CNC'd Conical Speaker

[iblanken]

Hello diyAudio!

I'm a student studying industrial design and i'm working on a final project for a CNC milling class. I am trying to create a set of small wooden conical speakers. The idea is that they will be about the size of bookshelf speakers. They will be a similar look to these: Oswaldsmill Audio - Imperia but at a much smaller scale.

I've got the woodworking down, but I'm a complete novice when it comes to the audio side of this project, so I was hoping that this forum could help get me started. If you had any tips for what drivers to use, or what the best scale / dimensions would be to create acoustically sound geometry it would be extremely helpful. Would be best to spend less than $400 (flexible)

I'm new to this forum, so if there is a better place to ask about this let me know!

[picowallspeaker]

Hi,
those are horns, and look like petals, so no real CNC work ( I think ---)
Lots of CNC for making strange forms with many and many layers;
But primarily it is being used for bracing and making perfect shapes ( such as
driver flush mounting) for better attach and glueing and to bring
solidity (=absence of resonances) to the structure.
Again, about the horns, I see that a lathe is used .
or simply imagination...inlowsound.com
Just for fun, the horn system you were looking at @ Oswaldmillaudio
is composed by : 2 compression drivers for the mid & treble frequencies ( very high sensitivity >100 dB/W/m ) and one magnetodynamic driver for the mid-low range...no, there's one field-coil speaker
Mmmhh a subwoofer isn't shown ( which must be very large! )
Then all the thingy isn't indipendent mechanically isolated, when the target is
...?
Simply put, there is no speaker system in the world today like the Imperia
Whoah, I guess , no system is similar to no systemn

[picowallspeaker]

I would CnC a conical speaker, but the other way!
Just put the speaker reversed

[tomlang]

I'll be following this thread with interest. I cut angles on my 3 axis CNC machine all the time by using a series of small ramping strokes perpendicular to the line of cut. Even works for angles that change during the length of the cut.

This looks like a design with a huge WOW factor.

[bear]

tomlang, what sort of CNC machine have you? are you a machinist or have a machine shop, or is this a DIY machine? I am interested in the subject...

As far as a CNC project, a better idea would be a L'Clearch (did I spell that right) or an oblique spheroid/Geddes waveguide for mid/HF.

Conics can be spun on a lathe, although I suppose those conic petals would be easy enough to cut on a CNC router set up... but making the speaker work properly is somewhat more complex. The drivers count, and the transition to the horn from the driver may be critical...

[tomlang]

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[iblanken]

I'm hoping to make a conic with a curve similar to the attached rendering. Does anyone know if this type of curve would improve the sound quality? Any tips on dimensioning the conic properly or on ordering a driver for it would be much appreciated!

[picowallspeaker]

There's some math involved
as also some basic phisycs
By just looking at that horn ...
What is it for ? Bandwidth? Covering angle ?

Le Cléac'h... What are his studies about diffraction at the borders etc. ?
Those might be difficult to make sound properly...in a room!
Better stick to direct radiation system, it has many less issues.

[bear]

That's not a conic horn.