the enclosure on perceived overall product quality as well as sonic clarity. This second part of the article looks closely at material testing, evaluation and manufacturability, and other more recent approaches to enclosure materials, including Thermosets and Thermoplastics, Bulk-Molded and Sheet-Molded Thermosets. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2019.

In this article for Voice Coil, Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific, Ltd.) reviews and looks ahead at all the materials and design approaches for loudspeaker enclosures. This article discusses enclosures using wood, MDF, plastic, plastic composites, moldable materials, coatings and pairings for those materials, while also looking at new cutting-edge bio-plastics materials. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2019.