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I am shopping for a prefab enclosure. I know that most people use 3/4" MDF...

Is there any advantage to a thicker enclosure, eg. 1" or even 1.5" as I've seen?

Thank you

a thicker enclosure will flex less, which is good. but mostly people running high powered spl type systems really have to worry about that...

Darthness wrote:a thicker enclosure will flex less, which is good. but mostly people running high powered spl type systems really have to worry about that...

Yeah thats the main purpose. I have 1.5" on the face of my box but that was for support also.

Depends on the application.

Make a long story short: If the box flexes you loose SPL. Bottom line.

got it

thanks

not only that but flexing causes coloration in response, too.
bad for SQ.

unless you run high end subs, with a ton of power though, 3/4" should be plenty.

But - you can use bracing, or creative positioning of slot ports (I love doing dual-sub boxes with a slot port between the two subs, bracing the baffle, and top and bottom very rigidly ), to stiffen the enclosure.

You can use 3/4" MDF for virtually any size enclosure, without worries - using bracing as needed for larger panel spans, where you might fear that you could get some flexing...
...or on ANY span, just for overkill. No harm in overkill.

Basically - you can find 3/4" MDF at any Home Depot or Lowes across the country.

Larger thicknesses are much harder to find - much harder - and much more expensive.

in all honesty the only time I double up 3/4" MDF is for the face panel of an enclosure when dealing with extremely heavy subs (think 60+lbs each) just so the bolts don't tear apart the MDF with supporting the weight of the sub.
Even then I usually mount the sub with a brace holding up the motor structure inside the enclosure to alleviate the stres on the face panel.

Bracing internally is a great thing to do, and if you want added rigidity, skip MDF and use birch.