Metropoulos Forum

I'm building myself some closed-back 2x12 cabs...

I've noticed that in pretty much every picture of a closed-back straight cab, be it 2x12 or 4x12, from any reputable builder (Marshall, Suhr, Metro, Mesa, Friedman, etc.) the speaker baffle has at least some degree of tilt or angle going on.

For a while, I assumed it was for the sake of trying to project the sound from the speakers upward a little, rather than having a horizontal beam of sound.

But then someone mentioned how it probably helps prevent issues with standing waves inside the cabinet...

I'm still not quite sure what standing waves are or what they cause. It seems like they're not good from what I have read.

Is it imperative that I incorporate some tilt to my speaker baffle in order to have a properly build/sounding cabinet?

I'm pretty sure the original tilted baffle board idea was done to aim the sound up at the player so it didn't blow past his knees.

Scumback Speakers wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2020 7:41 am

I'm pretty sure the original tilted baffle board idea was done to aim the sound up at the player so it didn't blow past his knees.

Thanks for chiming in, Scumback. Truly appreciated. Would you go so far as to say that being concerned about standing waves in a "perfectly square" closed back cab isn't necessary? I once quickly threw together a rough 2x12 cab some years ago that didn't have any tilt whatsoever in the speaker baffle. (The speaker baffle and the back panel were both true 90 degrees from the top/bottom panels.) I didn't hear anything "undesireable" or "unpleasant" about the sound coming out of the cabinet. I'm just wondering if I might have had standing wave phenomenons that cancelled out any frequencies or anything like that--resulting in the cab not sounding as good as it could have without me realizing it. I'd want to know before I build the new 2x12's I'm about to build.

But if you feel like I'm over-analyzing it entirely, just say so.

There's a lot of theories about standing waves, etc, etc. I'd build your next cabinet with a 5 degree tilt back at the top like a Marshall straight cab and stop overthinking it.

The Fender Tweeds (open back) had baffle tilt. Probably nothing to do with a standing wave.

I'm thinking about building a 2 x 12 cab myself with the tilt. Are you using any building plans? I'm going off the Marshall web site info. Width 29.1" Height 23.6" Depth 12" for a 1936.

I would make your 212 cab slightly less tall than the 1936, which can get a little woofy with that much internal volume. I'd suggest going with 20-22" tall, the rest of the measurements are ok.