3D printed speaker enclose; thoughts ?

Hello everyone ! :D

I was wasting my time on Google, and came accros this :

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Spherical Speaker Enclosure (Ported) - Dayton PS95-8 by B_Rich - Thingiverse

I'm a newbie, so i have NO idea what i'm looking at.
But i like the way it looks !

What are your thoughts on it ?

I'm about to start the build of a set of 0.4x karlsonator, but those "drops" stoke my curiosity :rolleyes:

Thanks !

Laurent ;)
 
Guess it depends what you call expensive ! :p
The author of the model printed it, and used 700g of plastic for it; roughly 20€.

Not much more than any other box you'd make, so for me it's ok :)

But it's the accoustic part that bother me more.
I don't want to waste 20€ for a shitty sounding piece of plastic :fight:
 
Is there any sonic benefits to this shape? I also got a printer (Creality 10s recently) and been looking for a speaker enclosure to print. I would print it with thin walls to save print time and fill it with epoxi or concrete. I wonder if the 0.4x Karlsonator could be redesigned into a shell and printed?
 
Ask B&W, they built a business on that shape.

Is there any sonic benefits to this shape? I also got a printer (Creality 10s recently) and been looking for a speaker enclosure to print. I would print it with thin walls to save print time and fill it with epoxi or concrete. I wonder if the 0.4x Karlsonator could be redesigned into a shell and printed?

Have a look at the B&W 801 Nautilus and you may see something familiar. With that shape, it doesn't need to be thick at all. Unlike a flat walled box where the sides bend under pressure, a tapered complex curved vase shape like that has to stretch under pressure and is much stronger. So 5mm thick would be amazingly stiff. It does confuse me that they left a sharp edge next to the driver.
 
I was thinking if we could designed a "Nautilus vibe" into a Karlsonator enclosure. Most 3d printed enclosures looks the same as stacked mdf/plywood. Very few is taking full capibility of a 3d printer. Printing with 5mm walls would probably take 48h+ to print just one enclosure. I'd much rater print it on 10h since you have to watch the printer from time to time. The fail factor increases with time.. I also don't like running the printer at night cause of fire hazard. Pouring different liquid mediums into the thin walled enclosure would let one tune the wall resonnance as well :)
 
More reading, if anyone's interested :

UPDATE: 3D Printed Spherical Enclosures (PS95-8) - Now Ported! : audiophile
UPDATE: 3D Printed Spherical Speaker Enclosures (PS95-8) - Now Ported! : functionalprint
UPDATE: 3D Printed Spherical Enclosures (PS95-8) - Now Ported! : diysound

From other guys, but sampe principle :

My new printed speakers : diysound


Some more 3d Printed speakers : diysound
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/68yurk/speakers/


I might print the last one, as it appears to be an update from B_Rich design.

Framingr by PM on thingiverse said:
Hi Laurent. I was inspired by the B_Rich design, though teardrop speakers are not exactly a new idea. I had a number of issues with them.

1) No pegs - by running the wires through the port at the back it affects sound properties
2) I couldn't make the numbers work on the volume to frequency tuning.
3) No Access. I wanted to add accouti-fill to my set and I wanted a way to access the internals in case things went wrong.
4) I like a design challenge. The locking mechanism for the two halves is something I am pretty happy with.

Hope that answers your questions.

You can find his design here.

If i print it, it'll tell you how it ended and how it sounds compared to Karlsonator.
Sadly, no testing hardware, so I'll only provide feelings, not numbers.

Cheers !
 
I agree; but who would have guessed 10 years ago that foamcore would work as speaker material ?
And look at the amount of designs / speakers made out of foamcore nowadays ! :D

3D printing is easy, and fairly cheap.
I want to try, tweak, and get a clear answer.
Because "nah it won't work, it's plastic" isn't enough for me :) ( no harsh feeling here, just saying )
 
i made these the last 2 years and can say they sound better then ALL other wood cabinets i made (also hard to make an egg shape without CNC)

3D Printed Egg Speakers.jpg
EDIT: Also on Make: Magazine
3D Printed Egg Speakers | Make:

Also gives you soooo many options, right now im doing a transparent version with 72 ws2812b leds inside, like this very early 3" version in the video (crappy phone with "noise" canceling), but much cool as all diodes goes all around on the inside
YouTube

Download here
About dr_frost_dk - Thingiverse

Also doing subwoofers and the TDA7293/4 amp
 
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Cool looking printed cabinets! "Filling enclosure with something heavy" isn't always the best solution. There are more clever ways to control the energy inside the cabinets. The most advanced method would be printing with 2 filaments, one hard and one soft in layers. Or print with 2 layers with a small gap between and poor a special polyurethane (cant remember the name of the product)between for constrained dampening.
I would also like to see a front and back loaded horn in printed cabinet tuned really high. That way it wouldn't be so big..
 
The thread I was looking for. I'm a newbie who wants to 3D print his first sound system and already find lots of good tips here. I would have a try with the solution suggested by impuls60 re:multi-material printing. If you have any other advice, they will surely be warmly welcomed.

BTW; your egg speakers are amazing Dr Frost. I have already seen them in an All3DP article and loved them.

Great job, you have all my respect.
 
Thanks, almost ready with V1.1 of RGB version (4" only for now), will post a video here when ready.
They take it to the next level when you want your room filled with light/color with the sound, amazing still how insane the 4" alone is in good cabinets, did plastic before 3D print many years ago in cabinets from B&O 2802 (OLD crt tv with ok sound from the factory vs other TV's back in the 90').

Never discredit plastic, no matter what material you use it is how it is used that counts, the 3D printed speakers gain something others don't with the dual Walls + infill, this gives the effect of keeping resonance away from the outside wall, still the best cabinets i have made to date with 25+ years of building pretty much every kind.

+ last great thing, the weight!!!, one thing is the sound, another is it coming from such light cabinets (4" is about 700-800g in plastic).

Next from me is on my thingiverse (dr_frost_dk), and most of those also include the 4, 5 & 6" speakers i use, the mini car for the whole tuner car xp with real sound (look at laser rifle for a demo on that) and a booming stereo, big car (velomobile) will have even bigger stereo, both with my TDA amp driven by battery's in 2x 10s packs so car's will have 80V+ for motors and AMP will have power to spare ;).
Also DIY speaker units in the works, my big printer allows up to 50" (square woofer)
 
Thin curved panels are stiff due to geometry.

Most of the guys here saying it need to be thick only have experience building rectangular boxes with flat panels. Those compound curves are stiff due to the geometry, and they don't need to be thick in order to be very stiff. Flat panels bend because they rely on the bending stiffness of the panel. Compound curved panels are stiff because they rely on the stretching the panel for stiffness. Those sharp edges at the front of many of those designs will be trouble. A sharp corner like that which is equidistant from the driver center will cause response ripples. Take a look at the minipod speakers that B&W designed. They also go by smallpod. Thin non-resonant cabinets.
 

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