360 Speaker
Personal Project
More 360 Action
About two years ago I began to get into audio tech. At this time, I was beginning to live on my own with friends off campus and had been developing my own music taste. With this came a desire to to have my own system, and of course play it as often as possible. My dad had always been a musician, and through his constant performance I felt as though I always had an ear for noticing slight differences in sound. From this, I started to become more aware of what my systems sounded like, and while I upgraded and fine tuned my setup I began to think about building my own speakers. Here is where my friend Jack, a housemate who had had experience working with sound engineers told me one of his friends sold speakers he made himself for high prices. Sure enough, I was interested and I found out he was making monitors with a dodecahedron design. Of course, I was interested and saw plans online for a 3D printed version. Unfortunately, I did not have the tools to complete such a project until senior year. Fast forward a few years and suddenly I have access to a laser cutter and 6 speakers. The time is ripe.
The Speakers
This looks to be the spec sheet. They accept 6-10 watts and produce 145Hz ~ 17kHz
Laser Cutting
Considering I had only 6 speakers, I had to stick with a design which catered to this number. Wanting to pursue a point sound source design, I opted for a cube. The project began by measuring the speakers I had around and making the housing for each of them. With such a large size (~100mm), I thought laser cutting might might save size and improve the appeal of the design. I opted for an interference fit instead of glue in designing each side of the cube in respect to fit. All the pieces on the sides of the cube are the same and interlocking besides the top and bottom. The common side pieces have two pegs and three slots on all but one edge where these numbers are reversed in order to fit like a puzzle. The top and bottom of the cube contain three pegs and two slots on each edge, interlocking with each side piece. Each speaker also features wholes for screws and the open face of the speaker.
3D Printing and A Revision
Because there are speakers on all faces of the cube, I thought it would only make sense to display this speaker so none of the sides were laying flat. I decided the best way to do this and create perfect 360 sound was by projecting the sound with the speaker hanging by an edge. I designed the corner suspension to act as either a base, or a fixture by which the speaker could hang with all requisite cables extending out of this piece.
Wiring
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The speakers were wired in parallel with 2 sets of 3. On opposite ends of each set of 3, either the negative or positive lead lies.
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I think the layout of all these speakers in such close proximity looks reminiscent of elements of the CERN. The magnets also exert a force that makes attaching each side fairly difficult.