vasubandu Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Exactly what purpose does a speaker housing perform. I read about deadening sound, and I get how MDF would do that, but is that all there is to it, or do speakers need space behind them inside the housing. The reason I ask is that I have a sudden interest in speaker design, and I am wondering what the idea form would be. One of my hobbies is live edge wood slabs, and I could get a solid piece of very dense and heavy wood that was a foot and a half wide, two and a half feet deep and six feet tall. The driver cavities could be carve out of it or a six inch end could be cut off the top and bottom and then the middle part hollowed out leaving any amount of wood around the edges that was desired. If this all a waste of time and the housing does not matter, or does it merit further thinking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch-Meister Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 "The primary role of the enclosure is to prevent sound waves generated by the rearward-facing surface of the diaphragm of an open speaker driver interacting with sound waves generated at the front of the speaker driver. Because the forward- and rearward-generated sounds are out of phase with each other, any interaction between the two in the listening space creates a distortion of the original signal as it was intended to be reproduced. As such, a loudspeaker cannot be used without installing it in a cabinet of some type, or mounting it into a wall or ceiling. Additionally, because the sound waves would travel different paths through the listening space, the sound waves in an unmounted speaker would arrive at the listener's position at slightly different times, introducing echo and reverberation effects not part of the original sound." I think that you will find the links below interesting: https://www.fernandroby.com/products/details/the-beam-tower-speakers (Directly related to your woodworking hobby.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudspeaker_enclosure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 19, 2018 Author Share Posted January 19, 2018 Thanks for the explanation and the links @Klipsch-Meister Both were helpful. Why not just put an acoustic panel in the back of the speaker? And then what about open baffle speakers? I am sure that must work for some other reason, and I am actually quite interested in them. I can imagine some gorgeous speakers made with exotic wood slabs that could comfortably be 6 or 7 feet tall. Not planar systems. And it is easy enough to get matching bookend slabs that would make for a striking set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 On 1/15/2018 at 3:19 PM, vasubandu said: Exactly what purpose does a speaker housing perform. I read about deadening sound, and I get how MDF would do that, but is that all there is to it, or do speakers need space behind them inside the housing. The reason I ask is that I have a sudden interest in speaker design, and I am wondering what the idea form would be. One of my hobbies is live edge wood slabs, and I could get a solid piece of very dense and heavy wood that was a foot and a half wide, two and a half feet deep and six feet tall. The driver cavities could be carve out of it or a six inch end could be cut off the top and bottom and then the middle part hollowed out leaving any amount of wood around the edges that was desired. If this all a waste of time and the housing does not matter, or does it merit further thinking? I have to admit that I haven't heard of anyone making an enclosure the way you described. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 19, 2018 Author Share Posted January 19, 2018 Well, @JJkizak the reason I asked is that I have no idea what the answer is. I observe things and then wonder about the why of it. And I tend to try to get at the truth by taking things to their logical extremes. It does seem that primary purpose of the enclosure is to deal with the sound generated behind the speaker, but that makes me wonder why not use acoustic panels. I assume that people much smarter than me have considered the possibilities and make speakers the way they do for a reason, and I am just trying to figure that reason out. And oddly enough, the alternative is to have nothing. With open baffle speakers, I guess things just take care of themselves. But three feet from the wall is a pain. I know a lot of work has gone into planar speakers, but not sure about others. I actually am stoked about open baffle speakers because it would combine my love for exotic wood slabs with audio. And I just found out that one of the gurus Hawthorne Audio was from here in Seattle. They are retired from making speakers, but maybe i can meet the guy and learn a few things from him. I'm just saying that a guy could have a scary amount of fun with this and it might score huger on the wife acceptance factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wirrunna Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 Here is a good reference book - LOUDSPEAKER DESIGN Cookbook by Vance Dickason, it should answer some of your questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 19, 2018 Author Share Posted January 19, 2018 Hey thanks @Wirrunna No one has mentioned that before, or any book for that matter. I could only get a paperback, but I went ahead and ordered it. No kindle version. I'll dive right in and read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 I would like to see a one piece enclosure carved out of a huge log. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 19, 2018 Author Share Posted January 19, 2018 1 minute ago, JJkizak said: I would like to see a one piece enclosure carved out of a huge log. That is essentially what I was suggesting in this post, but I thought a log would sound silly, so I said a piece of wood 18x30x72. And I thought that if a little wood would be a good thing, a lot of wood might be even better. My motto is "Overkill is better than underkill." Part of the problem is that I would not want just any wood, and getting logs can be tricky and expensive. Plus it is the insides that look great. My first choice would be snakewood, but it is crazy expensive. At least the outside looks like the inside. Still, if you ever want to give it a go, I will help with the wood part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 19, 2018 Author Share Posted January 19, 2018 @JJkizak looks like we are both a day late and a dollar short. One company near me is raising capital to make more. https://www.soundandvision.com/content/former-soccer-pro-crowdfunds-unique-log-speaker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiva Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 3 hours ago, vasubandu said: Well, @JJkizak the reason I asked is that I have no idea what the answer is. I observe things and then wonder about the why of it. And I tend to try to get at the truth by taking things to their logical extremes. It does seem that primary purpose of the enclosure is to deal with the sound generated behind the speaker, but that makes me wonder why not use acoustic panels. I assume that people much smarter than me have considered the possibilities and make speakers the way they do for a reason, and I am just trying to figure that reason out. And oddly enough, the alternative is to have nothing. With open baffle speakers, I guess things just take care of themselves. But three feet from the wall is a pain. I know a lot of work has gone into planar speakers, but not sure about others. I actually am stoked about open baffle speakers because it would combine my love for exotic wood slabs with audio. And I just found out that one of the gurus Hawthorne Audio was from here in Seattle. They are retired from making speakers, but maybe i can meet the guy and learn a few things from him. I'm just saying that a guy could have a scary amount of fun with this and it might score huger on the wife acceptance factor. Something tells me that those speakers will not score too high on the waf. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 19, 2018 Author Share Posted January 19, 2018 Better than the logs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiva Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 1 hour ago, vasubandu said: Better than the logs. Well, those logs would be a good fit for a nice log cabin perhaps, over a fireplace for a hearth sound bar, or in a barn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richieb Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 One advantage to the smaller 2-ways "logs" is that when you find they sound like shite bring out the axe and relegate them to the fireplace. First speaker you can buy by the cord. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 3 hours ago, vasubandu said: @JJkizak looks like we are both a day late and a dollar short. One company near me is raising capital to make more. https://www.soundandvision.com/content/former-soccer-pro-crowdfunds-unique-log-speaker That is pretty cool though, right up my alley for the artwork I do in my spare time. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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