As my job involves listing fairly high end audio equipment on the web I’m in danger of becoming an armchair hi-fi expert whilst listening to mp3s on crappy computer speakers fed from a basic sound card. There’s no way I can afford the sort of equipment needed to really appreciate my music. Maybe I should make some.
Whilst researching a product today I happened upon a load of pages about DIY speaker builds. Including this one- speaker enclosures made from granite. They look about the size that I’d put in the Bookshelf Speaker category. But those would have to be very sturdy bookshelves. The write up is on DIY audio projects, which has a number of other builds.
Also intriguing is this radial loudspeaker project, which should project sound 360 degrees. Not sure what reflections off walls would do to that, but it looks cool nonetheless.
Turning everything on its head, here’s a project to turn a speaker into a microphone. Ideal for capturing more accurate bass notes and particularly drums, it says.
I’ll probably not get round to doing anything like this, which is a shame. For now I’ll just have to wonder how I can save up for something entry level from Whafedale
I’ve built guitar speaker cabinets in the past. It’s pretty easy and decent fun when you get your head around what you’re doing. Hifi speakers do have differences but I’d still attempt them. There are some good books on the subject.
Opposite to granite, I remember seeing a number of articles on building polysterene speaker cabinets. Can’t remember the arguments as to why they’re better than normal speakers but may be worth trying, even for an inexpensive attempt, especially if you can recycle any of the materials.