My roommate and I picked up some full-range 3” and 4” drivers at BAF23 raffle, with the intention of taking our very first foray into DIY speakers.
I had long put off building speakers on account of the dizzying amount of considerations, optimizations, and calculations one could leverage to design a (good) speaker.
My roommate assured me it’s well within our abilities to make a bad speaker, and perhaps we would learn something along the way—so no more excuses.
The result was a shootout between competing spherical designs (with a bonus fake “TL” concept speaker cab). Misprints aside, the results actually sounded surprisingly good to us. The biggest glow-up was the 3” driver, which really sounded far better then I gauged it would just off the unmounted listening test.
I had long put off building speakers on account of the dizzying amount of considerations, optimizations, and calculations one could leverage to design a (good) speaker.
My roommate assured me it’s well within our abilities to make a bad speaker, and perhaps we would learn something along the way—so no more excuses.
The result was a shootout between competing spherical designs (with a bonus fake “TL” concept speaker cab). Misprints aside, the results actually sounded surprisingly good to us. The biggest glow-up was the 3” driver, which really sounded far better then I gauged it would just off the unmounted listening test.
Attachments
Don’t lkimit yourself to spheres, a shape similar to the midRange Pod on B&W Nautilus for instance.
And you can do much better than the TC9 for driver. I couldnot make a really decent speaker with that driver (it does get rave reviews [not deserved IME])
dave
And you can do much better than the TC9 for driver. I couldnot make a really decent speaker with that driver (it does get rave reviews [not deserved IME])
dave
That looks sweet! How long did it take to print?
I also second this idea!
Maybe try a innercoic enclosure!
Last edited by a moderator:
While we're talking shapes, I would make a spherical enclosure like this, which is more of a toroid.
Translam. Yuk.
And the little knobby bits are inside the bass part of the enclosure and are not large enuff to make any real difference. “innercoic” should be absorptive but this is dispersive (at frequencies not seen in that part of the box)
This one is effective in the midrange
dave
For those who want a spherical back, it can have a different radius to the front half. Here it looks like a different food item. It must be lunch time here 🙂
Cool, have fun! Full rangers are a simple and cheap (especially when you win them!) way to get started. Did you do any modeling to choose your volumes? I've got a 3D printer, and I'm starting to print ports. I end up making stuff too big to print entirely but I like the hybrid approach: print the fiddly bits and then adhere them to some simple larger structure.
Stretch Allen’s image and you get the shape of the Fujitsu 10 Eclipse, their variation on the B&W or elongated ellipsoid
dave
dave
Truncated ellipsoids! I've got a few favorites 😀
Re: Innercoic -- I've been thinking of an idea that might be more useful (if also covered with some absorbative material e.g. eggcrate foam). I'm imagining a faceted surface on the inner walls of a speaker cabinet where each facet is of a random size, no facet is perpindicular to the driver, and no facet is parallel to another facet. Similar in concept to KEF's "meta" driver treatment but in a different shape and on a larger scale. Would be easily 3D printable.
Re: Innercoic -- I've been thinking of an idea that might be more useful (if also covered with some absorbative material e.g. eggcrate foam). I'm imagining a faceted surface on the inner walls of a speaker cabinet where each facet is of a random size, no facet is perpindicular to the driver, and no facet is parallel to another facet. Similar in concept to KEF's "meta" driver treatment but in a different shape and on a larger scale. Would be easily 3D printable.