Here’s an Instructables HOW TO related to this post by Bre on Fold-Up Speakers that Rick Harris pointed us to. Now you can make your own with a cardboard box. Link.
8 thoughts on “HOW TO – make folding speakers”
BrKsays:
Whats the point? Any increased sound quality by adding the enclosure is going to be outweighed by the sound of the flappy bits vibrating around. Also, I doubt they would stand up to be ing collapsed and reassembled more than once or twice. Overall this just seems a completely pointless thing.
blipsays:
I’ve got to agree on with BrK on this one. While it is clever how the box fits together,(props on that) I can’t imagine that the box adds much to the sound.
The point of a sealed box speaker is, well, that it is sealed. There is no way that this thing can be anywhere near airtight meaning that you will have all sorts of untuned microports creating a response graph that looks like an amusement park ride. Plus the cardboard is going to create odd resonances… not to mention the strange things that I’m sure will happen with a card based grill. This seems like a formula for a speaker that will sound worse than those dreadful Bose cubes. (Which means those cheap speakers you got with your last computer will probably kick it to the curb in terms of sound quality.)
A better idea would be to take some wood, plastic or other sturdier material and operate the speaker as a very small open baffle. The bass will be lacking (not that you are going to get that much out the cardboard box either), but the frequency response should level out some and if you construct it right it shouldn’t take up anymore space. (Though maybe a bit more weight)
What I’m in-visioning (in case anyone cares) would be a solid piece of wood around 12″ x 6″ with some sort of a collapsable support. Use like a cheap Fostex full spectrum (an 83 IIRC) and you might have something that sounds a little better than this. Feel free to tweak from that point with expandable wings or any of those other things that open baffle enthusists seem to go for.
MrHsays:
Just to point out that a 66mm speaker is not the front edge of hi-fi anyway!.
I only offered the design as a DIY response to a product I see and quite expensive to buy.
I am sure all the technical issues above are correct except for:
As far as I can tell the box makes a difference if only because it separates the front/back of the speaker – I should note that all speaker enclosures have an open port to the rear of the speaker otherwise pressure in the sealed box would limit the cone movement.
the Parts vibrate – Not as far as i can tell at any reasonable sound level. The crash lock closure is a very tight fit if made correctly to the pattern. there is little or no movement and the structure is very rigid when assembled.
The product will not stand much folding flat, on the contrary if made in Polypropylene it will withstand millions of flexures – I made the prototype in card because it was what I had to hand to demonstrate the principle and the originals were card.
Pointless – perhaps.
getayasays:
Nothing new, I did it in the fifties when my mother didn’t trust her 9 year old to not cut his fingers off with a saw. But I had a soldering iron and a room full of hot chassis AC/DC radios and phonographs and speakers that needed new homes. My favorite was a 5 inch speaker (they hadn’t figured out how to make millimeters yet) mounted on the end of the round cardboard tube that Tinkertoys came in (still do!). I suppose it was a bit one note, but I hear lots of cars one-note booming along, too. (what ever happened to oval speakers?)
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Whats the point? Any increased sound quality by adding the enclosure is going to be outweighed by the sound of the flappy bits vibrating around. Also, I doubt they would stand up to be ing collapsed and reassembled more than once or twice. Overall this just seems a completely pointless thing.
I’ve got to agree on with BrK on this one. While it is clever how the box fits together,(props on that) I can’t imagine that the box adds much to the sound.
The point of a sealed box speaker is, well, that it is sealed. There is no way that this thing can be anywhere near airtight meaning that you will have all sorts of untuned microports creating a response graph that looks like an amusement park ride. Plus the cardboard is going to create odd resonances… not to mention the strange things that I’m sure will happen with a card based grill. This seems like a formula for a speaker that will sound worse than those dreadful Bose cubes. (Which means those cheap speakers you got with your last computer will probably kick it to the curb in terms of sound quality.)
A better idea would be to take some wood, plastic or other sturdier material and operate the speaker as a very small open baffle. The bass will be lacking (not that you are going to get that much out the cardboard box either), but the frequency response should level out some and if you construct it right it shouldn’t take up anymore space. (Though maybe a bit more weight)
What I’m in-visioning (in case anyone cares) would be a solid piece of wood around 12″ x 6″ with some sort of a collapsable support. Use like a cheap Fostex full spectrum (an 83 IIRC) and you might have something that sounds a little better than this. Feel free to tweak from that point with expandable wings or any of those other things that open baffle enthusists seem to go for.
Just to point out that a 66mm speaker is not the front edge of hi-fi anyway!.
I only offered the design as a DIY response to a product I see and quite expensive to buy.
I am sure all the technical issues above are correct except for:
As far as I can tell the box makes a difference if only because it separates the front/back of the speaker – I should note that all speaker enclosures have an open port to the rear of the speaker otherwise pressure in the sealed box would limit the cone movement.
the Parts vibrate – Not as far as i can tell at any reasonable sound level. The crash lock closure is a very tight fit if made correctly to the pattern. there is little or no movement and the structure is very rigid when assembled.
The product will not stand much folding flat, on the contrary if made in Polypropylene it will withstand millions of flexures – I made the prototype in card because it was what I had to hand to demonstrate the principle and the originals were card.
Pointless – perhaps.
Nothing new, I did it in the fifties when my mother didn’t trust her 9 year old to not cut his fingers off with a saw. But I had a soldering iron and a room full of hot chassis AC/DC radios and phonographs and speakers that needed new homes. My favorite was a 5 inch speaker (they hadn’t figured out how to make millimeters yet) mounted on the end of the round cardboard tube that Tinkertoys came in (still do!). I suppose it was a bit one note, but I hear lots of cars one-note booming along, too. (what ever happened to oval speakers?)