XTC foam baffles.

[LiquidSound]

Ok, I'm getting conflicting information about what these do exactly. I have a guy at a car audio shop telling me they improve the overall preformance of a speaker *bass, clarity, acoustics*. Then I have guys at online order sites telling me they lower the bass response but improve midrange and hirange bass. Which of these guys are correct? It wouldn't surprise me if the guy at the local audio place was just trying to sell me on the product. Any help would be greatly appreciated.:D

[Thom]

I thought they were supposed to keep your speakers dry...

[PoweredByDodge]

hey dude...

BOTH are right.

improving bass reponse QUALITY by "sealing off" the speaker. kind of like how a sealed subwoofer box sounds better usually quality wise than a ported.

however, due to the seal, you have no DECREASED the loudness of that bass response as compared to before (you simply compensate by crankin gup the volume knob).

in reality tho, this is only accomplished with lesser speakers, those that dont move much air, and are not very power hungry. When you get into some high mass components that take 150 - 200 + rms, then you end up "bending" the foam baffle, as it is not rigid enough to deal with that much "bump".

the purpose of them when they were designed was to waterproof your speakers... nothing more. i would not purchase them for any reason other than waterproofing... or else you will get slip-shot results and not what your looking for.

[LiquidSound]

This guy at crutchfield brought up the point that baffles in the deck lid would keep more sound pressure from the subwoofer interfering with the normal motion of the rear speaks. I hadn't even thought about that.

[TrappedUnder Ice]

Even better Idea is to remove the rear speakers*...as a good front stage..rear is not needed. Thus..you have not spent any more cash...you have no more interference and...you now have free path for the bass to enter the cabin...

*I'm not an advocate for rear fill. :cool: