DIY Cardboard Speaker Tutorial: Move over Bose, you've been replaced with cardboard!

[iamdarkyoshi]

So here is a funny yet neat guide on how to make your own cardboard speakers! The cardboard IS the speaker. The "speaker" glued to the back is being used as a tactile transducer of sorts.

 

First off, instead of killing some crappy little beeper speakers, you could buy some of these and stick them on cardboard (or really anything else) and the sound would be MILES ahead of what I made. But what I made is pretty much the same concept.

 

What you need:

 

Cardboard, I would aim for standard shipping box cardboard, make sure it has no folds or bends in it.

 

Two small paper coned speakers, I got mine from two computer cases

 

An amplifier (I just hooked them up where my JBL floor standing speakers were)

 

Knife

 

Tin snips

 

Some sort of adhesive or glue (I used stupid glue)

 

 

So first, go ahead and test your speakers. Sorry, the mic on my phone is absolutely terrible.

 

 

Once you have tested them, go ahead and cut out the paper cone, but be careful to NOT cut the wires going to the center of the speaker. Those wires are under the black glue. Just cut around them.

 

 

Once you have done that, remove as much of the basket as you can. The basket is the metal "frame" that everything is in. Again, leave the part where the wires are mounted.

 

 

Once you have done that, cut two pieces of cardboard and glue the front of the speakers to it, but bend anything out of the way that would hit the cardboard. The middle of the speaker should move in and out without scraping. If it does scrape or sound distorted, try moving the wire around to bias it. My speakers were too damaged to get them to sound great.

 

 

Once you have that on, test them and further bias the speaker so it sounds the best.

 

Here is the result:

 

[Arty]

interesting

not something i would see being to useful, but good work

[iamdarkyoshi]

i feel like the cardboard isn't the best material to hold speakers.

The cardboard IS the speaker. The "speaker" glued to the back is being used as a tactile transducer.

[Arty]

The cardboard IS the speaker. The "speaker" glued to the back is being used as a tactile transducer.

yea, my bad, i read it wrong. i fixed my post.

[KemoKa]

yep. Instead of using the coil to vibrate a cone, you're using it to vibrate a piece of cardboard. It's a transducer.

[KemoKa]

How's the bass, OP?

[beach_boy98]

Cool might do it for a school science project.

[iamdarkyoshi]

How's the bass, OP?

Actually VERY good. I damaged the voice coil though and they started to fall apart. The low frequencies are on par with my center channel. The mids resonate a little bit, and the highs arent terrible, but a basic EQ could get them sounding fantastic.

[KemoKa]

Actually VERY good. I damaged the voice coil though and they started to fall apart. The low frequencies are on par with my center channel. The mids resonate a little bit, and the highs arent terrible, but a basic EQ could get them sounding fantastic.

Feel like doing this now. Along with getting my microphone cores working... I'll have a dank setup.

The great thing about this sort of transduced speaker is that it throws sound in both directions to pretty much the same degree. Which is awesome.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Feel like doing this now. Along with getting my microphone cores working... I'll have a dank setup.

The great thing about this sort of transduced speaker is that it throws sound in both directions to pretty much the same degree. Which is awesome.

The downside there is that the sound from the back is out of phase to the front. If you had something like a fluffy blanket on the wall, it would reduce reflected sound.

[klh2000]

I would suggest making some Cornu spirals if you want cheap speakers, the bass output is amazing for a 3 in driver. Search for it on the diyaudio forum.