For many years I've used the XTC foam speaker baffles (with windows cut-out) for my door speaker water shields. Recently from another post I learned about the NVX silicone baffles, they looked nice and other users claimed the XTC baffles had a negative effect on sound (even with cut-outs), so I figured I'd give them a go. Thought it would be fun to actually measure and listen to both for comparison, to try to determine if there was actually any difference betweeen them.
I made an attempt to make consistent measurements between the old XTC and new NVX baffles, forgive me as I'm fairly new to REW and measurement mics so if I goofed, well, shit. I used a pink noise file from REW, had to convert to mp3 for my OEM stereo to be able to read it from the SD card (no line input option and bluetooth sucks). Set for 1/6 RTA, 50 averages. I chose a fixed mic position (headrest) to try to keep the comparison as consistent as possible:
Car is a 2018 VW Golf Sportwagen, woofers are in factory locations with 1" HDPE rings. Centre console definitely creates some cancellation. I set the woofers for a 60hz 24LR high-pass, no low-pass. No eq. Time-alignment set by measured distance.
Old, windowed XTC baffle:
New NVX baffle. One thing I don't like, they don't go very deep. Basket and back of cone are covered, but magnet is exposed:
However, there is no restriction directly behind the cone:
They also come with Egg-crate style closed cell foam adhesive pads. I'm not sure how much back-wave deflection these actually do but what the hell, I put them in the doors:
They have a nice collar and flare in front of the woofer to try to seal to the door grille. My doors have a small collar built-in, when I test fit it the NVX baffle fit over-top of the factory one (larger diameter):
So, on to measurements. I wasn't expecting much difference but there actually is some, not sure how much could be attributed to measurement inconsistency? I didn't use any smoothing on these:
As for subjective listening, again I wasn't expecting anything. But there is one very noticeable difference (and I swear it's not my imagination), which is mid-bass impact. With the old XTC baffles, the woofers would play mid-bass frequencies but that was it, there wasn't much punch from them. With the NVX baffles, I was actually getting some kick-drum chest thwack out of them which surprised me. Maybe the collar is more efficiently coupling the woofer to the cabin?
I had decided to start from scratch with my tune anyway, and based on what I measured and heard I'm glad I waited until after switching baffles before putting much time into the new one.
I'm interested to hear what some of the more knowledgeable folks here think about this.