Wireless audio using lasers is super simple to actually implement for DIY audio projects. Leave some usage ideas in the comments! Also, don't forget to check out the LTT screwdriver: lmg.gg/perksdriver a fun fact is that this video concept was inspired by Linus' woes with his wireless surround set a couple of years ago so they're a fitting sponsor.
Yes, please don't forget to provide an affiliate link to the DSP crossover boards too ! I'm sure many people who don't even make these specific 3D printed speakers will be interested in the active speaker parts you use. Thanks Matt - another great design to inspire people!
and everytime i see a new video in my feed im literally laughing in joy. which i think never did for another YT video xD the stuff he does is so perfectly fitted for me, its somehow exactly what i wanna build
I love how you always make these projects so accessible. Piggybacking off an existing, widespread standard. Off-the-shelf electronics components. Simple construction with well thought-out parts and budget. Used in an interesting way. Truly remarkable
@rogerramjet8395 tbh when I finally built a house I'm gonna incorporate the sun room in the design from the get go lmao. though that's probably not going to happen in this economy...
Absolutely incredible. One correction, those HDMI to analogue audio converters do not support lossless audio, they only support compressed lossy DTS and Dolby AC3. So even though your stereo toslink signal is lossless, you are hearing the lossy stream from HDMI. I am yet to find a HDMI to RCA converter that supports, DTS-HD MA and Dolby True-HD, so the only option for lossless audio is an AV Receiver with analogue pre outs.
Matt, this is beyond brilliant - it’s SPECTACULAR! As a retired home theater designer, I spent many, MANY hours trying to come up with a good way of doing wireless surround speakers and never accomplished it. Your solution is so elegant and creative. You are a truly astonishing maker. Your channel never disappoints.
They're still not wireless though. If you're running power leads then you might as well just run wire that won't crap out the moment a spec of dust lands on the exposed lasers.
@@ttujc speck of dust wont be enough. in any case IR leds are wide beam and you dont need point them very accurately.. IR ILLUMINATION ir leds as in security leds
Laser SPDIF, acyrlic speaker stands dual purposed as transmission lines, 3D-printed 35Hz, and an ultra-low directivity anti-comb filtering center channel?... insane. This is one of your coolest projects yet 🤯
You had me at "inserting a piece of milk bottle plastic over the toslink connection to capture/ focus light." Mad. Can't believe that works to be honest, would have guessed there would be diffraction and just muddiness of digital signal... and fail. But no. This is SO creative. Chapeau.
the power of using light as data transmission is crazy. i once worked with a guy who had to do some work on the termination point of one of the undersea fiber lines in NYC. he was on the phone with someone who was off the coast of scotland. (i think) they were talking to each other on the phone, one shined a light into the fiber to identify it, to the other, in less than a second the light was seen, and the guy on the boat started bending it a bit, and they could immediately see the signal quality change as the cable was being moved around.
It really is fascinating. It works because the information is encoded in the "on/off flashing" nature of the light. It doesn't matter if it's diffused or focused or not, the sensor will still "see" the light "flashing" on/off.
That's the glory if digital audio, the signal either makes it or doesn't, unlike analog Digital is only 1s and 0s, on or off, so even if it does diffuse the light a bit, it's fine, as long as it's within the threshold to register as a 1 it will
Remember WiFi, radio, satellite transmissions are all just light signals. Because all of these transmit data digitally, they don't care about how it's sent, it just needs to be sent. You can point a flashlight at that receiver and turn it on and off incredibly fast and that data would still be transmitted perfectly.
@@nothcial I believe they are classifed as "electromagnetic waves" (in the sense that they are using hertz), not as "light" (which uses nanometers to distinguish the wave length of the light). I believe you have used none of those techonologies as they are sensitive to distance, and in satellite's case also direction.
Kudos! Back in the mid 1990's, I was Dir. of R&D for an audio company in Canada & had worked out a way to do optical feed to remote speakers (including surround/satellite speakers of course) but with the added bonus that the power management was also optically fed to a photovoltaic compact management system within the loudspeakers in order to perform in 100% wireless mode. The biggest drawback at the time was that Class D amps monoblocs, were not very good sounding (although promising prototypes were available for a price) and also the battery & capacitors banks required to power up a nice sounding Class A/B amp for a few hours (about 5 hours per listening sessions before it was drained as it could draw power faster than it could charge unless one was willing to go obscenely big on the power management system specs & cost) was pretty cost prohibitive & relatively bulky. With today's class D monoblocs, a few good modern batteries (probably mixed with a few caps & even SuperCaps for power peaks if need be) I recon I could bring back the concept & "modernize it" to make it affordable & smaller / less bulky with a much more competitive price point. A cool curiosity & niche product for very peculiar clients that could be fun and, just as your project here, a nice conversation starter. :) Anyways... So very nice to see what you have done here. Again: Kudos!
Well, that light out a pretty nice idea that can be added up to this very DIY perks project!! Optical wireless charger of the speaker´s batteries... Take note, Matt!
Power was optically fed to the drivers? Are you serious or trolling? I honestly can't tell hehe. Can you kindly elaborate... I would love to hear how it would work.
Bro... These aren't "weekend projects". This is next level engineering and EXTREME attention to detail. It's art! I lose my mind assembling Ikea furniture, let alone trying to do anything remotely like this. Lol! Nothing but respect to you, sir. Every project you do is just wonderful.
This was really neat. I’d love to hear it in person. As an armchair engineer and audiophile, I have one big suggestion for you - make all of the speakers at head level. If you intend to watch all your films whilst standing, then this sound system will probably be great for you. However, if you intend to sit, then the sound waves will literally go over your head.
@ This is true; however, considering the speakers’ top-mounted receivers, I anticipate that angling them might disrupt light transmission. Angling the center channel does seem much more feasible. All one would have to do is shift the ceiling-mounted mirrors slightly.
The 'DIY' of this channel is a mere namesake because of the sheer quality of these builds. The hardware, designs, and electronics amongst other things are so neat, tidy and well done that it beats the production quality of many major commercial brands ! Absolute delight to watch anything and everything you do !!!
Hey, can you make a short on *this*? "DIY perks favorite way of building a speaker is .... Because .... And that makes the speakers ... So, now you dont have to wonder why" *loop*
Back in college, a friend and I did something very similar to convert a really cheap surround sound system in my college apartment, since I didn't want wires running across the room. We didn't use TOSLINK, though. We used laser diodes like you did, but used solar panels for the receivers wired up to some PWM drivers to convert the signal into usable audio channels. We had independent lasers for each audio channel running up the wall, to 45 degree mirrors to direct it along the ceiling to the different speakers around the living room. It was a system we named SMOAP. I don't remember what the full acronym stood for, but it was something Optical Audio Profile, hah hah.
@@DIYPerksyou can actually do a similar thing with LED’s: pump the signal out and use it to modulate an LED’s frequency. I tested it with an LED flashlight (it would be interesting to try with an LED bulb), and then wired up a photoresistor. It worked just as well as the laser, although the laser worked across much longer distances. I thought it might be a way to have whole home “wireless” speakers that receive their signal from the lights in the room.
Absolutely superb concept!! My only feedback as a hi-fi nerd would simply be that you ideally want your tweeters at ear level when listening. Honestly though, I'm seriously impressed... as I always am when your videos drop!
That was also my gripe with this otherwise great idea (soooo tempted). But... with the subwoofer going down in frequency I was wondering is Matt could do some calculations and get the pipe-length to cut of at around 70hz cutting over to the sub. That's basically what most surround sound setups would do.
Technically the tubes can be 800mm long instead, and they'd still hit 40hz, which would help. I didn't want to go much lower though as the rears would be too short to project over the back of a sofa.
@@DIYPerks Can you bend the tubes? You could use one long tube that bends back on itself so it's 450mm tall instead of 900; a much more useful listening height for a seated position.
Certainly there is a much better middleground for height than this. Most people's sitting height will be within around a foot or so. Brilliant video though. I'd love to see someone making slight improvements and sell them as a done set. The time and investment I need to make in equipment (like a 3d printer) is not making me want to do it myself LOL
I designed and built a pair of speakers 25 years ago as I couldn't then afford the excellence I wanted. I am still extremely happy with them. Your design is exquisite and giving fresh new ideas... Thank you! Great video too!
About two years ago I uploaded a video to my RUclips channel doing an experiment where I transmitted music through a laser, but using an analog signal instead of a digital signal. I never thought someone would use that same idea to create something as elaborate and functional as this, wonderful work! 👏👏
when you're bouncing lasers about, you'll have a nicer time if you use a "first surface mirror", which is shiny on the front instead of a shiny thing behind glass. You can make your own from and old hard drive platter :) great video
your referring to a first-surface mirror, because it's the first of the surfaces that reflects and avoids any beam splitting. not needed for this project but great for telescopes and cameras.
Shouldn't make a difference in this context, since it's passing through a layer of diffusion anyway. Besides, with toslink there's no signal noise; either you have a signal, or you don't
What an awesome project! As always :) Ideas for V2 upgrades: a) The DSP used can actualy directly interface S/PDIF signals! No need for the cheapo TOSLINK decoder on every satellit speaker! b) TCP115 drivers can be used in full range mode without issue. No reason to have separate compartments for low and mid range.
Yes the driver "can" well be used for full range, but it only has 4mm of xmax. With increased excursion comes increased distortion to the mid frequencies, which might be a problem if you want to listen to movie bass loud.
@@jamesmarkjackson1979I think it's a dev board of some kind of an ADAU1401 from Analog devices Edit: it's a 1401, not 1411. Just search for ADAU14/1701-DSP and you should be able to buy the same board. You likely need one of Analog Devices' USB programmers too.
an external volume control on the back would also be great. The DSP just handles the crossovers and the volume control makes sure the individual speakers are power aligned with each other.
@@gravity00x I'm plannign to get myself €144 screwdriver from Wera as a NY present. That's just the handle, I already have the bits. Those were around €100
That's like the extreme version of using those IR LEDs directly connected to sound sources and headphones, but so well made that it's not just practical, but up to the highest HiFi standards. Fantastic job Matt, once again you've smashed the expectations!
I like this a lot. Especially for ceiling-mounted speakers. There are two things I'd do differently for my own setup: 1. Use IR lasers, so they're not visible when room is darkened. Yes, it would require change on the receivers too, but it's not all that difficult to replace regular photodiode with the IR one. The most difficult part would be alignment, but it would be worth it. Also, you can't use mirrors to reflect IR, but plain glass would work because glass acts like a mirror for infrared wavelengths. You could even use convex receiving glass to widen the beam going to the speaker for a bit of easier alignment, or to allow speakers to be moved a little bit. 2. Separate the emitters from the base unit, and make them much more immovable by screwing them directly to the wall, like you did with the mirrors, just to minimize the chance of accidental misalignment during use.
Mirrors will reflect IR with no problem lol Usually the silvered surface is on the back end of the glass, so the IR effectively hits glass and reflects without ever "seeing the mirror" .. that said aluminum foil would be best for reflecting IR
I think switching to IR laser is not necessary. 1. Laser routes to the ceiling and goes to the backside of speakers, so it is not visible even in the night unless you fill smoke in the room. Actually laser does not seen in almost any case unless you target it in your sight. 2. IR laser is hard to see, so aligning mirrors and reorganizing the speaker position becomes harder. There is no advantage to take the bother.
IR is overrated. How much easier it would have been for everyone if ir remote controls were actually operating with visible light. a) you'd see the remote is trying to do something, i.e. the battery is not dead and the button is not dead; b) you know what are you pointing it at, and if you're doing a good job. I just hate it how tech things are always trying to hide functional parts, at a detriment to the function.
toslink is designed specifically for red, so this would require replacing their phototransistors/photodiodes, which would probably require modifying their amplification circuitry on the DAC boards... probably not worth the effort.
@@victortitov1740Wouldn't there be too much interference? Like imagine the sun shining on your tv and it turns on by itself. Actually on 2nd thought, the sun emits IR too 😂. I guess the way they encode the blinking makes it almost impossible to match in natural circumstances. Reminds me of the way the 1st tv remote worked - sound. Didn't cath on since the sound of keys would turn the tv on 😅. There's a vudeo abt it on that amazing yt channel - Technology Connections
Ingenious! I love it! The only potential problem I see with this setup is the fact that speakers may move slightly with time, due to vibration, which may cause them to lose line of sight of the laser. Long before Bluetooth was a thing, I used to own a pair of Sony made infrared wireless headphones. You could move freely across the room as long as there were no obstacles between you and the transmitter. So, there you go, consider it an idea for a future project.
definitely wasnt expecting an LTT sponsor on a video by the king of diys, love seeing how far this channel has come to in the past few years, it surprises me how this isnt more commercially available as a wireless solution, kudos for the great build!
When looking at the videos of this channel, I always wonder: How many people are involved creating these gems? Everything is done to perfection here. There is the presentation in perfect English by a very enthusiasm inducing very good looking young man. There is the 3D design of the entire project. There is the research, the animations, the graphics, the video editing, the audio editing, the educational explanations, the script and.. there is the production... and application in a real-life situation... all done to absolute perfection... I can not stress enough how much I admire the effort and attention to detail that goes into every video of this channel.. Simply unbelievable! Big gratitude to all who have contributed!!
If I counted correctly it is: HDMI -> D/A -> A/D -laser-> D/A -> Speaker? Are you certain that all of those conversions do not add latency or affect audio quality?
Because of the transmission line stands, the speakers do seem to be higher than optimal for best listening. The horizontal interference pattern you avoided by mounting the tweeter on top of the center channel didn't go away, it just became a vertical pattern instead, and the same vertical pattern exists with the other 4 speakers affecting the two woofers. Since they are all considerably above ear height, different people may experience different interference patterns based on their height rather than how far off center the are sat. Because the woofers are mainly for the lower frequencies, it may not be as much of a problem as the wavelengths are so long at that point, but it's still something to think about if you were to revisit this idea someday.
I thought the same thing. What’s also bad is the long transmission line. Phase alignment is probably very difficult with that. Additionally, the setup doesn’t have Dolby Digital or DTS:X.
Agreed, also the tweeter should ideally be the closest driver to your ear, so the center channel speaker should be mounted upside down since it’s above the TV
I just built a pair of pedestal speakers to have next to the bed so I don't need the volume up on the tv. This is a great idea! If you mount the sensor high and just run a wire down the wall, you won't break the beam when you walk in front of it! ❤
Stunning project! My only qualm is that, after the instructional lecture on off axis interference patterns for the centre channel, all your LR and surrounds with mid mounted tweeters are way higher than ear height. Meaning they run into the exact same interference pattern problem. Just vertically rather than horizontally.
You never stop pushing boundaries. Love this channel.. Your brain refresh rate is 240fps... What an awesome build. Can't wait to see what's cooking next..
I've been building my own speakers for a very long time, although you didn't go technical with your explanations to confuse people, you were very spot on... that was a brilliant job.
I'm always blown away by the consistent quality and cool ideas that Matt produces for this channel. I've not watched a video yet that I haven't enjoyed both the concept and the execution of. Really great stuff!
This is something I've been considering since a demo in my physics class in highschool, but I've never put the effort to actually design, much less make, it, so this is amazing to me!
How do you always manage to find the coolest projects to do??? Amazing work!!! Now I just need to find 72 uninterrupted hours to follow your lead. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
The laser technology used in itself is so cool. But, as an Audiophile I couldn't help but focus on all the attention to detail you have about the soundstage, independent class d amplifier usage for individual drivers, frequency distribution, all of this is so cool, I bet it sounds so amazing. Kudos, and regards man! God Bless!
At first I thought the speakers were too tall but I think he’s basically sitting on the floor through this video so it’s probably a normal ear high when sitting in a chair. You can see that if he was standing he would be towering over them. This is a super cool project that I never would have thought of. I love to see the continued development on TL speakers and hiding a subwoofer behind the TV is brilliant.
If that's how he normally watches TV, they definitely ARE too tall. Just look at how high above the screen those speakers are. And don't forget these are MTM, which is a configuration with a very narrow vertical radiation pattern.
@ I don’t think he watches TV that way, I think he just set them up in his filming room for this video. I saw another video where he shows this same room “behind the scenes” and it’s a very small room. Anyway, I’m sure if he put all this effort into building a wireless system, he intends to put it in a place with more space. Perhaps he has a secret plan to get people to buy the plans to find out how tall they actually are.
I think I've already said this to you on another video, but it fascinates me how ingenious you are with your engineering skills. And the fact that (I think) in the beginning you were working while starting your RUclips channel and still doing crazy designs is awesome. You're a real engineer sir.
This is such an innovative approach to optical digital audio! Turning it into a wireless laser Dolby system using DACs per speaker is genius. You’ve outdone yourself once again. This solves one of my issues by using DACs that support optical inputs. Huge props to you, and thanks for this solution! ❤
Your floors must be really solid. I can picture building this and then the sound cutting in and out when someone walks across the room. Also I’m surprised you didn’t place a small tube between the clear ones to hide the power wire
Thank god. After that last video about the big iPhone or some earlier ones focused on the pS5… I had begun to worry about this channel becoming just another run of the mill Pander-Fest. This video today is the type of content that is the heart and soul of this channel. Thank you for returning to your original style that is much more “Nintendo” and much less “EA Sports” so to speak. Genius project sir!
How come this guy is giving finger to the big companies who wants to keep us from low cost future tech and rob us of money? This is amazing and absolutely brilliant. I want one....
I never would have thought you could get such low latency and distinct power cycles from bargain bin laser diodes. Here are some ideas about the implementation: 1. The ceiling mirrors only need line-of-sight along a very narrow path. It should be possible to hide the red light from the viewing position with some covers or enclosures. 2. Opaque transmission line tubes would make hiding power cables much easier. 3. The sub, front, and center speakers are so close to the transmitter already I would probably just use speaker wire for them, along with a decent 3.1 amp.
It's hard to believe this is all DIY. The design and implementation both look super profession, even the idea itself is mindblowing. Great job on this build, again!
You have no idea... How many times I repeatedly watched your each vedios... It's because of ur pronunciation and sound quality also ur vedio gualities... Each vedios and new inventions are amazing... Waiting for the next vedio❤❤❤
I actually made a wireless home theater surround sound system out of the sony HTIB's back in 2007 using solar cells and laser pointers. Other than ANY obstruction causing issues it was utterly AMAZING.
oh man your video brings me back. My grandparents used to have some headphones for watching TV that worked very similar to this. The set had an IR transmitter that blasted the signal all over the room so you could sit wherever. You could also adjust volume and tone on each headphone individually. Can't remember what brand they were, but I wanna say Panasonic.
Its so unfortunate that SPDIF was never really updated on the specification protocol and the multichannel capability was never really adopted. The theoretical bandwidth of that port is technically limitless, as over the years we have managed to send even 1 terabit per second down a single laser light in labs. Imagine if we had kept updating SPDIF through the 90s, 2000s, 2010s... We could have a single fiber cable transferring uncompressed 11.2.4 channel Atmos audio now days (which is only about 1.3gbit of bandwidth needed, easy to do and cheap now days). Incredible project though. Truly genius. Wish I hadnt already run wires through my walls or Id definitely go this crazy hacky route as its exactly what I love doing.
While theoretical bandwidth of that port is indeed much bigger than what is used by Toslink, it isn't limitless. Since cables themselves are just thin plastic rods that can't have bandwidth comparable to that of internet cables for example
@@akeem2983 But just like copper Ethernet cables, fiber ethernet cables, and HDMI specs that upgrade the electronics on each end, twist wires differently, use higher spec and better polished fibers, etc. we would also have updated the electronics in the SPIDIF spec if it has continued to get updated and used a tighter tolerance laser, better spec fiber, etc.. Just because the current SPDIF port has a very low grade plastic fiber and very low spec electronics and it is indeed limited doesnt mean it would have stayed using all those parts as we tried to send more bandwidth over it. And to be honest it would really need very little upgrading on the plastic fiber side to have it passing a couple gigabit, and that would have been capable of being done well over a decade ago for very cheap. Even at the largest channel layouts that home theaters support using completely uncompressed audio we are still very low bandwidth. And if you compressed height channel sound and LFE channel sound we could probably even fit it within 1 gigabit connection which has been dirt cheap on just about every physical medium for 25 years now.
Haaaaaa... How happy would I be of living a life when I had a day each week to make your projects. you simply hit bullseye with every single one of them... amazing engineering, creativity... the videos are a true experience to enjoy!
Heaven forbid. Linus couldn't build something if his life depended on it. His company is the Linus media group, not the Linus tech group. The only thing he does well is marketing. Like selling a screwdriver that is a clone of a screwdriver half the price using non standard bits you can only get in his shop... There are better screwdrivers out there using bits you can get everywhere. Only idiots buy from LTT.
Linus discussed the issues with a collab one WAN Show. Basically the issues are distance and time. Linus (or Matt) would have to fly around the planet, and then spend probably weeks for it. So it's just not workable for him. Yes Mighty Car Mods did fly to Canada for a collab, but that was for a very limited timeframe with everything pre-planned and organised. They're a totally different style to DIY Perks though.
C'mon! We need a company to take Matt's great creations, like this one, and do a production run! This setup, is surreal! This would be so good to have!
A couple of tips. The production of standing waves and places where your sub will have much less power (audibility) is a function of placement and room shape. You might get lucky just dumping it behind the TV and getting a decent response at your viewing position, but it's not very likely. The usual approach is to put the sub at your viewing position, then crawl around the room finding places where it's loudest. Then place it there. But. The biggest improvement i ever made to my visceral enjoyment of movies, was the addition of simple 'butt kicker'. A small speaker attached directly to the frame of the furniture, so you really feel those low frequencies. Try it. It's an easy win
To me the biggest improvement (after proper placement of every speaker and sub with crawling technique you mentioned) was to use room equalizer wizard (REW) app to measure frequencies of every speaker with mic and then apply EQ that compensated any flaws.
The best part about this whole setup is that if I don't want to do the whole laser, mirror and wireless, I can use the same process and actually get a better surround sound system than what is available in the market. TOS Link is really cheap and even more reliable than copper wires. Plus I can get a fiber cable instead of high quality copper cables used in Audio for cheap where I live.
Indeed best thing about this is decentralisation, you easily replace what ever is malfunctions unlike a multi thousand dollar home theatre setup where everything is connects to a AVR with a built in amplifier.
Honestly I like that because of the fact that with Toslink it Allows for long runs of cable without signal or quality degradation which means I can run the cable around the room to each individual speaker giving a really nice high quality surround sound experience Without cables getting in the way at all as they can be very well hidden along baseboards and behind cabinetry. If I was to do the same thing with something like regular speaker wire The length but also being against things like power And ethernet cables would introduce noise
TOSLINK is not better than copper speaker wire that is $10 per 100 foot. Audiophile cables are BS. Toslink can break internally if you need to take a hard turn. If you are wiring up speakers, just get a cheap used AV receiver and a $10 spool of wire.
This looks like a very well executed project! I have one theoretical concern though. Theoretical, because you show that in practice it sounds good, but still. My concern is how many times the audio is converted from digital to analog and back in the signal chain. If I understand correctly, there are the following conversions: 1. D-->A The HDMI splitter/decoder has analog outputs to the center speaker 2. A-->D The signals are digitized bij the DSP board in the center speaker before processing/distribution of the signals 3. D-->A The DSP board in the center speaker outputs its signals analogically 4. A-->D The Toslink transmitters connected to the center speaker digitize the signals before outputting them to the lasers 5. D-->A The Toslink receivers on the speaker side convert the signals back to analog before feeding them to the speakers 6. A-->D The DSP boards in the speakers digitize the signals before processing them/separating the frequency bands for the respective speakers 7. D-->A The DSP boards in the speakers analogize the signals one last time, before they are fed to the channels of the amplifiers in the speakers That's quite a lot of steps! I wonder if it would be possible to keep the signals digital throughout (most of) the chain, down to the last DSP board output. And what that would do to the sound quality and/or latency. You would need an HDMI splitter with digital outputs (ADAT or Toslink). Then, I guess the DSP boards will also have digital inputs and outputs, and those connections might connect more or less directly to a laser or a photoreceiver... Somewhere in the chain there will have to be a volume control as well. I don't know how much harder that would be, but it would be interesting for sure.
I was enamoured with everything, paying close attention, until you showed uo the lasers hitting the ceiling and the mirrors. Then I just screamed "I LOVE YOU MAN". This is probably THE best channel on RUclips.
This is so awesome! I can't believe that the idea of transmission lines for DIY speakers isn't something I've seen anywhere else! Matt is an algorithm buster and a legend of DIY. I am VERY seriously building this myself...
So, what you are saying, I don't have to crawl under my house to install my 4 rear surround speakers. I totally get this setup. You make me happy. :) This can be done with literally any amount of channels, not just two! Just have to have each channel have its own pre-amp channel and Toslink converter. BRILLIANT!
Absolutely, magically MEGA Matt! This project blows every other DIY speaker system on RUclips out of the universe. Your ingenuity and creativity seemingly has no bounds.
17:23 I love that you're sponsored by Linus's screwdriver but you are using what looks like the screwdriver Noctua include in their cooler package, lol
As much as I love my LTT screwdriver, one of the disadvantages of a multi-bit screwdriver is that the shaft can only be so small and still fit standard-sized bits. My bet is that the holes there are too small for it to fit, so he used something with a fixed shaft instead
I used to design rifle mounted laser mic systems. riflemen could aim and listen to the location their barrel is pointed. Your design work is top notch and your channel is great.
This guy is living in a different plane of existence than the rest of us. Absolutely insane the level of polish and engineering you are able to put on homemade products.
From the first video you dropped with a 3D printed speaker and the use of a DSP I developed interest in audio production and it has led me to acquire more knowledge, I stayed away from building diy speakers to producing my own amplifier boards with KiCad, to date I’ve produced DSPs, amplifiers, powers supplies and now I’m trying to learn 3D modeling with blender all thanks to you Matt. I’m always checking what video has been dropped thumbs 👍🏽 up man
again another industry leading design and development and manufacturing in a 20 minute video! this is some insane engineering and product design... wow!
@@removechan10298 oh look a comment guy that can only comment as a sycophant, getting angry when someone questions their reality. Loooooooooooooooooooool
Wireless audio using lasers is super simple to actually implement for DIY audio projects. Leave some usage ideas in the comments! Also, don't forget to check out the LTT screwdriver: lmg.gg/perksdriver a fun fact is that this video concept was inspired by Linus' woes with his wireless surround set a couple of years ago so they're a fitting sponsor.
bacon?
Was half expecting Techmoan to appear bemoaning the complexity of it. But this would have been an ideal opportunity for a colab.
Link to the mini dsp boards you are using please.
Does the vibrations from the system disrupt the laser alignment?
Yes, please don't forget to provide an affiliate link to the DSP crossover boards too !
I'm sure many people who don't even make these specific 3D printed speakers will be interested in the active speaker parts you use.
Thanks Matt - another great design to inspire people!
Brilliant as always and so proud to be a sponsor now. You are always pushing the boundaries of beautiful, functional design! -LS
Cheers Linus, and thanks very much for supporting the channel!
Game recognises game
I would love to see linus attempt to recreate the laser audio in his home cinema setup
It would be great to see a review of this system on the LTT channel.😀
Linus, productize some of Matt's designs please.
DIY Perks is the only channel that can go dark for months and then drop the most absurd Dr. Doofenshmirtz style gizmo I’ve ever seen.
Now I'll never watch DIY perks without looking for a platypus in a Fedora bursting in to foil his plans 😅
Art takes time. :)
StuffMadeHere has entered the chat
and everytime i see a new video in my feed im literally laughing in joy. which i think never did for another YT video xD
the stuff he does is so perfectly fitted for me, its somehow exactly what i wanna build
project binky wants a word
I love how you always make these projects so accessible. Piggybacking off an existing, widespread standard. Off-the-shelf electronics components. Simple construction with well thought-out parts and budget. Used in an interesting way. Truly remarkable
Not that anyone ever makes them
@James-dc6ft I've definitely used parts of his projects for my own projects. But you're probably not wrong. 😂
that one is def more accessible than the giant fucking iPhone with a custom sized panel
@@coloco21 Yeah, and the fake sun that required a spare room! 😂
@rogerramjet8395 tbh when I finally built a house I'm gonna incorporate the sun room in the design from the get go lmao. though that's probably not going to happen in this economy...
Absolutely incredible. One correction, those HDMI to analogue audio converters do not support lossless audio, they only support compressed lossy DTS and Dolby AC3. So even though your stereo toslink signal is lossless, you are hearing the lossy stream from HDMI. I am yet to find a HDMI to RCA converter that supports, DTS-HD MA and Dolby True-HD, so the only option for lossless audio is an AV Receiver with analogue pre outs.
And in addition, converting D->A->D->A is definitely not latency free... But if it's works 🤷🏼♀️ awesome project thou
@@sir_nilselot4814 Yes I'd be interested to know how many milliseconds of latency is added.
LPCM 5.1 is a thing these days.
@@hobbified yes and it's Apple TV's prefered method. But how to get it out of HDMI and into RCA? Seems you need a AV Reciever with pre outs
@@spiderbite7849 7.1 LPCM output via eARC is quite common on newer TVs, and I'll guess there are similar extractors for that too. AC3 5.1 is muddy AF.
Matt, this is beyond brilliant - it’s SPECTACULAR! As a retired home theater designer, I spent many, MANY hours trying to come up with a good way of doing wireless surround speakers and never accomplished it. Your solution is so elegant and creative. You are a truly astonishing maker. Your channel never disappoints.
Step 1: use RF like everyone else does
Step 2: done
Calm down man. Brillant ? 😂
No need for laser diodes. use a IR illuminators modules used for security cameras. no need to align. simpler and cheaper. only need receivers
They're still not wireless though. If you're running power leads then you might as well just run wire that won't crap out the moment a spec of dust lands on the exposed lasers.
@@ttujc speck of dust wont be enough. in any case IR leds are wide beam and you dont need point them very accurately.. IR ILLUMINATION ir leds as in security leds
Laser SPDIF, acyrlic speaker stands dual purposed as transmission lines, 3D-printed 35Hz, and an ultra-low directivity anti-comb filtering center channel?... insane. This is one of your coolest projects yet 🤯
You had me at "inserting a piece of milk bottle plastic over the toslink connection to capture/ focus light." Mad. Can't believe that works to be honest, would have guessed there would be diffraction and just muddiness of digital signal... and fail. But no. This is SO creative. Chapeau.
the power of using light as data transmission is crazy. i once worked with a guy who had to do some work on the termination point of one of the undersea fiber lines in NYC. he was on the phone with someone who was off the coast of scotland. (i think) they were talking to each other on the phone, one shined a light into the fiber to identify it, to the other, in less than a second the light was seen, and the guy on the boat started bending it a bit, and they could immediately see the signal quality change as the cable was being moved around.
It really is fascinating. It works because the information is encoded in the "on/off flashing" nature of the light. It doesn't matter if it's diffused or focused or not, the sensor will still "see" the light "flashing" on/off.
That's the glory if digital audio, the signal either makes it or doesn't, unlike analog
Digital is only 1s and 0s, on or off, so even if it does diffuse the light a bit, it's fine, as long as it's within the threshold to register as a 1 it will
Remember WiFi, radio, satellite transmissions are all just light signals. Because all of these transmit data digitally, they don't care about how it's sent, it just needs to be sent. You can point a flashlight at that receiver and turn it on and off incredibly fast and that data would still be transmitted perfectly.
@@nothcial I believe they are classifed as "electromagnetic waves" (in the sense that they are using hertz), not as "light" (which uses nanometers to distinguish the wave length of the light). I believe you have used none of those techonologies as they are sensitive to distance, and in satellite's case also direction.
You, as a human being, should be inscribed to the UNESCO sites. You are a truly gold nugget of craziness and brilliance.
Kudos! Back in the mid 1990's, I was Dir. of R&D for an audio company in Canada & had worked out a way to do optical feed to remote speakers (including surround/satellite speakers of course) but with the added bonus that the power management was also optically fed to a photovoltaic compact management system within the loudspeakers in order to perform in 100% wireless mode.
The biggest drawback at the time was that Class D amps monoblocs, were not very good sounding (although promising prototypes were available for a price) and also the battery & capacitors banks required to power up a nice sounding Class A/B amp for a few hours (about 5 hours per listening sessions before it was drained as it could draw power faster than it could charge unless one was willing to go obscenely big on the power management system specs & cost) was pretty cost prohibitive & relatively bulky.
With today's class D monoblocs, a few good modern batteries (probably mixed with a few caps & even SuperCaps for power peaks if need be) I recon I could bring back the concept & "modernize it" to make it affordable & smaller / less bulky with a much more competitive price point. A cool curiosity & niche product for very peculiar clients that could be fun and, just as your project here, a nice conversation starter. :)
Anyways... So very nice to see what you have done here.
Again: Kudos!
We would love to see a collab!!
Well, that light out a pretty nice idea that can be added up to this very DIY perks project!! Optical wireless charger of the speaker´s batteries... Take note, Matt!
Power was optically fed to the drivers? Are you serious or trolling? I honestly can't tell hehe. Can you kindly elaborate... I would love to hear how it would work.
@@ten132 He mentions "the power management was also optically fed to a photovoltaic", and then "the battery & capacitors banks required to power up"
@@AlanW Aah now I get it. Honestly, genius idea. Don't know about execution at all even with modern amps now, would wanna try though.
Bro... These aren't "weekend projects". This is next level engineering and EXTREME attention to detail. It's art!
I lose my mind assembling Ikea furniture, let alone trying to do anything remotely like this. Lol!
Nothing but respect to you, sir. Every project you do is just wonderful.
This was really neat. I’d love to hear it in person.
As an armchair engineer and audiophile, I have one big suggestion for you - make all of the speakers at head level.
If you intend to watch all your films whilst standing, then this sound system will probably be great for you. However, if you intend to sit, then the sound waves will literally go over your head.
Or just angle them towards your couch. They can be mounted anywhere, even the walls/roof as long as they are pointing in the right direction
@ This is true; however, considering the speakers’ top-mounted receivers, I anticipate that angling them might disrupt light transmission.
Angling the center channel does seem much more feasible. All one would have to do is shift the ceiling-mounted mirrors slightly.
I agree... but I expect it was done because he wanted to achieve lower frequencies so needed longer tubes.
@@dylanevans5644 Then he can just sit in a high chair lol
Thought same, should be 3 tubes
The 'DIY' of this channel is a mere namesake because of the sheer quality of these builds. The hardware, designs, and electronics amongst other things are so neat, tidy and well done that it beats the production quality of many major commercial brands ! Absolute delight to watch anything and everything you do !!!
Favorite way to construct speaker
That's gotta be one of the most specific Favorite Things that I've heard in a while
Holy crap! One of my favorite youtube channels commenting on another one of my favorite youtube channels? What is my luck?
Can't say "the best way", or you risk starting a war lol
Hey, can you make a short on *this*?
"DIY perks favorite way of building a speaker is .... Because .... And that makes the speakers ... So, now you dont have to wonder why" *loop*
After each video I go: He can't go beyond that. but this man never fails to impress me
I have exactly the same feeling
Back in college, a friend and I did something very similar to convert a really cheap surround sound system in my college apartment, since I didn't want wires running across the room. We didn't use TOSLINK, though. We used laser diodes like you did, but used solar panels for the receivers wired up to some PWM drivers to convert the signal into usable audio channels. We had independent lasers for each audio channel running up the wall, to 45 degree mirrors to direct it along the ceiling to the different speakers around the living room. It was a system we named SMOAP. I don't remember what the full acronym stood for, but it was something Optical Audio Profile, hah hah.
That sounds awesome!!!
@@DIYPerksyou can actually do a similar thing with LED’s: pump the signal out and use it to modulate an LED’s frequency. I tested it with an LED flashlight (it would be interesting to try with an LED bulb), and then wired up a photoresistor. It worked just as well as the laser, although the laser worked across much longer distances. I thought it might be a way to have whole home “wireless” speakers that receive their signal from the lights in the room.
@@TimBryanisnt it something like the concept of LiFi? Only in your case, u are referring it for audio transmission.
could the S be for solar?
"Super Mega Overcomplicated Audio Profile"
Great video and great project to reproduce!
Absolutely superb concept!! My only feedback as a hi-fi nerd would simply be that you ideally want your tweeters at ear level when listening. Honestly though, I'm seriously impressed... as I always am when your videos drop!
That was also my gripe with this otherwise great idea (soooo tempted). But... with the subwoofer going down in frequency I was wondering is Matt could do some calculations and get the pipe-length to cut of at around 70hz cutting over to the sub. That's basically what most surround sound setups would do.
Technically the tubes can be 800mm long instead, and they'd still hit 40hz, which would help. I didn't want to go much lower though as the rears would be too short to project over the back of a sofa.
@@DIYPerks Can you bend the tubes? You could use one long tube that bends back on itself so it's 450mm tall instead of 900; a much more useful listening height for a seated position.
Not everyone that sits with you has the same torso length, but if you're doing only for you, then yeah. lol
Certainly there is a much better middleground for height than this. Most people's sitting height will be within around a foot or so. Brilliant video though. I'd love to see someone making slight improvements and sell them as a done set. The time and investment I need to make in equipment (like a 3d printer) is not making me want to do it myself LOL
I designed and built a pair of speakers 25 years ago as I couldn't then afford the excellence I wanted. I am still extremely happy with them. Your design is exquisite and giving fresh new ideas... Thank you! Great video too!
About two years ago I uploaded a video to my RUclips channel doing an experiment where I transmitted music through a laser, but using an analog signal instead of a digital signal. I never thought someone would use that same idea to create something as elaborate and functional as this, wonderful work! 👏👏
Best solution for an actual problem here, getting 1 rear surround speaker working without a cable and without lag. Thank you for this great idea !
Sure, if you ignore the RF solutions which already exist and are better
when you're bouncing lasers about, you'll have a nicer time if you use a "first surface mirror", which is shiny on the front instead of a shiny thing behind glass. You can make your own from and old hard drive platter :)
great video
Isn't it first surface? As in it reflects from the first surface interacted with, not the second surface like a standard coated glass mirror.
your referring to a first-surface mirror, because it's the first of the surfaces that reflects and avoids any beam splitting. not needed for this project but great for telescopes and cameras.
Shouldn't make a difference in this context, since it's passing through a layer of diffusion anyway. Besides, with toslink there's no signal noise; either you have a signal, or you don't
"surface mirror"
@KiloFeenix yeah, that's an awful typo, I'll edit it, thanks
What an awesome project! As always :) Ideas for V2 upgrades:
a) The DSP used can actualy directly interface S/PDIF signals! No need for the cheapo TOSLINK decoder on every satellit speaker!
b) TCP115 drivers can be used in full range mode without issue. No reason to have separate compartments for low and mid range.
What was the DSP used? No mention of what it was or links to buy it?
Yes the driver "can" well be used for full range, but it only has 4mm of xmax.
With increased excursion comes increased distortion to the mid frequencies, which might be a problem if you want to listen to movie bass loud.
@@jamesmarkjackson1979I think it's a dev board of some kind of an ADAU1401 from Analog devices
Edit: it's a 1401, not 1411. Just search for ADAU14/1701-DSP and you should be able to buy the same board. You likely need one of Analog Devices' USB programmers too.
an external volume control on the back would also be great. The DSP just handles the crossovers and the volume control makes sure the individual speakers are power aligned with each other.
@@jamesmarkjackson1979 it's in the description, ADAU1401
I’m amazed by the amount of technical knowledge you have in every field you make your videos 😑
Wasn't expecting LTT to be a SPONSOR! Thats awesome!
The same applies here, but they have been doing that for a few RUclipsrs in the last couple of weeks.
90 dollar screwdriver. they are somehow serious with that. any 10dollar screwdriver is just as good.
* inserts segue to our sponsor*
@@gravity00x I would say normal screwdriver is even better because that back and forth movements hurts after a while
@@gravity00x I'm plannign to get myself €144 screwdriver from Wera as a NY present. That's just the handle, I already have the bits. Those were around €100
TOSLINK always sounded like an English insult to my American ear.
“You absolute toslink...”
Yeah, I'm English and it makes me giggle, I wouldn't want to discuss it with my mom !! I would sound like a 'tosser'
Toshiba Link it is
To my British ear it sounds about the same. What toss pot came up with it?
" I don't give a bloody TOSLINK ! "
@@DannyStrickland-g9k :)
Low key, brilliant designs aside, DIY Perks strongest asset is that voice! Narration so superb I happily stuck around through the ad read.
Yes, if he ever decides to try a new career, he'd make a killing narrating audiobooks!
So rare to find someone so brilliant in so many different crafts and subjects. Blown away
That's like the extreme version of using those IR LEDs directly connected to sound sources and headphones, but so well made that it's not just practical, but up to the highest HiFi standards. Fantastic job Matt, once again you've smashed the expectations!
absolutly insane! having a old tech, being used like a brand new invention. incredible genius.
I like this a lot. Especially for ceiling-mounted speakers. There are two things I'd do differently for my own setup:
1. Use IR lasers, so they're not visible when room is darkened. Yes, it would require change on the receivers too, but it's not all that difficult to replace regular photodiode with the IR one. The most difficult part would be alignment, but it would be worth it. Also, you can't use mirrors to reflect IR, but plain glass would work because glass acts like a mirror for infrared wavelengths. You could even use convex receiving glass to widen the beam going to the speaker for a bit of easier alignment, or to allow speakers to be moved a little bit.
2. Separate the emitters from the base unit, and make them much more immovable by screwing them directly to the wall, like you did with the mirrors, just to minimize the chance of accidental misalignment during use.
Mirrors will reflect IR with no problem lol Usually the silvered surface is on the back end of the glass, so the IR effectively hits glass and reflects without ever "seeing the mirror" .. that said aluminum foil would be best for reflecting IR
I think switching to IR laser is not necessary.
1. Laser routes to the ceiling and goes to the backside of speakers, so it is not visible even in the night unless you fill smoke in the room. Actually laser does not seen in almost any case unless you target it in your sight.
2. IR laser is hard to see, so aligning mirrors and reorganizing the speaker position becomes harder. There is no advantage to take the bother.
IR is overrated. How much easier it would have been for everyone if ir remote controls were actually operating with visible light. a) you'd see the remote is trying to do something, i.e. the battery is not dead and the button is not dead; b) you know what are you pointing it at, and if you're doing a good job. I just hate it how tech things are always trying to hide functional parts, at a detriment to the function.
toslink is designed specifically for red, so this would require replacing their phototransistors/photodiodes, which would probably require modifying their amplification circuitry on the DAC boards... probably not worth the effort.
@@victortitov1740Wouldn't there be too much interference? Like imagine the sun shining on your tv and it turns on by itself. Actually on 2nd thought, the sun emits IR too 😂. I guess the way they encode the blinking makes it almost impossible to match in natural circumstances. Reminds me of the way the 1st tv remote worked - sound. Didn't cath on since the sound of keys would turn the tv on 😅. There's a vudeo abt it on that amazing yt channel - Technology Connections
Ingenious! I love it! The only potential problem I see with this setup is the fact that speakers may move slightly with time, due to vibration, which may cause them to lose line of sight of the laser.
Long before Bluetooth was a thing, I used to own a pair of Sony made infrared wireless headphones. You could move freely across the room as long as there were no obstacles between you and the transmitter. So, there you go, consider it an idea for a future project.
definitely wasnt expecting an LTT sponsor on a video by the king of diys, love seeing how far this channel has come to in the past few years, it surprises me how this isnt more commercially available as a wireless solution, kudos for the great build!
I do not know what to admire first. The idea, the passion or the result.!!! HE IS a gift to humanity.!!!
This is so cool! But I can’t believe you didn’t use brass once!
The laser diodes have a brass shell! 😃
@@DIYPerks 😂😂
@@DIYPerks 🤣🤣🤣
Would have loved to see brass shining too 😂
Shots fired! Lol.
This is by far the sleekest looking speaker system I have seen. No one will believe the entire thing is 3d printed at home. Cool !!
When looking at the videos of this channel, I always wonder: How many people are involved creating these gems? Everything is done to perfection here. There is the presentation in perfect English by a very enthusiasm inducing very good looking young man. There is the 3D design of the entire project. There is the research, the animations, the graphics, the video editing, the audio editing, the educational explanations, the script and.. there is the production... and application in a real-life situation... all done to absolute perfection... I can not stress enough how much I admire the effort and attention to detail that goes into every video of this channel.. Simply unbelievable! Big gratitude to all who have contributed!!
If I counted correctly it is:
HDMI -> D/A -> A/D -laser-> D/A -> Speaker?
Are you certain that all of those conversions do not add latency or affect audio quality?
Audio quality, certainly, about lag, I think it'll be barely joticeable, much less than a bluetooth speaker
You could use a S/PDIF coax to optical or HDMI to S/PDIF converter instead. Then you're just dealing with digital audio until it reaches the speakers.
Because of the transmission line stands, the speakers do seem to be higher than optimal for best listening. The horizontal interference pattern you avoided by mounting the tweeter on top of the center channel didn't go away, it just became a vertical pattern instead, and the same vertical pattern exists with the other 4 speakers affecting the two woofers. Since they are all considerably above ear height, different people may experience different interference patterns based on their height rather than how far off center the are sat. Because the woofers are mainly for the lower frequencies, it may not be as much of a problem as the wavelengths are so long at that point, but it's still something to think about if you were to revisit this idea someday.
I thought the same thing. What’s also bad is the long transmission line. Phase alignment is probably very difficult with that. Additionally, the setup doesn’t have Dolby Digital or DTS:X.
I thought, fuck that it's just cool.
yes! Dolby have mentioned this in their 5.1 setup guide to have your speakers as close to ear height possible, not to mention room correction
Agreed, also the tweeter should ideally be the closest driver to your ear, so the center channel speaker should be mounted upside down since it’s above the TV
I just built a pair of pedestal speakers to have next to the bed so I don't need the volume up on the tv. This is a great idea! If you mount the sensor high and just run a wire down the wall, you won't break the beam when you walk in front of it! ❤
This guy is what most tech RUclipsrs want to be. Great video.
7:05 and now for this segue to,our sponsor 😂
And now, time to let creators actually make a living, feed their families and make free content for you
It's hard to put into word just how unfathomably cool I think this whole thing is!
Stunning project! My only qualm is that, after the instructional lecture on off axis interference patterns for the centre channel, all your LR and surrounds with mid mounted tweeters are way higher than ear height. Meaning they run into the exact same interference pattern problem. Just vertically rather than horizontally.
You never stop pushing boundaries. Love this channel.. Your brain refresh rate is 240fps... What an awesome build. Can't wait to see what's cooking next..
I would fly anywhere in the world just to see a gallery of all the DIYPerks creations. Art and functional engineering at the highest level.
5:41 "this requires some assembly, just like this segue to our sponsor, LTT!"
I've been building my own speakers for a very long time, although you didn't go technical with your explanations to confuse people, you were very spot on... that was a brilliant job.
I love your mix of off-the-shelf parts, out-of-the-box thinking and science-based engineering and design with garage manufacturing.
and BRASS
I'm always blown away by the consistent quality and cool ideas that Matt produces for this channel. I've not watched a video yet that I haven't enjoyed both the concept and the execution of. Really great stuff!
This is something I've been considering since a demo in my physics class in highschool, but I've never put the effort to actually design, much less make, it, so this is amazing to me!
How do you always manage to find the coolest projects to do??? Amazing work!!! Now I just need to find 72 uninterrupted hours to follow your lead. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
The laser technology used in itself is so cool. But, as an Audiophile I couldn't help but focus on all the attention to detail you have about the soundstage, independent class d amplifier usage for individual drivers, frequency distribution, all of this is so cool, I bet it sounds so amazing. Kudos, and regards man! God Bless!
6:58 if you do this, make sure to uninstall the honey extension first so he actually gets paid.
At first I thought the speakers were too tall but I think he’s basically sitting on the floor through this video so it’s probably a normal ear high when sitting in a chair. You can see that if he was standing he would be towering over them. This is a super cool project that I never would have thought of. I love to see the continued development on TL speakers and hiding a subwoofer behind the TV is brilliant.
If that's how he normally watches TV, they definitely ARE too tall. Just look at how high above the screen those speakers are.
And don't forget these are MTM, which is a configuration with a very narrow vertical radiation pattern.
@ I don’t think he watches TV that way, I think he just set them up in his filming room for this video. I saw another video where he shows this same room “behind the scenes” and it’s a very small room.
Anyway, I’m sure if he put all this effort into building a wireless system, he intends to put it in a place with more space. Perhaps he has a secret plan to get people to buy the plans to find out how tall they actually are.
@@ryanchappell5962the center channel is above the tv... The left and right are the same height.... These are very clearly way too high
@@Ralphman21 you might be right. They do look pretty high. We need to know the dimensions!
The acrylic legs should be lower, better have 3 shorter tubes.
I think I've already said this to you on another video, but it fascinates me how ingenious you are with your engineering skills. And the fact that (I think) in the beginning you were working while starting your RUclips channel and still doing crazy designs is awesome. You're a real engineer sir.
This is such an innovative approach to optical digital audio! Turning it into a wireless laser Dolby system using DACs per speaker is genius. You’ve outdone yourself once again. This solves one of my issues by using DACs that support optical inputs. Huge props to you, and thanks for this solution! ❤
In high school circa 1986, I helped a friend make some speakers, and we used the same paint you did on the boxes. :D
One of the best channels on youtube. Just tech
genuinely love this channel.
Your floors must be really solid. I can picture building this and then the sound cutting in and out when someone walks across the room. Also I’m surprised you didn’t place a small tube between the clear ones to hide the power wire
I never QUITE feel as happy as I do when I see a new DIY Perks video on my homepage
Thank god. After that last video about the big iPhone or some earlier ones focused on the pS5… I had begun to worry about this channel becoming just another run of the mill Pander-Fest.
This video today is the type of content that is the heart and soul of this channel. Thank you for returning to your original style that is much more “Nintendo” and much less “EA Sports” so to speak. Genius project sir!
How come this guy is giving finger to the big companies who wants to keep us from low cost future tech and rob us of money? This is amazing and absolutely brilliant. I want one....
I never would have thought you could get such low latency and distinct power cycles from bargain bin laser diodes.
Here are some ideas about the implementation:
1. The ceiling mirrors only need line-of-sight along a very narrow path. It should be possible to hide the red light from the viewing position with some covers or enclosures.
2. Opaque transmission line tubes would make hiding power cables much easier.
3. The sub, front, and center speakers are so close to the transmitter already I would probably just use speaker wire for them, along with a decent 3.1 amp.
Or even better, just use infrared lasers. Might make aiming them a bit more difficult, but would completely hide the red laser light.
1:33 My cat almost took out my tv
It's hard to believe this is all DIY. The design and implementation both look super profession, even the idea itself is mindblowing. Great job on this build, again!
You have no idea... How many times I repeatedly watched your each vedios... It's because of ur pronunciation and sound quality also ur vedio gualities... Each vedios and new inventions are amazing... Waiting for the next vedio❤❤❤
My favorite channel on RUclips
One of the best placed sponsorships I have seen. Wasn't annoying because it's needed as part of the build. well done.
Matt's two (or more) birds one stone approach to DIY always blows my mind, great job
I actually made a wireless home theater surround sound system out of the sony HTIB's back in 2007 using solar cells and laser pointers. Other than ANY obstruction causing issues it was utterly AMAZING.
oh man your video brings me back. My grandparents used to have some headphones for watching TV that worked very similar to this. The set had an IR transmitter that blasted the signal all over the room so you could sit wherever. You could also adjust volume and tone on each headphone individually. Can't remember what brand they were, but I wanna say Panasonic.
Sony
Its so unfortunate that SPDIF was never really updated on the specification protocol and the multichannel capability was never really adopted. The theoretical bandwidth of that port is technically limitless, as over the years we have managed to send even 1 terabit per second down a single laser light in labs. Imagine if we had kept updating SPDIF through the 90s, 2000s, 2010s... We could have a single fiber cable transferring uncompressed 11.2.4 channel Atmos audio now days (which is only about 1.3gbit of bandwidth needed, easy to do and cheap now days).
Incredible project though. Truly genius. Wish I hadnt already run wires through my walls or Id definitely go this crazy hacky route as its exactly what I love doing.
While theoretical bandwidth of that port is indeed much bigger than what is used by Toslink, it isn't limitless. Since cables themselves are just thin plastic rods that can't have bandwidth comparable to that of internet cables for example
11.2.4? Might as well just go with third-order Ambisonics and get full-sphere surround-sound in 16 channels.
@@akeem2983yeah well limitless would imply infinity, it’s figurative of course.
@@akeem2983 But just like copper Ethernet cables, fiber ethernet cables, and HDMI specs that upgrade the electronics on each end, twist wires differently, use higher spec and better polished fibers, etc. we would also have updated the electronics in the SPIDIF spec if it has continued to get updated and used a tighter tolerance laser, better spec fiber, etc.. Just because the current SPDIF port has a very low grade plastic fiber and very low spec electronics and it is indeed limited doesnt mean it would have stayed using all those parts as we tried to send more bandwidth over it. And to be honest it would really need very little upgrading on the plastic fiber side to have it passing a couple gigabit, and that would have been capable of being done well over a decade ago for very cheap. Even at the largest channel layouts that home theaters support using completely uncompressed audio we are still very low bandwidth. And if you compressed height channel sound and LFE channel sound we could probably even fit it within 1 gigabit connection which has been dirt cheap on just about every physical medium for 25 years now.
There are optical hdmi cables for long cable runs to mitigate signal degradation
Holy moly We did this with my friends when we were 15yo! Too bad we didn't have any resources to get proper components tho. Funny to see this here
I don't think I've said holy moly since I was 15yo ;)
@@MrQuickLine Well yea. I'm old
It was Kipkay user in YT who made a rudiment version of this. We copied him.
@@LKLM138I used to absolutely love kipkays videos. That's a name I haven't heard in a long long time.
Haaaaaa... How happy would I be of living a life when I had a day each week to make your projects. you simply hit bullseye with every single one of them... amazing engineering, creativity... the videos are a true experience to enjoy!
Ltt doing sponsorships now thats surprising, im also surprised there hasn’t been a collab between these two channels yet
That's a good point, a collab would be amazing
Heaven forbid. Linus couldn't build something if his life depended on it. His company is the Linus media group, not the Linus tech group. The only thing he does well is marketing. Like selling a screwdriver that is a clone of a screwdriver half the price using non standard bits you can only get in his shop... There are better screwdrivers out there using bits you can get everywhere. Only idiots buy from LTT.
Linus discussed the issues with a collab one WAN Show. Basically the issues are distance and time. Linus (or Matt) would have to fly around the planet, and then spend probably weeks for it. So it's just not workable for him.
Yes Mighty Car Mods did fly to Canada for a collab, but that was for a very limited timeframe with everything pre-planned and organised. They're a totally different style to DIY Perks though.
@AustralianMurderTurtle now that you mention it, that does sound familiar. Bit of a shame cuz that would be an amazing collab
C'mon! We need a company to take Matt's great creations, like this one, and do a production run! This setup, is surreal! This would be so good to have!
Dragons den. Deborah Meaden would totally strum her stuntmans knee to PH, 1080P full HD. If she had a set up like this!
A couple of tips. The production of standing waves and places where your sub will have much less power (audibility) is a function of placement and room shape. You might get lucky just dumping it behind the TV and getting a decent response at your viewing position, but it's not very likely. The usual approach is to put the sub at your viewing position, then crawl around the room finding places where it's loudest. Then place it there.
But. The biggest improvement i ever made to my visceral enjoyment of movies, was the addition of simple 'butt kicker'. A small speaker attached directly to the frame of the furniture, so you really feel those low frequencies. Try it. It's an easy win
To me the biggest improvement (after proper placement of every speaker and sub with crawling technique you mentioned) was to use room equalizer wizard (REW) app to measure frequencies of every speaker with mic and then apply EQ that compensated any flaws.
The best part about this whole setup is that if I don't want to do the whole laser, mirror and wireless, I can use the same process and actually get a better surround sound system than what is available in the market. TOS Link is really cheap and even more reliable than copper wires. Plus I can get a fiber cable instead of high quality copper cables used in Audio for cheap where I live.
Indeed best thing about this is decentralisation, you easily replace what ever is malfunctions unlike a multi thousand dollar home theatre setup where everything is connects to a AVR with a built in amplifier.
Honestly I like that because of the fact that with Toslink it Allows for long runs of cable without signal or quality degradation which means I can run the cable around the room to each individual speaker giving a really nice high quality surround sound experience Without cables getting in the way at all as they can be very well hidden along baseboards and behind cabinetry. If I was to do the same thing with something like regular speaker wire The length but also being against things like power And ethernet cables would introduce noise
TOSLINK is not better than copper speaker wire that is $10 per 100 foot. Audiophile cables are BS. Toslink can break internally if you need to take a hard turn. If you are wiring up speakers, just get a cheap used AV receiver and a $10 spool of wire.
Everything is better with LASERS! Even whisky.
what? 😂
flat erf jeebus aint here Sr, what brought u ere?
@@saddikamir7402 Funnily enough, I don't spend my down time subjecting myself to terrible RUclips videos... I like watching good ones!
@@smb1397 Pfff, mate hasn't had any laser whisky... poor guy!
@@SirSicCrusader touche...
18:30 a man of culture i see
This looks like a very well executed project!
I have one theoretical concern though. Theoretical, because you show that in practice it sounds good, but still.
My concern is how many times the audio is converted from digital to analog and back in the signal chain. If I understand correctly, there are the following conversions:
1. D-->A The HDMI splitter/decoder has analog outputs to the center speaker
2. A-->D The signals are digitized bij the DSP board in the center speaker before processing/distribution of the signals
3. D-->A The DSP board in the center speaker outputs its signals analogically
4. A-->D The Toslink transmitters connected to the center speaker digitize the signals before outputting them to the lasers
5. D-->A The Toslink receivers on the speaker side convert the signals back to analog before feeding them to the speakers
6. A-->D The DSP boards in the speakers digitize the signals before processing them/separating the frequency bands for the respective speakers
7. D-->A The DSP boards in the speakers analogize the signals one last time, before they are fed to the channels of the amplifiers in the speakers
That's quite a lot of steps!
I wonder if it would be possible to keep the signals digital throughout (most of) the chain, down to the last DSP board output. And what that would do to the sound quality and/or latency.
You would need an HDMI splitter with digital outputs (ADAT or Toslink). Then, I guess the DSP boards will also have digital inputs and outputs, and those connections might connect more or less directly to a laser or a photoreceiver...
Somewhere in the chain there will have to be a volume control as well.
I don't know how much harder that would be, but it would be interesting for sure.
Missed opportunity for cheesey "segue to the sponsor"
I was enamoured with everything, paying close attention, until you showed uo the lasers hitting the ceiling and the mirrors.
Then I just screamed "I LOVE YOU MAN".
This is probably THE best channel on RUclips.
LTT sponsor of diy perks? This is wild, two of my favorite youtubers working together without need of big companies.
Still my favorite channel on RUclips. You’re living every engineers dream.
This is so awesome! I can't believe that the idea of transmission lines for DIY speakers isn't something I've seen anywhere else! Matt is an algorithm buster and a legend of DIY. I am VERY seriously building this myself...
Because having to aim lasers around a room is a stupid idea.
So, what you are saying, I don't have to crawl under my house to install my 4 rear surround speakers.
I totally get this setup. You make me happy. :)
This can be done with literally any amount of channels, not just two!
Just have to have each channel have its own pre-amp channel and Toslink converter.
BRILLIANT!
I had this exact idea a couple of months ago but lacked the excess speakers to execute it, glad to see my vision come to life!!
ah... you were missing the SPEAKER part. . You had the rest done up, right?
Absolutely, magically MEGA Matt! This project blows every other DIY speaker system on RUclips out of the universe. Your ingenuity and creativity seemingly has no bounds.
plaster of paris mixed with pvc glue is also my favourite type of speaker manufacturing!
PVA, PVC is close but it's chloride instead of alcohol :D
Any help with the ratio? how much PVA to Plaster?
@@Pr0toc01 I also wish to know
@@Pr0toc01 searching it up, maybe 1 part glue to 10 parts of water, try testing a small batch before going big
First he's sponsored by LTT. Now we need a full collab - DIY surround sound for the entire LAN/Badminton center!
17:23 I love that you're sponsored by Linus's screwdriver but you are using what looks like the screwdriver Noctua include in their cooler package, lol
A screwdriver's a screwdriver, as anyone who uses a screwdriver knows. They're all much of a muchness.
As much as I love my LTT screwdriver, one of the disadvantages of a multi-bit screwdriver is that the shaft can only be so small and still fit standard-sized bits. My bet is that the holes there are too small for it to fit, so he used something with a fixed shaft instead
I used to design rifle mounted laser mic systems. riflemen could aim and listen to the location their barrel is pointed. Your design work is top notch and your channel is great.
Every time a spider walks across the ceiling the speakers will cut out as it passes the relevant laser 😂
This guy is living in a different plane of existence than the rest of us. Absolutely insane the level of polish and engineering you are able to put on homemade products.
Amazing how this channel is evolving
2020 - PC enclosure form wood
2024 - Wireless laser speakers
2028 - Functional interstellar spaceship?
2032 - Quantum foam powered interdimensional teleporter?
😅
From the first video you dropped with a 3D printed speaker and the use of a DSP I developed interest in audio production and it has led me to acquire more knowledge, I stayed away from building diy speakers to producing my own amplifier boards with KiCad, to date I’ve produced DSPs, amplifiers, powers supplies and now I’m trying to learn 3D modeling with blender all thanks to you Matt. I’m always checking what video has been dropped thumbs 👍🏽 up man
again another industry leading design and development and manufacturing in a 20 minute video! this is some insane engineering and product design... wow!
You haven't seen much then?
@@bzuidgeest oh look, a replyguy (someone who can only reply with a question mark in their response) looooooooooooool
@@removechan10298 oh look a comment guy that can only comment as a sycophant, getting angry when someone questions their reality. Loooooooooooooooooooool