With the Wharfedale IVs firmly in place in my listening area, I got to thinking, could a cardboard cabinet with one of the low cost speakers I have lying around approach the sound quality of that commercial unit? Used speakers are a huge hargain, however I was interested enough to start experimenting.
You Tube videos of cardboard speakers tend to demonstrate that these speakers sound a little boxy, in my opinion. The configuration is pure boombox in many instances, and not the bookshelf look that I wanted.
I attempt to answer the following questions:
1. How good will a corrugated cardboard speaker enclosure sound?
2. Will the bass produced be adequate, in a sealed box and with a port?
3. Will I be able to achieve a decent finish (I intend to cover it with vinyl sticker)
4. Will the speakers be durable in everyday use over the long term?
5. Will the resonance from the enclosure swamp the mid frequencies and make the loudspeaker unlistenable to?
I intend to use software equalizer for all listening, but as minimal as possible.
Initial testing with a crude enclosure was promising, with improved sounds, but this was not a sealed box.
On the importance of a good seal : this is to dampen the speaker resonances and move down the frequency response peak? Is that correct?
I have already cut the sides and glued double layers of cardboard together. The speaker driver in question is working fine in an open baffle with a little bass boost.
You Tube videos of cardboard speakers tend to demonstrate that these speakers sound a little boxy, in my opinion. The configuration is pure boombox in many instances, and not the bookshelf look that I wanted.
I attempt to answer the following questions:
1. How good will a corrugated cardboard speaker enclosure sound?
2. Will the bass produced be adequate, in a sealed box and with a port?
3. Will I be able to achieve a decent finish (I intend to cover it with vinyl sticker)
4. Will the speakers be durable in everyday use over the long term?
5. Will the resonance from the enclosure swamp the mid frequencies and make the loudspeaker unlistenable to?
I intend to use software equalizer for all listening, but as minimal as possible.
Initial testing with a crude enclosure was promising, with improved sounds, but this was not a sealed box.
On the importance of a good seal : this is to dampen the speaker resonances and move down the frequency response peak? Is that correct?
I have already cut the sides and glued double layers of cardboard together. The speaker driver in question is working fine in an open baffle with a little bass boost.
Oh PLEASE!!!!!
You have a knack for starting useless threads about crappy materials, crappy speakers, 9v battery powered 1000W car amplifiers, TO92 single transistor power amps, 2" portable radio "woofers" and similar ideas.
A few pearls:
Maybe you find it fun.
You have a knack for starting useless threads about crappy materials, crappy speakers, 9v battery powered 1000W car amplifiers, TO92 single transistor power amps, 2" portable radio "woofers" and similar ideas.
A few pearls:
- https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/corrugated-cardboard-bookshelf-speaker-project.318219/
- https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/corrugated-cardboard-tower-desgin.300925/
- https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/my-low-cost-bookshelf-project.283170/#post-4576512
- https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/new-enclosures-for-pc-speakers.287392/#post-4636687
Maybe you find it fun.
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there were excellent French loudspeakers in the 60s made with cardboard tubes.
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Assuming you really want this to work well and be cardboard, something like a honeycomb core panel is more likely to be accepted by those with an eye toward sound quality. It would probably still need bracing and/or damping of the panel, but with some creativity those could be handled artfully.
If you just want to grab an old shipping box and make a speaker with it, I think the above responses are typical for on an audiophile-geared site.
If you just want to grab an old shipping box and make a speaker with it, I think the above responses are typical for on an audiophile-geared site.
Sorry mate I like joking around!
Im sure cardboard could be made to work if the maker is that determined, but you'd have to research into the physics of it and probably add other products to make it work(laminating glues etc.)where you could just use some mdf/ply and pva glue like the rest of us.
Perhaps using multiple layers of strong cardboard with a constrained layer of polyurethane would be worth testing.
By the way, in my teens I used to take a box knife with me to go and buy drivers. I'd mount them into the box they came in and patch them into my car stereo for the drive home.
By the way, in my teens I used to take a box knife with me to go and buy drivers. I'd mount them into the box they came in and patch them into my car stereo for the drive home.
A very hard glue that could add some rigidity might be an interesting addition to that idea. If you could saturate the cardboard with it, it might get strong enough to survive long-term use.
Beyond the acoustical issues, longevity was one of my main concerns with typical shipping box cardboard. A lot of it is pretty soft these days. The faces on the honeycomb versions I've run across have typically been a lot stiffer.
Are you open to the idea of a polyester or epoxy binder/stiffening agent? Or some other glue to accomplish the same thing? With enough internal bracing, I can imagine that making a single layer box more feasible also.
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The volume of air in the box acts like a spring. It becomes part of a multi-element resonant system with the speaker. Enclosure volume and a few speaker parameters can be used to predict low frequency behavior through the use of equations or software.
The enclosure also separates the front and back wave of the speaker from each other so they don't cancel at lower frequencies.
If the speaker is not sealed reasonably well to the enclosure, small air leaks can sound like rattles. Bigger leaks in the box may decrease bass.
Ported enclosures add another resonator to the system and require more accurate construction and modeling to function well. Also, some drivers are happier in a sealed box and others work better in a ported box. There are some that do both reasonably well, but they are less common these days, as most people want the extra efficiency at low frequencies that ported boxes can provide (though that boost is over a limited range and at the cost of increased group delay in that range).
I prototyped my TLonken folded transmission lines with hard cardboard dividers, often brute-forced into place and self-braced. Much easier than using plywood. One worked so well I did its mate in ply and found only a trace of coloration (warmth) from the cardboard TL, less than that imparted by a typical MDF cab.