Building enclosures for Polk in-walls
waffles
Posts: 1
Hi there.
After reading a lot of positive reviews of 265RT and 255CRT I decided to give the Polk in-walls a try. I was however a little concerned about sound leakage into adjacent room(s), so I decided to build 1.2 cubic feet enclosures between the 2"4 studs. On both sides (front/back) there will be 7/16" OSB + 7/16" gypsum boards.
This is how it looks this far with gypsum board (before caulking)
Center Enclosure:
L(/R) Enclosure:
And then for the million-dollar question:
How would you do the dampening and bracing?
My first 5 coins was something like this:
would that be ok? or do you recommend doing it in a different way?
After reading a lot of positive reviews of 265RT and 255CRT I decided to give the Polk in-walls a try. I was however a little concerned about sound leakage into adjacent room(s), so I decided to build 1.2 cubic feet enclosures between the 2"4 studs. On both sides (front/back) there will be 7/16" OSB + 7/16" gypsum boards.
This is how it looks this far with gypsum board (before caulking)
Center Enclosure:
L(/R) Enclosure:
And then for the million-dollar question:
How would you do the dampening and bracing?
My first 5 coins was something like this:
would that be ok? or do you recommend doing it in a different way?
Comments
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You would have been better off using a sound deadening product like Dynamat or one of the myriad other stuff, preferably in a spray form and lining the inside of the stud chamber with it and then leaving whatever insulation was there, like fiberglass.
Building the box out of drywall is likely going to create a resonance that will echo in the stud cavity. Drywall vibrates. If you want that to be damped, what I would do, since you already started all of this, is to get yourself some mass loaded vinyl sheets:
https://www.amazon.com/Soundsulate-Loaded-Vinyl-Soundproofing-Noise/dp/B017DVK1IE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=aquietrefuge-20&linkId=e9f8c1d1d051de182052e1df0590ff0f
Line the drywall you already have up with them. They are non-adhesive, though, so you'll need something like Green Glue to keep them up:
https://www.amazon.com/Case-Green-Glue-Noiseproofing-Compound/dp/B000SKWD8Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=aquietrefuge-20&linkId=46d9d8600a8b76d7ff6e24e11a9c6cfa
Then, cut yourself more drywall, and line the hole again with the drywall. I would seal all your joints and screw heads (countersink them first) with tape and joint compound or caulking if you aren't going to do the tape and joint compound.
When you build your mounting panels, make sure you line them with a vibration damper like Dynamat and make sure that the Dynamat sits between the mounting surface (stud work in your case) and the mounting baffle for the in-wall speakers.
Sound traveling in the cavity isn't really a big deal. Vibration of the structure from the drivers is what transfers sound.
My biggest concern here is that you're going to truncate the performance of your in-walls by forcing them to operate in an enclosure. They were designed for a typical stud cavity space and putting them in an enclosure is OK, but, your enclosures are on the small side and honestly, built from the worst material you could choose to make them.
And yes, I'm talking from experience here: https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/174294/a-quick-teaser-before-the-yahoos-show-up-tomorrow/p1Expert Moron Extraordinaire
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