speaker design
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=50653
Printed Date: May 14, 2024 at 9:15 AM
Topic: speaker design
Posted By: 00silverga
Subject: speaker design
Date Posted: February 22, 2005 at 9:01 PM
For a class I'm taking we have to design a working speaker, and we are allowed to use only the basket and magnet from an existing speaker. Everything else, diaphram, spider, surround, ect must me made. My question is what materials would you guys suggest for making these parts. Any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Also, we are probably making a 10" and a much smaller speaker--something like a 5" because it will get hooked up to a small 12 watt stereo (boombox). Although, we can probably hook the ten up to my car amp if needed. Thanks for any help again.
Replies:
Posted By: haemphyst
Date Posted: February 22, 2005 at 9:07 PM
WOW... quite a class project... How much are you going to spend? This number will determine how exotic you want to get...
Cause there are HUNDREDS of different materials out there to build ANY of those parts...
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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."
Posted By: kfr01
Date Posted: February 22, 2005 at 9:16 PM
Take your cues from commonly used materials and their properties. They should probably have similar rigidity, mass, durability, etc.
I'd try to replicate well functioning speakers as much as possible.
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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder
Posted By: oonikfraleyoo
Date Posted: February 22, 2005 at 11:19 PM
Man that sounds like a hella project. And I'll get to do is right a 12 page paper. ------------- Nik
Jeeputer Progress
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Check it out.
Posted By: Steven Kephart
Date Posted: February 23, 2005 at 1:24 AM
Is this an engineering class? Are you just trying to get it to work? Or do you care about the parameters as well? When you say you are only allowed to use the magnet, does that include the top plate, back plate, and pole piece? What about the voice coil and former? If you can provide more information on this project, we should be able to help you a little better. But it sure does sound like a fun project. Steven Kephart Adire Audio -------------
Posted By: 00silverga
Date Posted: February 23, 2005 at 8:40 AM
yes, its an engineering class, it isn's supposed to be elaborite at all, people are just using stuff like construction paper, but i wanted mine to be a little bit better than that. Yes, it just has to work with reasonable clarity. And yes, that includes the top plate, back plate, former ect.. but not the voice coil: we are supposed to wrap the wire ourselves...
So using cheap materials, what are some suggestions for the cone, spider, and surround?
Thanks again for the help.
Posted By: Steven Kephart
Date Posted: February 23, 2005 at 11:30 AM
Is it going to be mounted on a baffle? Or do you guys test it just free air? If the latter is true then the surround doesn't necessarily have to be air tight as it won't make much difference. My guess is that most people will try to wrap construction paper into a cone shape. I recommend using a "flat" cone if the former is long enough. I think that will ease the construction with no real negative effects considering you aren't looking for the flatest frequency response. You can use cardboard, or even balsa wood. For the suspension you need something that will prevent lateral movement, and will progressively stiffen up as you move in or out. For the coil, I recommend keeping it short. This will reduce mass and therefore increase efficiency. Do you know what the gap height is on the motor you are to use? Do you have to hit a certain impedance with the voice coil? Steven Kephart Adire Audio -------------
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: February 23, 2005 at 5:24 PM
Interesting! I did this exact project back in the dark ages. I used motor winding (magnet) wire for my voice coil and made the "cone" by cutting off the top of a large plastic bottle. My "surround" was made from a handfull of rubber bands so it really was more of a suspension system to simply keep the "cone" centered. In free air it worked and sounded like AM radio. Total expense was about $6 for the coil of 36 gage magnet wire (we had a budget max of $20 as I recall.) I got a B on this I believe. Some of the people in the class got all esoteric and used carefully formed copper or aluminum sheet metal for their radiators. They also got B's. Beer cans would work. One guy used a metal garbage can, but he got a C since it didn't work. Another guy tried to recreate a Walsh driver, but it also didn't work. ------------- Support the12volt.com
Posted By: Steven Kephart
Date Posted: February 23, 2005 at 6:26 PM
Wow, I like the idea of the top of a plastic bottle. For a surround, try cutting up an old innertube. And to keep it centered, you can get a piece of teflon and cut it to where the former slides on it (slider bearing). This should keep it centered and it shouldn't "chuff". For the coil, you can buy coil wire online pretty cheap. But if you will cover shipping, we can send you a couple coils from broken subs. All you would have to do is un-wind them and wind them up on your new former. Steven Kephart Adire Audio -------------
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