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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Macondo’s MiniMe or about Pilot Acoustic Systems

Post Subject: Anti Res driver mountingPosted by jessie.dazzle on: 1/30/2009

I feel a driver needs to be somewhat hard-mounted to the enclosure. Cork gives the right sort of balance between hard-mounting and floating, while still sealing, however it would be a pain to cut that many gaskets from cork sheet.

In your place, I'd buy a tube of transparent silicone (GE silicone sealant for example) and, with drivers removed, lay enclosure flat with driver openings facing the ceiling, and apply a bead of silicone around each opening in the enclosure. Then put a thin film of Vaseline (or, if you can find it, silicone grease) on the surface of each driver flange that will contact the silicone; this will prevent the drivers from being glued in. Lay enclosure flat with driver openings facing the ceiling. Once silicone starts to go slightly tacky (but is still very compressable under the weight of a driver), carefully replace each driver, but do not tighten the screws at this time; run them in just far enough to locate each driver in the opening. The weight of the driver should start to compress the silicone (this step should be done with enclosure flat and driver openings facing the ceiling). Stop here and forget about the project for a day. Once the silicone has reached a jell-like state, tighten the screws.

GE silicone is available at hardware stores, or at your favourite aquarium supply shop (even Petsmart has a rebadged verson of it). I do not recommend latex-based sealants, such as caulking, as they are less resilient, and only grow harder with age. On top of that, the crappy ones contain less latex.

jd*

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