Who Has Built Their Own Drivers?

[bmwman91]

I don't see a "better" sub-forum for this, so feel free to tow this thread if it is better-off elsewhere. People build electrostatics in the Exotic forum, but that seems a bit different.

Has anyone messed around with building their own electrodynamic drivers? I will never forget a demo a professor did in freshman Physics II (E&M). He glued a ceramic ring magnet to a plastic coffee can lid, cut a hole in the lid in the ring's center, held a nail coiled with enameled wire in the hole and hooked it up to a cheap FM radio. I didn't care how crappy it sounded...it was just plain cool. Audio wasn't something that I got into until a good 5 years later, and it has been almost 5 more years since then.

I have been thinking about that demo, and it seems like it would be a lot of fun to repeat that simple proof-of-concept. I know that I'd not be making anything I would actually use for listening purposes, but tinkering is too much fun. Now, I know of at least one individual on here that designs and sells their own high quality drivers (he also provides some damn good free plans). How did folks that got into designing their own drivers, GET into designing them? "Lots of experience" seems like a reasonable guess. Does anyone have DIY ED driver projects to post up? I don't care if it is a beautiful driver with a carefully designed, cast aluminum frame, or a coffee can lid with a 'fridge magnet; it would be fun to see pictures of trial & error attempts and funky prototype stuff.

When I get around to it, I'll see about posting up whatever I concoct. Maybe I will even hit it with HOLMImpulse & my ECM8000 for kicks. I think I may accidentally burn off the enamel on the wire before I get that far, though!

[Ron E]

Originally Posted by bmwman91

Has anyone messed around with building their own electrodynamic drivers?

Look for posts by Vikash, specifically one that may have the terms diy dynamic driver in it. I posted a spreadsheet you might find interesting.

[derwhalfisch]

I am considering doing this myself. I have two cast/milled aluminium 10" basket assemblies with huge magnets from car subwoofers... 2" voice coil gap. I'm thinking it could be fun to try to make them into 3" or 4" diaphragm compression drivers for midbass/mid. There's loads of room inside the basket to put a short horn+phase plug.

[bmwman91]

Cool, found it.
Diy dynamic driver

Hopefully I will eventually do a little better than a plastic lid since I have pretty good access to a lathe & mill. I like the idea of taking a bunch of flat Neodymium magnets & arranging them in a circle. A local electronic surplus place has a huge assortment of Neodymium magnets of all sorts of sizes.

[Inductor]

Who Has Built Their Own Drivers?

Many diyAudio members build their own drivers. Some are the best in the world (look at AE speakers John_E_Janowitz f. example). You can also look at Markaudio,
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/markaudio/

This type of thread tend to be very short unless the OP is actually building something.
anyone into DIY speaker driver building
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/speaker5.htm

[Paul W]

A couple of DIY AMT motors using the AC 30130 diaphragm.

[DrDyna]

Originally Posted by Paul W

A couple of DIY AMT motors using the AC 30130 diaphragm.

Oh wow, those are pretty nice.

[speaker dave]

I could teach you to assemble (glue together) a driver in half an hour. The challenge is having all the parts. If we are talking woofer design then having the variety of parts to get to the final parameters you want takes a huge variety of samples (woofer design still includes a lot of trial and error). Plus the parts are only compatible if the voice coil diameter (exact diameter, not nominal) is right for the magnet structure and the cone neck ID. For that reason most companies building samples will include coil winding and machining magnet structure parts (e.g. top plate ID) in the process.

If you are talking about building from scratch, then electrostatic units look like a challenging but doable project.

David S.

[Inductor]

New discoveries and technologies no one knows about.

The new 'Flat, Flexible Loudspeaker' uses a bendy laminate made up of thin, conducting and insulating materials, which when vibrated by an electrical signal produces a clearer, crisper noise.

The FFL was first developed by Dr Duncan Billson and Professor David Hutchins, both from the University of Warwick, with early trials using just two sheets of tinfoil and an insulating layer of baking paper to produce sound.

Sounds good: The flat loudspeaker that is as thin as a sheet of foil | Mail Online

Revolutionary speaker in line for innovation prize Education 24dash.com
TRENDBIRD (What's Next Big Thing ?) :: Ultra-Thin Speakers - Warwick Audio Tech pic
BBC NEWS | Technology | Thin speaker offers 'crisp sound'

British engineers at a spin-off company of Warwick University have made a groundbreaking new loudspeaker that is only 0.25mm thick, looks like tin foil and cn be printed on/used as a wall poster.

Loudspeaker that's as thin as a sheet of foil // Current TV

The Technology | warwickaudiotech.com
FFL, Flat Flexible Loudspeaker, Warwick Audio Technologies, Warwick University

[speaker dave]

Sounds a bit like the Pioneer HPM (High Polymer Membrane, I think) of some years back. Turning your wall into a speaker seldom sounds good, but my wife got a greeting card that had the inside driven by some sort of element (probably piezo). It actually sounded decent.

David S.