Turn broken speakers into a snappy media cabinet

Broken speakers are pretty but useless, media cabinets are ugly but useful, a synergistic melding of the two objects was all but inevitable.

All you'll need to do this project is:

1. One (or two) old free standing speakers, the bigger the better. Preferably in good aesthetic condition, preferably broken, and preferably free (I gave myself a $20 spending limit for mine).

2. A hand saw

3. Some hinges

4. A claw hammer or crowbar

5. Some paint

6. Planks of wood (to make shelves)

7. Screwdriver or a power drill

8. Roughly 2.5 liters of pure, unadulterated gumption. Feel free to replace with true grit.

I also used a rotary tool, but I'm sure you could pull this project off without one.

Word.

Step 1 Disassembly

In order to keep the actual speakers (which are usually really fragile) out of harm's way while doing this project, you first need to get them out of the speaker cabinet. Typically this will just require you to unscrew a few phillips screws, then yank on some wires until the speaker breaks free. This is what we in the business call "the easy step".

Comments

[Mattkguns]

Im fairly certain that magnets don't affect plastic media, ie any thing on a cd or dvd. they will however affect vhs's and the like, so if your only building the cabinet for dvds, then you'd be safe leaving the magnets in.

[burzvingion]

yeah, magnets are no threat to optical media. It's just magnetic tape and disk media that you need to be careful with.

[neon41]

what you do need to realise the layer on the top of a cd/dvd is metallic

[Dr. Science]

Magnets DO play havoc on video CRT's.

But really, breaking off the magnets off the voice coils of those old cool woofers is a waste. Those should be re-foamed and mounted in new better designed enclosures for really cool low frequency effects. Don't destroy them.

If you think those magnets are cool, you break into your hard drive and check those puppies out!

[Da Nugesta]

Great instructable, but next time you have some fishers, techniques, pioneer, sansui ect. please don't hurt them even if they are broken cos i love vintage speakers!

[Da Nugesta]

i meant technics lol

[tmad40blue]

It makes me cringe to see how you ruined these perfectly fixable speakers, and how many people have followed in your path. These speakers, along with the other ones that many people on this comment thread have most likely destroyed, could have been fixed up by knowledgeable people and put to good use as SPEAKERS - not gutted and made into dumb decorations. I hope you feel proud - an entire thread on Audio Karma is looking at all of you in shame. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=249492

[troseph]

 Not nice!

[Nautilus34]

even your friends on AK agree that these were garbage to begin with.  Next time, do us all a favor and leave your douchebaggery at the door.

rifftrax Gear Hoarder

Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Reno, NV Posts: 782

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaymanaa At least they weren't HPM 100s (or were they).

No. Those were lowly Fisher STV-6XX model or similar. They probably are better off as make-shift shelves TBH. Plus you can always recycle the bass drivers and re-use them as subs in a uber-cheapo car system. Best thing for those tweeters is just to meet mr. trashcan.

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Last edited by rifftrax; 09-03-2009 at 04:44 PM.

[Akoi Meexx]

Really? Seriously? There's an entire instructable devoted to making you guys feel awful then, for being so offended by something this innocuous.

Excellent instructable, GoodRubbish!

[Poultrygeist]

I'd kill to have those cabinets to mount some big Audio Nirvana full rangers in. No crossovers required.

[xxxafterglow]

I love it! Fantastic job! Those are some nice speakers by the way... It definitely warrants a trip to goodwill!

[Spike002]

haha i just went to goodwill and got some huge ones for exactly this! only i didnt know anyones already done it!

[laradioken]

They'd probably look just as cool to keep the screens on them

[snowfreak]

i have the same rotary tool

[geekdude]

next find a working pair of huge box speakers and put the stereo inside.

[Descon]

Briliant! lol I love the idea PS Great instructable! Thank you!

[instruct5000]

those are great speaker cabinets !
I like how you assembled your own shelves.
Great Idea !

these are mine.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Globaluser008
http://www.ehow.com/how_5429314_make-own-interchangable-speaker-cabinet.html

[DuctTapeRules!]

Robber comes in expecting to steal valuable speakers. Comes out with stacks of DVDs, CDs and a bunch of spare wood ;)

[Rupert95]

I'd still be rather bummed if a robber stole my CDs and DVDs to be honest =P

[Darkshot]

I have a question....where would i buy these type of big speakers? My city is having a garbage day soon and i was wondering if i could find any on the street or anything....or would it be in a thrift store for way cheap? because i tryed ebay and that was wayyyyyyyyyyyy expensive. Thanks!

[GoodRubbish]

Craigslist is your friend on this one. Your best search prompt for great deals is going to be "broken speakers", as nonworking units really have no practical purpose to the general public anymore. After that just search for "big speakers", "large speakers", "standing speakers", or "floor speakers" and put the max price at like 30 bucks or something. If you find an old listing on there that hasn't sold yet you can usually talk the seller down to practically giving them away.

[Darkshot]

cool, thanks!

[Koil_1]

Really sweet build actually. I have an old pair of Fischer STV-649s too. Unfortunately mine still work and there's no way I'm going to sacrifice them for media cabinets. For that matter I have a set of STV-666s too.... Great sound on the cheap if your into old school equipment.

[CalcProgrammer1]

The magnets won't harm anything other than maybe hard drives, floppy drives, video tapes, and audio tapes. You can't harm solid state electronics using magnets and optical media doesn't use magnets. However, removing them is a good idea, as they add to the weight and could potentially harm magnetic media.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Nice! I might do the same thing, except I would keep all the a/v equipment in there instead

[teeps]

this is beautiful! I found exactly ONE big ass speaker in my old apartment's basement. What the hell do you do with ONE giant tower speaker? The cones are all busted on that one too, I am totally gonna try this out! Genius!

[LinuxH4x0r]

If it is a tower, than it probably has 2 or more inside

[teeps]

ah that is quite clever! Here's the speaker, the text on it says MCS Series 683-8857 can't find any info on it online but can you see two speakers out of this? Probably just a decent sub and maybe a center channel with the mid and high? Don't know much about speaker building I will admit, but I would love to learn more!

[teeps]

i hope the image shows up, seems to be broken, if it doesn't, it has two 12" subs and a mid and a high

[LinuxH4x0r]

Nice, you just scored 2 subs.

[teeps]

that bottom sub, the middle is all punched in. Does it still have hope? Where are good resources for the job of rescuing those subs and making a new home for them...?

[Sgt.Waffles]

All it is is the dust cap, you are fine.

[ScaryDave]

Instructables: How to "unpop" a speaker

Never tried any of these methods, but they seem like sound advice.
Nice looking speaker by the way. Try repairing it first?!
Even so, this is a damn good idea GoodRubbish

[alex-sharetskiy]

they do work, exept the "sucking" one

[GoodRubbish]

I've done a lot of these speaker mod projects, and I've yet to encounter a speaker that didn't have its center bubble thing punched in... I think people are naturally attracted to smush them inwards for whatever reason. Regardless, if you end up not being interested in using the subs as actual speakers (and thereby decide to take the magnets off the back of the speakers) you'll be able to easily reach inside the speaker cone and push that center bubble back out to where it's supposed to be with a pen or a q-tip or, if you're not into tools, your finger.

[LinuxH4x0r]

It should still work. Try popping it back up with a needle, or maybe a really small straightened fishing hook

[isacco]

Very nice Instructables. I agree with "Zak" that the strong point of this work is having kept the speakers on the front door.

[miguelsmatos]

Magnets can harm cd's too...It had already happened...Of course this do not happens with small magnets like the one found in the headphones... relax xD

[Big Nasty]

I did this with old speakers my brother blew out. Except I took out the speakers all together and left that black cloth like cover thing on. It hides the holes.