Well yes, this is the kind of answer I was looking for.
I did not find any of the previous threads of mine that deal with cardboard. If I had found those threads I may have posted a different set of posts.
Thanks to JMFahey, yes I do find this fun.
I will build the box first and then test it out. Of course it will not sound like a wooden enclosure, however how different will it sound? How good? That can only be settled with experiment.
Not sure where to get honeycomb versions. Gluing two pieces together gave a reasonable amount of stiffness so that is encouraging. I hope to finish it off in vinyl sticker which apparently no-one else has tried.
I think a cardboard box covered in the sound deadening stuff sold in auto stores could work for a mid-range speaker, with something more solid for a sub.
There's some cardboard tubes at work that I'm tempted to glue together to make a small speaker.
There's some cardboard tubes at work that I'm tempted to glue together to make a small speaker.
Not at all.
Speaking cardboard is trolling nonsense, now MDF is MOST used, I´d say 90-95% of commercial enclosures are made out of it.
Not a joke, at all.
A little explanation is in order. I have used MDF and plywood in the past, and intended to do so. I am now stuck in an apartment, with a ban on drilling, cutting, and sawing. My drill and jigsaw is in another country. I am simply curious as to what can be done at what cost, maybe post the plans for others to follow.
Hence the question.
A search for 'cardboard bookshelf speakers' netted a video on cardboard bookshelves. The construction and finish is quite good, and we are halfway there.
Have a look:
Hence the question.
A search for 'cardboard bookshelf speakers' netted a video on cardboard bookshelves. The construction and finish is quite good, and we are halfway there.
Have a look:
The cardboard Charlin loudspeaker had, for the bass, a line made with three tubes. The medium is mounted in an open tube at the back. On the top of the enclosure there were one or two ESL tweeters.
The cardboard tube is very heavy, like the tubes of carpet rolls.
https://charlin-lescharlinales.weebly.com/la-colonne-120.html
The cardboard tube is very heavy, like the tubes of carpet rolls.
https://charlin-lescharlinales.weebly.com/la-colonne-120.html
Done that before, made up a little boom box from a "Bookers Burbon" box and some 4" car dash speakers plus a scavenged amp from a set of Realistic plastic speakers.
Worked a treat obviously not hifi, mate was using it as a guitar amp he loved the distortion... even mic'ing it up to a large Fender amp!
I still have it somewhere
Worked a treat obviously not hifi, mate was using it as a guitar amp he loved the distortion... even mic'ing it up to a large Fender amp!
I still have it somewhere
I will stick with cardboard for the moment. Looking at some of the older threads I realize the following:
I built and used a cardboard speaker and it sounded entertaining enough. The finish was terrible, something I will fix this time
Here is an evaluation:
Foam-board speaker enclosure built by members have sounded very good, with good bass.
I built and used a cardboard speaker and it sounded entertaining enough. The finish was terrible, something I will fix this time
Here is an evaluation:
Foam-board speaker enclosure built by members have sounded very good, with good bass.
So there you are, in an apartment, you may be a student, a migrant worker, and you have with you your smart phone and a Bluetooth Speaker. The $7 one. It works, but could there be more to it than this? TablePro MG2
You can buy car speakers for $35 a pair. At least you know you are getting consistent quality. How to mount them? Off the wall? On the wall?
Then you think: are cardboard speakers any good?
You can buy car speakers for $35 a pair. At least you know you are getting consistent quality. How to mount them? Off the wall? On the wall?
Then you think: are cardboard speakers any good?
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Choosing the drivers: So there is a set of Pioneer speakers for sale at the equivalent of $12 per pair. The woofer section was smooth and clear, the tweeter was awful so I actually cut it out, and mounted the woofer on an open baffle, I does fine with EQ but then these were made for door-mounting (Car door that is, although a room door.. that would be interesting)
Clarity and clean bass with EQ were the strong points of these things. Next thing is to mount them in the cardboard enclosure.
Clarity and clean bass with EQ were the strong points of these things. Next thing is to mount them in the cardboard enclosure.
I made some speakers out of cardboard postal tubes and old car speakers a while ago. The cardboard is thin, but the tubular shape gives them sufficient rigidity. Car speakers tend not to be exactly Hi-Fi quality, but that wasn't the point here.
I can't imagine a box-shaped enclosure made of ordinary corrugated cardboard working well at all - it just isn't stiff or strong enough.
I can't imagine a box-shaped enclosure made of ordinary corrugated cardboard working well at all - it just isn't stiff or strong enough.
Attachments
What was the point then, the 'application'?
See the video - it is strong enough for a bookshelf. But we shall see.
I hope that you pealed off the sticker on the magnet, to reveal the screw that holds the tweeter assembly in place; I've fiddled with car speakers myself.
Here's an idea, get a cheap 6x9 car speaker (they're designed to work on a parcel shelf, so should work well on an open baffle), take the tweeter out, use the resulting hole through the magnet to bolt it to a weight (metal or concrete), stick the weight on a stand and make a cardboard baffle. This way the cardboard wont have to support the magnet, and wont be shaken by the driver so much, and the dead qualities of the cardboard would make it a good choice.
Perhaps you could use the drivers from the Bluetooth thing as tweeters, re-using the capacitors from the car tweeters, or using polypropylene motor run caps.
"Papier mache" made on similar principles as fibre glass or carbon fibre with compound curves (curved in 2 directions for extra strength) could work.
But it's (usually) not like a bicycle where you want to save weight by making the frame double as a shock absorber. The speaker is almost always bolted to the enclosure, and designers/engineers have a dilemma of what to do with the vibrations:
1) making the box super-heavy is a popular solution, but reduces practicality.
2) using lossy materials is a mixed bag. The price of using polymers to turn vibrations into heat is distortion, because it tends to be non-linear. In the forum some people prefer wood and plywood materials rather than MDF, and the reduced distortion may be one of the reasons, even though the box may be transmit more vibrations to the air due to the reduced weight.
My advice would be: engineer it properly first, and then whatever it looks like is more likely to be accepted. Just like a sports car that "looks fast".
But it's (usually) not like a bicycle where you want to save weight by making the frame double as a shock absorber. The speaker is almost always bolted to the enclosure, and designers/engineers have a dilemma of what to do with the vibrations:
1) making the box super-heavy is a popular solution, but reduces practicality.
2) using lossy materials is a mixed bag. The price of using polymers to turn vibrations into heat is distortion, because it tends to be non-linear. In the forum some people prefer wood and plywood materials rather than MDF, and the reduced distortion may be one of the reasons, even though the box may be transmit more vibrations to the air due to the reduced weight.
My advice would be: engineer it properly first, and then whatever it looks like is more likely to be accepted. Just like a sports car that "looks fast".
The point was to make use of the old car speakers that were just sitting on the shelf doing nothing.
Multiple layers still aren't going to be strong enough. I made a speaker out of something similarly weak before - an IB subwoofer mounted on a small door. The door consisted of two sheets of hardboard on a wooden frame, hollow in the middle. I filled the gap with expanding foam to give it some rigidity. Although it would have easily held the weight of the sub if it was a shelf, it was difficult to bolt the sub onto it without crushing the material. I wouldn't choose something so weak if I had a choice.
The first paragraph of any loudspeaker book start with the magic words: What is the purpose of putting a speaker in an enclosure ?
It's because of this, and this, and that...
And how shall be the enclosure be made of ?
It should be principally sound-proof, as it doesn't have to allow the back wave to expand and migrate trough the baffles.
So, cardboard...!?
...foam ?!
It's because of this, and this, and that...
And how shall be the enclosure be made of ?
It should be principally sound-proof, as it doesn't have to allow the back wave to expand and migrate trough the baffles.
So, cardboard...!?
...foam ?!
For small speakers it could work well.
Tested and works, question is how well?