Can Remote Control Signals Penetrate Speaker Cloth?

[Julie Moriarty]

I am building an entertainment center. The middle base cabinet will house the woofer on one side and stereo equipment on the other side. Plans are to have two doors to access the equipment. In place of a wood panel, at least on one side, will be speaker cloth to allow the sound from the woofer to escape. I'd like to use speaker cloth on the other door so the two doors match.

Will the remote signals for the stereo equipment penetrate the speaker cloth?

[glenn bradley]

I used a knit-type speaker cloth on my media cabinet doors, This is primarily to let the center speaker sound through but, has no ill effect on the infrared remote.

Media Cabinet (175).jpg

There are four components behind this cloth operated by three different infrared remotes from about 15 feet away.

[Jamie Buxton]

Most home electronics remotes send signals with infrared light. It does not go through most speaker cloth.

One fix is to use an infrared repeater. It is a little system you can buy on the web. It has a photodetector you place outside the cabinet. The signal from it is carried on wires, and is re-emitted by an LED taped to the front of each component you want to control.

A different fix is to use grill work instead of grill cloth. The holes in the grill let light and sound through. The downsides are the time necessary to make the grill, and perhaps the fact that you can see through the grill.

[Jim Becker]

RF signals...yes. IR signals...no. For the latter, it's easy to install an IR receiver or repeater unobtrusively to handle the task.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It probably depends on the density and pattern of the weave on the speaker cloth.

You do need to take these types of things into consideration when designing projects IMO. While under construction, I purposely changed my design on my entertainment center relocating the equipment shelves where they were visible through the divided glass in the doors so the IR receivers on equipment inside would be visible. Luckily, no holes had been drilled for the full extension slides so no oak ply was damaged during the process of the change!

[Julie Moriarty]

Thank you guys. Pretty much what I thought. My stereo equipment is fairly old, maybe 15 years or so. It hasn't been hooked up since we moved here three years ago. At that time I was having problems with the Bose speaker system and the receiver was getting glitchy, so I don't even know if it works. But before I went any further with the doors (rails & stiles are made) I needed to know how flexible I should make the insert panels.

I was looking online for speaker cloth and the choices are endless. Some of it a bit pricey, too. Maybe I need to hook up the system and see if it works. If not then a system that has RF signals might be in the works.

[John Lanciani]

All of the Bose equipment that I have ever seen has used rf remotes. The system sitting in front of me right this minute is from 2002 and it is rf. The remote works from outside the house on my porch. Does your remote have an ir emitter?

[Van Huskey]

Thank you guys. Pretty much what I thought. My stereo equipment is fairly old, maybe 15 years or so. It hasn't been hooked up since we moved here three years ago. At that time I was having problems with the Bose speaker system and the receiver was getting glitchy, so I don't even know if it works. But before I went any further with the doors (rails & stiles are made) I needed to know how flexible I should make the insert panels.

I was looking online for speaker cloth and the choices are endless. Some of it a bit pricey, too. Maybe I need to hook up the system and see if it works. If not then a system that has RF signals might be in the works.

RF repeating systems are getting rare these days, the AV geeks (like myself) will either use IR repeaters (dirt cheap and work) or network connected components which most new mid-level and above gear support and makes it easy to remote mount all the electronics in a closet or cabinet well away from the display. I would suggest an IR repeater system and locate the receiver eye either in a small hole in the cabinet or attached to the bottom of the TV if you are using a display. If you are only using it as a music system with no display you can test putting the receiver behind the grill cloth it may limit the range and/or angle but will likely work depending on how strong your IR signal is, the newer the remote the more likely it is to work.

[Julie Moriarty]

The Bose Acoustimass system I have is only the speakers. The remote controlled units are the receiver and DVD player. Both of these are Pioneer Elite that came with their own remotes. But the receiver came with a master remote capable of being programmed to handle several units. That's the one that has to work. There's also a cassette and VHS but I think it's time to give up on those two.

Yesterday I connected the receiver to the speakers and the speakers and woofer all work. But I noticed the MUTE button on the remote doesn't work. That's a biggie because I ALWAYS mute commercials. Maybe I can program the cable remote to work the receiver. Gotta have the MUTE!

As for the IR repeater, any suggestions where to begin the search?

[Jamie Buxton]

The last couple of IR repeaters I put into service came from a company which doesn't appear to be around any more. All I can suggest is google. BTW, Amazon has units for less than $30. I think I was paying twice that.

There's several kinds of photodetector. One sits in its own little box on top of the cabinet, and another double-stick-tapes on to the base of the TV. As a cabinetmaker, I like a less-obtrusive kind fits through a small hole in the cabinet. It now seems to be an extra-cost option, but it still seems to be available. For instance https://bafxpro.com/products/bafx-pr...r-repeater-kit

[Julie Moriarty]

Thanks, Jamie. I ended up buying the bafxpro repeaters... and some speaker cloth, now that the IR signal issue is resolved.

Thanks again to all!

[Lee DeRaud]

Yesterday I connected the receiver to the speakers and the speakers and woofer all work. But I noticed the MUTE button on the remote doesn't work. That's a biggie because I ALWAYS mute commercials. Maybe I can program the cable remote to work the receiver. Gotta have the MUTE!

I've never seen a cable-company "universal" remote that was worth the cost of the batteries. What I actually use for everything are Logitech Harmony 650s: relatively inexpensive and a lot more flexible, mainly because each button can be configured for a particular device instead of having to hit the "cable" button before you change channels and the "TV" button before you change the volume.

But the real "killer app" for me is that they can be programmed to send commands that are built-in to the cable box, but the cable remote is (deliberately) programmed not to send, like the 30-second "commercial skip" command.

[Julie Moriarty]

But the real "killer app" for me is that they can be programmed to send commands that are built-in to the cable box, but the cable remote is (deliberately) programmed not to send, like the 30-second "commercial skip" command.

30 second commercial skip? You mean you can skip commercials during live TV? Tell me more!

[Lee DeRaud]

30 second commercial skip? You mean you can skip commercials during live TV? Tell me more!

Well, no, not live TV, that would be a really neat trick requiring flux capacitors. But it makes watching stuff off the DVR a lot more pleasant, not to mention faster. It's just a 30-second skip-forward function that most DVRs have but the cable companies usually disable on their remotes, possibly because of their contracts with the networks. There's also a 10-second skip-backward for when you miss a bit of dialog. Both are quite a bit easier to control than using FF or REW.

[Curt Harms]

30 second commercial skip? You mean you can skip commercials during live TV? Tell me more!

Some people watching sports events record them. Let's say the event starts at 1 p.m., they start watching at perhaps 1:30 and skip thru the commercials. Time it so the last few minutes are live. Tivo has the 30 second skip enabled by default, not sure about others.