Folding speaker enclosures

You may have seen these in the Make Blog. This is how to make your own.

Step 1: The finished speaker box

This is the finished article. In this case the box is an 80mm cube but it could be any size you like just choose the card thickness to suite the size of the box.

Although this was made from card you could just as well use polypropylene as a harder wearing material, you can often buy stationary folders made from polypropylene that you can recycle.

Comments

[maslo]

Nice idea:) however I really don't like to hear their sound... Must be awfull...

[rickharris]

Have you made a pair?

80mm Speakers are limited anyway.

[acox]

Yes, but does it blend?

[russell3782]

hey, anyone know where I can source these in commercial quantities. I have attached an image i found on the web, but cannot track down the supplier/manufacturer ? any ideas ? THANKS

[Johenix]

Teracycle makes these from M&M boxes. Radio Shack had some, also some pirimidal speakers.

[szdaisy66]

Hi, we are factory for the fodable speaker in shenzhen, china. We have the paper and pp foadable speaker. Plz contact with by email [e-mail]   or skype: szdaisy66

[seannessy]

here is a link for the wholesaler's website;

http://www.origaudio.com/products

For Canada you'll have to contact these guys;

http://www.zold.ca/contact.html

[Sebedee]

I can say poundland for uk peeps they are only slightly more colourful

[fernan_castillo]

I could make them for you if you want... how many?

[silverknight]

vhotho mentioned that MUJI used to make those, but no longer.

I actually just saw them on the 6th at the MUJI Express (?) in the new wing of the JFK airport... This photo is MUJI's as well. You can purchase them from the MoMA or their NY stores.

[silverknight]

Oops, sorry. The picture is MoMa's.

[teh darkcloud]

I actually saw those same pictures a few months ago and I wondered the same thing. A few weeks later I was at Ross and I found speakers kind of like those. (Except they were pink and "girly". I don't remember the brand but I bought them and gave them to a friend for her birthday so I could probably find out if you're still interested.)

[agdollison]

i did not find those but at think geek they have a cardboard boom box style speakers that are really cool
Thinkgeek

[Yerboogieman]

A pretty good idea would be to get some birthday cards and take the flat speakers from them. That way, you would be able to fold them, with the speaker in place.

[MairseyDotes]

By "net" would you perhaps mean "diagram?" And is there a PDF or other suitable file which might be printed directly on card stock for those who are happy with the size you've used?

[rickharris]

OK - yes a net is the technical name for the outline you need to cut out to make something (usually 3D by folding) I am sorry I don't have a PDF for this picture but I have added a new picture with measurements on it. so you can draw it as I did. The measurements suited the speaker i had but you can alter them if you need to.The picture is A 3 in size so if you choose to print it out you need to double the size and get 2 A 4 pages. Hope this helps.

[reeding]

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20060126/cardboard-box-speakers/
i had a plastic pair from a hair salon i think

[FaqMan]

I find this design very cost effecitive and creative.

[rickharris]

Thank you :-)

[kylemcinnes]

The net for an 80x80x80mm box will NOT fit on an A4 sheet.

[mms234]

sides doesnt appear to be 80*80... they are like 60 mm's or so...

[mms234]

The space between rear side of the case and the speaker is too much for just a 80 mm speaker. What about if we tight it a bit? like 80*80*45 ? I wonder if it will still stand and wont fall...

[nilmahj]

why not use chinese take-out containers? you'd be recycling and they'd look pretty cool too.

[duck-lemon]

yeah but you'd have to ask for some clean ones 'cos it would be dirty and get mouldy

[guyzyl]

I made it with two speakers. It looks cool and works well.

[rickharris]

Good, so many who didn't try it said it would be useless - Not at all it seems.

[geester910]

this is a good cabinet, could you do it with 1 of these cabinets

This is a good thread.

[cnfamousworks]

hi, russell3782, we're the manufacurer of this folding speaker. We're a Chinese factory. This is our PATENT PRODUCT. If you need details of the speaker, pls contact me by email. My email is [e-mail] Vivian Gong

[power]

cool stuff but any chance of getting the speaker sound louder?

[rickharris]

The loudness is in part a function of the size of the box and how well it matches the resonant frequency you are looking at, also of course the power of you amplifier.

[Swizzler121]

Do they fold up? i want to see them folded, if they don't fold, then whats the point?

[rickharris]

Yes I suppose they would fold almost flat (as flat as the speaker design allows anyway) the boxes were not glued all round but use a "crash box" locking mechanism to hold together. They are as I say a direct copy of the original Japanese version in a slightly lighter card.

[Apis]

Hmm, the reason you put speakers in boxes isn't only aesthetic. When the speaker membrane moves and pushes out air on the front, it also sucks in air on the back, creating an out of phase sound wave on the backside of the speaker that will cancel out the sound from the front.

Imagine if you were to push your hand through the air in front of you: you wouldn't produce much of a sound wave since the air would just move around your hand. If you were in a box covered on one side with a membrane and pushed it with your hand however, it would create a much more effective wave in front of it since the compressed air on the outside of the box now can't move back into the low pressure you created inside the box.

You want to make the box out of a sturdy material (metal / mdf board / hard plastic etc) that can contain the sound wave from the back.
I'm afraid paper wouldn't do much good. =/

[rickharris]

respectable speaker manufacturers have in recent months produced speakers on flat open backed boards saying this improves the realism by not emphasising the base!. The enclosure - even in cardboard (rather than paper) does make a difference.

[rickharris]

The boxes you see here are stiff card, the originals (from Japan) were made of board, a king of thick stiff card. Actually making them of paper isn't the issue if you make it stiff and thick enough. The intention was to produce something that was quick, cheap and foldable rather than Hi-Fi - I accept all of the critique re not suitable for hi-fi reproduction but I promise you they do work better than a bare speaker. I have a pair on my desk as computer speakers. A loud speaker in the 80mm range isn't going to give very good reproduction over the audio range anyway. So I disagree from just a practical, I have done it,point of view, with you "I'm afraid paper wouldn't do much good..."

[drcrash]

Apis is right; the sound off the back of the speaker generally partly cancels and interferes with the sound coming off the front. You could make a better foldable enclosure by making the enclosure the right size for the driver, putting an extra hole in the front (to make a bass reflex enclosure), and reinforcing each side with something stiffer and a little more massive. The trick to making a bass reflex enclosure is that the box is the right size, so that the pressure inside the box from the back of the speaker comes out the hole in the front with a certain delay, so that it partly cancels some frequencies and reinforces others. In particular, most drivers have a peak in the bass response, then a rapid fall-off below that. You size the box for a delay that will partly cancel out that peak, but reinforce frequencies a bit above and below it. That extends and flattens the bass response. It isn't much more work to make a good speaker enclosure than to make a bad one.

[erckgillis]

Dude, Order out Chinese and poke holes in the bottom with the chopsticks! Eat the Noodles first... E

[icedog515]

cool

[angle of fire]

i dont get it???

[Yerboogieman]

me neither...