I think the full Lego speaker is limited by the very small coil, if you used a bigger coil then it would probably be much louder, also if you used a piece of high density insulation foam you could probably get better audio quality out of the membrane.
You're definitely right about the size of the coil - I'm playing with some larger ones with thicker gauges, and the output is much better. Cheers for the idea, I'll see if I can find some insulation foam to play with!
@@JamiesBrickJams it's not just the coil, it's the way the magnet is used. you have to concentrate the magnetic field to the coil. That's why pole pieces are a thing. You need one poll in the inner and the other on the outer. Once you have it right you'll have a dramatic sensitivity increase.
The crackling from the paper membrane speaker sounded like a lot of friction and the membrane slapping back and forth in the frame. I think the main reason the LEGO speaker sounds better, is because it's suspended by rubber bands and doesn't collide with anything while vibrating.
@@JamiesBrickJams The general design of the round paper membrane speaker is very nice, though, maybe a version of that design with a new mounting system would be an idea.
The easiest thing to do is get a large polystyrene square and attach a motor system to it. There have been such speakers built before like this eg "NXT" technology.
I simply cannot fantom how in the actual fuck this sounds so good with those plates, without a resonant casing, it's bloody Lego! I'm losing my mind right now....but in a good way😁😁😁
If you revisit this idea, you should try implementing a cone shape. When I was doing experimentation with making a speaker from scratch, I found that a cone shape had a much more profound effect on quality and volume than anything else I tried. I am pretty sure this is because of how much stiffer a cone is than a flat piece, so it transmits vibrations more evenly through the entire surface of the cone. Since it's lego, I'm not sure how easy a cone shape would be, but I assume a pyramid shape would have a similar effect.
That's interesting, thanks for the heads up - it's a bit more challenging, but it should still be possible to build a sort of cone-shape. It seems worthwhile, so I'll see what I can do ...
You should use a crossover filter and set it up with both speakers, this way you can have the bass on the fully lego build, and the small speaker for treble and mid-tones :D
That's actually a fantastic idea. I did toy with making a separate woofer and tweeter. You're probably right that the paper would make a better tweeter - will see if I can find a filter!
This is actually pretty awesome. The paper one has major distortion in the bass but fairly clear mods and highs. the full Lego one has distortion in the mids and highs. If you put them on a crossover and used the Lego one as a sub and the paper one as a tweeter, I think you could even more balanced sound and it would look super dope
I think one of the biggest contributors to the poor(ish) sound quality is the lack of an enclosure around your speaker. Whenever the membrane compresses air in front of it, it also de-compresses the air behind. This leads to a polar opposite waveform coming from the back side of the speaker (at a much lower amplitude), meaning that all peaks are troughs and all troughs are peaks. To the human ear, this would not sound any different than the intended front facing waveform, but when those two opposite waves hit each other, they level themselves out which leads to some frequency loss over your whole signal. The best way to combat this is to cover the back side with a box. This keeps those negative waveforms from escaping and interfering with your music
It would cancel out lower frequencies somewhat, and also the diffraction is doubled. However, the biggest factors would be the lack of stiffness of the membrane, and the suspension. There are such things as open baffle speakers, and one of the things many people comment on is how it sounds better because of the lack of a box, which adds its own colourations unless you can dampen it properly. And even then, you still get effects from the polar radiation pattern which is omnidirectional at lower frequencies, but becomes forward directional at higher frequencies. Open baffle speakers act as a dipole at many more frequencies and can potentially sound better balanced. The downside to open baffle is that you need about 4x the bass driver area or power, to create the same amount of perceived bass due to the cancellation you mentioned.
That's such a great explanation, thanks for sharing! That seems to be a common suggestion here, so I'll definitely build an enclosure for the next version of the woofer! Out of interest, does an enclosure also impact tweeters much?
@@JamiesBrickJams Tweeters usually come enclosed, so they actually don't need a separate enclosure. They are vibrating at high frequencies and are moving a relatively small volume of air (compared to woofers), so you should be fine not caring about their enclosure that much in a project like this.
@@JamiesBrickJams you could easily make an enclosure. Wood is the standard material, but you can use other materials. Insulation, which can be made from various materials is also important to have in the empty space.
I'm gonna need you to make more content on Lego speakers ASAP! We need different designs, materials, strategies. Make a Sub and tweeters with crossovers. That would be some quality content. Awesome work!
Wow, your video quality is incredible. I was completely surprised to see how many subs you have. Keep it up, man. You're going to become an amazing lego RUclipsr!
Holy cow the sound you get out of that is impressive at the end. I'd buy a kit for students! Just the simplicity alone is impressive. A project idea I have would be to make a pill dispenser with two buttons for morning and night. It will dispense whatever you select works for each. Let's say 8 types of pills. 3 you take only in the morning 2 only at night and 3 are both. Each section of pills would need a way to select if it's a morning, evening, or both. I'd imagine it could be a modular system as well.
Thanks! Yeah I was astonished how good it sounded. Need to scale it up now. Yours a pretty interesting concept.. I wonder how you'd know (or infer) what time of day it is?
You created a Lego panel speaker :) a good improvement would be to place the coil off-centre in both directions, Tech Ingredients found 2/5th a good position to eliminate harmonic resonance.
Now that's interesting, I didn't know other positions would yield better results. Sounds like I've got some experimenting to do - thanks for the recommendation!
If you keep delivering videos of this quality your channel is gonna explode! Unique and fresh content, and the production quality is top notch. Love it
Maybe the second one is not pretty, but it has an appealing kind of brutal technical aesthetic. Also it would make a nice backdrop in any MGS or NGE diorama. I'd love to make one.
for the paper "cone" you should have it suspended like the lego "cone" because the bass freqs weren't dissipated when it got to the outer rim causing the freq to "ripple" back causing the distortion.
You're totally right. I actually did try that, but then it seemed like using Lego at all was pointless, and I nearly scrapped the video. Just got lucky that the Lego membrane happened to work. But I'll be trying your suggestion again on a larger scale in a while ...
I know why there was buzzing in the first speaker, it's because the membrane and the structure weren't one solid piece, and are in fact not properly sealed together to leave no room for the parts to vibrate against each other kind of issue.
@@JamiesBrickJams Well, I haven't heard it in person so I can only compare this speaker through your microphone (same as mine BTW) and my headphones, versus terrible PA system I've heard with my own ears. There's some terrible stuff out there being sold to giant companies that don't care how their speakers in stores sound.
Upping the voltage (and thereby power) makes it sound much worse as the rattle increases 😅 But yeah, a thinner lighter membrane, along with an enclosure would improve it a lot
I'm thinking that the reason why the second speaker is better but less loud, is because the diaphragm is solid, thus moving less air, but not having to contort to fit around a circle thanks to it being attached only via a couple rubber bands.
I believe the buzzing/thwacking is from the paper reaching the end of its travel, I could easily be wrong, but I feel like a paper diaphragm with some folds in it to add travel distance would mitigate most of the buzzing issues.
Maybe try building a Lego speaker box for your Lego speaker? You would get more bass or low end sound out of it. You might get a kick out of going online to Parts Express and looking at their cheap Exciters & Tactile Transducers. They are designed to turn almost anything instantly into a speaker
I feel like you could take this concept even further by suspending the diaphragm with a rubber membrane (to address that rattling sound caused by tensioning the paper plate), and maybe using a stronger magnet. Combine it with a lego dome tweeter, put it in a vented plywood (or cardboard, really) box, and you'd have a full on speaker!
or you could even cut a hole in one of those Lego tubs lol, i'd love to see a follow up video, I feel like this concept could be taken to a much further extent considering that all dynamic drivers are basically just a voice coil and a magnet. I've been trying to understand speakers better myself, and I feel this is a super interesting example of how speakers really work at their core.
Some great tips, cheers man! I'll certainly be doing an upgrade in the future with an enclosure and crossover to send higher frequencies to a tweeter. I love the idea of using a Lego tub or cardboard box. Could save me a lot of pieces I'll never use again 😅
I know alot of people have people have thrown tips at you already, but it's worth throwing this out there: a good speaker has these attributes: a light but rigid diaphragm, a well wound coil thats tight to the magnet without restricting movement, and a large magnet. You should also consider adding a surround/suspension to the outer edges of your paper plate model, this will give greater freedom of movement to the diaphragm and eliminating much of the distortion. The diaphragm should also be a cone or concave, this gives lighter materials strength they lack when flat. Flat diaphragms suffer from distortion much like your first version because they are too flexible across their surface. Your second one worked better (partly because it had rubber bands acting as a surround) but its mass (weight) was creating unwanted resistance and absorbing much of the coil's output, thus how much quieter it sounded. A combination of the two, with the paper plate model handling mids and the highs and the rigid plate model handling the low mids in the base probably would have sounded better than either of the two on their own. That's why you commonly see a tweeter and a mid speaker (and sometimes a bass) in hifi stereo sets. Spreading the output across multiple speakers based on frequency increases the fidelity of the reproduced sound. Food for thought.
All fantastic advice, thanks so much for taking to time to write that all out! Yeah you're definitely right, I think suspending the paper one would have yielded better results. Do you think using pneumatic tubing as a dampener might also work? Just brainstorming some ideas to keep more of it Lego. I'm guessing (just listening to other commenters) that building an enclosure for the woofer would allow better reverb and boost the lower frequencies a little? As you mentioned, I think a next step is to filter the audio signal to separate tweeters and woofer. Thanks for the helpful commenting! 🙏
@@JamiesBrickJams Yes I think you could use pneumatic tubing for the surround. If that fails some thin foam (like the kind used for stacking china plates for storage) cut into a ring and glued to the paper could work. An enclosure for the bass would help but remember not to seal it off or provide something flexible in a wall cut out to act as a buffer for the changes in air pressure, otherwise the bass speaker will be fighting against the air inside the box. I think the biggest problem you will have keeping it mostly Lego is that the diaphragm really can't be made of Lego without poor sound quality. Do you have any of the plastic sails that came with the pirate kits? Those were pretty flexible and they had holes in them so you could mount the pneumatic tubing to them
Looks like I'm gonna have to go shopping for pirate sails ☠️ Gotcha, so keep a hope in the box (I'm guessing like most woofers have) to allow air to travel in and out. Thanks again for the pointers!
This is awesome, would like to see how it would sound with other lighter or even heavier membranes, Would also be nice to see a problem and solution explanation. Like the bass isn’t good because the membrane is touching so rubber bands will help suspend it. Anyway look forward to see more of your projects and videos
You're totally right, I'm kicking myself for not covering more of the problem/solution journey. A good learning point, and thanks for pointing it out - will try to add more of that process in future videos!
You 100% gotta make instructions for this. Id love to try to build one myself. Great video, great build and idea. 10/10 definitely gonna be watching more of you
the "solid state" speaker from only lego and rubber bands looks dope and industrial as fuck! would totally put this in my living room bc im a sucker for technical lookin crap Keep up the good work!
Yeah there might be some that move the magnet.. But typically the magnet is heavy, which you don't want to mount on a membrane or it dampens the movement
That is very impressive. Love the second design because it only uses lego with the exception of the copper coil and magnet. For 100% lego, consider the use a DC lego motor as the magnet and coil arrangement.
I did make one with the coil wrapped around some linkages and it was in vertical format with half between two magnets (if I'd had 2 more magnets I would have switched them to opposite pole orientation to do the top half of the coil. This was attached to some scoop shaped paper half cylinder/arch shape to produce sound. It worked okay but was not very efficient. I would enough wire not to short circuit the stereo I was using.
I'd kill for sets like that - I'm honestly astonished Lego hasn't created lines for machinery like pneumatic engines and whatnot. They're leaving a lot of money on the table!
The reason the plate speaker sounded better is because of the different kind of speaker. With a solid plate you don't necessarily need that back enclosure. There's a whole bunch of physics and air flow that goes behind it. I bet you 10 bucks if you put the round speaker in an enclosure it would sound way better than the plate one.
finally someone who actually makes a speaker from scratch. I watched a dude's tutorial on how to DIY a high quality microphone and the tutorial started with getting a microphone.
@@JamiesBrickJams Don't get any fancy cleaning products on it. I have parts shattering now all over my room after wiping them with a sanitizing wipe or spraying them with a sanitizing spray. One model turned back into granules after using the latter. Every pin shattered, every filled axle hole split and crumbled (sans the gears), even some of the straight beams broke. It was a 1:10 Ferrari from 2004.
The cone or diaphragm needs to be flexible but rigid in just the right way to recreate a truly authentic unimpeded sound. Unfortunatley, not one substitute will do as there's a crazy amount of engineering that goes into this alone.
Haha now that you mention it, I've got some tests planned with much bigger magnets, coils, and plates. Wanna see just how ridiculous a woofer you can make with Lego 😄
For the first speaker design, Youre missing the suspension, for what you have on the second design is more like a tweeter, the rubber suspsneison is what will help give it the excursion and will give it better bass response if its decoupled from the rest of the body. In therory the first desgin is actually better for the full spectrum of sound and the second design is more similar to just producing higher frequencies.
Yeah I think you're definitely right, I should have tried the paper membrane suspended.. but I really wanted to keep it as much Lego as possible, and having a suspended paper membrane with rubber bands felt like there was no point to the Lego. But a couple comments suggested using a Lego box to keep it Lego, so I'll give that a try 😄
This is super cool! You should try making a planar driver next! I also think you could make a crossover for the paper and Lego speakers because the paper was better for treble and Lego was better for bass
That's a great idea! I've actually been toying with the idea of that as there is a surprising amount of mechanical engineering in building a regular speaker (out of Lego). A planar driver might actually simplify that a little. And definitely will try a crossover - it's ordered and waiting for it to arrive 😉
As a general basic rule, heavier membranes equal better bass but worse everything else, lighter membranes are better in the highs and worse in the lows
i watched your wiggler video yesterday but just noticed how little subs you actually have. what in the hell? the whole experience is so high quality I'd have expected you to have way more. underrated as hell, i hope you get the recognition you deserve, keep going man! :)
@@RennieAsh taking apart that they sometimes do nowadays, i was appreciating the skill and quality of the videomaking, comparable to a channel with a way higher budget
This is so cool! Glad I got it recommended. Keep up the good work! Your content is as good as JK, Brick Experiment and Brick Technology's. You´re worthy of much more than 3,6k subs, I hope you continue to gain traction!
Holy hell I wouldn't dream of comparing my stuff to those giants 😳, but I'm honoured to be mentioned in the same space - I absolutely love their work! For now I'll keep putting out these odd experiments and trying to bump quality 😁 Thanks man!
Your basic idea is good but you might want to see how a real speaker is made or take a real one apart. I think one of the huge problems with the sound and action of this is the voice coil part. It needs to be closer (very slim fit but not rubbing on the magnet, or magnet mounted steal center poll) or centered on the magnet (back to front with out the second magnet) is my best estimation. A funnel, cone shape will give it more clarity as well.
Thanks for the advice here - very helpful! Deffo agree, this was a very sloppy job, and needs a lot of refinement. Got a few more experiments to do with the Lego one, but will attempt an all round upgraded version in the near future! Appreciate your tips 🙏
the paper cone was a better idea .. if you had put some sort of flexible membrane around it between the cone and the frame .. it would have been a typical speaker .. worth revisiting with a flexible membrane
what about if you used a balloon as the speaker membrane? blow the balloon up, push it hard against the ring and deflate, it'll hold its self in place too.
I think the full Lego speaker is limited by the very small coil, if you used a bigger coil then it would probably be much louder, also if you used a piece of high density insulation foam you could probably get better audio quality out of the membrane.
You're definitely right about the size of the coil - I'm playing with some larger ones with thicker gauges, and the output is much better. Cheers for the idea, I'll see if I can find some insulation foam to play with!
@@JamiesBrickJams isnt it better with thin gauges though? i could be wrong but isnt mostly the amount of winding that matters?
@@JamiesBrickJams now i wanna see an update on that, im subbed ! please make an upadate
@@theratking14yes, it’s only the number of coils that matters. Size only improves maximum conductivity,which isn’t a problem at those currents
@@JamiesBrickJams it's not just the coil, it's the way the magnet is used. you have to concentrate the magnetic field to the coil. That's why pole pieces are a thing. You need one poll in the inner and the other on the outer. Once you have it right you'll have a dramatic sensitivity increase.
The crackling from the paper membrane speaker sounded like a lot of friction and the membrane slapping back and forth in the frame. I think the main reason the LEGO speaker sounds better, is because it's suspended by rubber bands and doesn't collide with anything while vibrating.
You're totally right, the paper membrane design was terrible - I'll do some tests with a better suspended membrane
@@JamiesBrickJams The general design of the round paper membrane speaker is very nice, though, maybe a version of that design with a new mounting system would be an idea.
@@JamiesBrickJamsthere is a reason speakers have rubber around the paper to connect it with the frame ;)
@@Sena121 Hey, yes, the rubber pieces (hopefully) reduce vibrations a bit!
I know how speakers work, but I'm always surprised how one single vibrating membrane can produce such a clear, broad spectrum of sound.
Me too, it's wild! So simple, yet so impressive. Though I now realise to get something sounding good is another massive jump in complexity
The easiest thing to do is get a large polystyrene square and attach a motor system to it. There have been such speakers built before like this eg "NXT" technology.
I don't! ( Know how speakers work) so this is soo good news to me and great video. Jamie, Thank you so very much for such a cool idea.
I simply cannot fantom how in the actual fuck this sounds so good with those plates, without a resonant casing, it's bloody Lego! I'm losing my mind right now....but in a good way😁😁😁
@@bojandimitrieskimilenkovic9226 Absolutely 😁 And best of luck if you decide to make your own - They're really pretty easy to make!
If you revisit this idea, you should try implementing a cone shape. When I was doing experimentation with making a speaker from scratch, I found that a cone shape had a much more profound effect on quality and volume than anything else I tried. I am pretty sure this is because of how much stiffer a cone is than a flat piece, so it transmits vibrations more evenly through the entire surface of the cone.
Since it's lego, I'm not sure how easy a cone shape would be, but I assume a pyramid shape would have a similar effect.
That's interesting, thanks for the heads up - it's a bit more challenging, but it should still be possible to build a sort of cone-shape. It seems worthwhile, so I'll see what I can do ...
The fact you made a speaker out of almost all Lego is insane. I hope you get a million subs! You deserve it!
Ha thanks man, I'm glad some folks are getting a kick out of it! Perfect to try out as an easy weekend project 🙂
its smart guy. but lego is one of whore today. let them to disapear.
I hope he gets 6 million you asshole he deserves so much more so buzz off hater
You should use a crossover filter and set it up with both speakers, this way you can have the bass on the fully lego build, and the small speaker for treble and mid-tones :D
That's actually a fantastic idea. I did toy with making a separate woofer and tweeter. You're probably right that the paper would make a better tweeter - will see if I can find a filter!
@@JamiesBrickJams I would love to see a video with this ;)
@@JamiesBrickJams you can use capacitors to make high and low pass filters
Quite simple, you can go by trial and error to find what sounds best
Hard to believe this isn't a 100,000 + sub channel! Amazing production quality and great explanations! Hope to see you grow very soon!
Thanks so much, it's amazing to see how supportive everyone is! Appreciate you 😁 I'll keep working on them
I can only agree
Wait what. I thought it was. Wow.
It’s a very new channel it seems. It will reach that milestone soon
I was so surprised when I checked after seeing this comment. 😅
This is actually pretty awesome. The paper one has major distortion in the bass but fairly clear mods and highs. the full Lego one has distortion in the mids and highs. If you put them on a crossover and used the Lego one as a sub and the paper one as a tweeter, I think you could even more balanced sound and it would look super dope
Thanks for the recommendation! That's definitely on my to do list - will work on that in a future video 😁
I think one of the biggest contributors to the poor(ish) sound quality is the lack of an enclosure around your speaker. Whenever the membrane compresses air in front of it, it also de-compresses the air behind. This leads to a polar opposite waveform coming from the back side of the speaker (at a much lower amplitude), meaning that all peaks are troughs and all troughs are peaks. To the human ear, this would not sound any different than the intended front facing waveform, but when those two opposite waves hit each other, they level themselves out which leads to some frequency loss over your whole signal. The best way to combat this is to cover the back side with a box. This keeps those negative waveforms from escaping and interfering with your music
It would cancel out lower frequencies somewhat, and also the diffraction is doubled.
However, the biggest factors would be the lack of stiffness of the membrane, and the suspension.
There are such things as open baffle speakers, and one of the things many people comment on is how it sounds better because of the lack of a box, which adds its own colourations unless you can dampen it properly. And even then, you still get effects from the polar radiation pattern which is omnidirectional at lower frequencies, but becomes forward directional at higher frequencies. Open baffle speakers act as a dipole at many more frequencies and can potentially sound better balanced.
The downside to open baffle is that you need about 4x the bass driver area or power, to create the same amount of perceived bass due to the cancellation you mentioned.
That's such a great explanation, thanks for sharing! That seems to be a common suggestion here, so I'll definitely build an enclosure for the next version of the woofer! Out of interest, does an enclosure also impact tweeters much?
@@JamiesBrickJams Tweeters usually come enclosed, so they actually don't need a separate enclosure. They are vibrating at high frequencies and are moving a relatively small volume of air (compared to woofers), so you should be fine not caring about their enclosure that much in a project like this.
@@JamiesBrickJams you could easily make an enclosure. Wood is the standard material, but you can use other materials. Insulation, which can be made from various materials is also important to have in the empty space.
This was an amazing video! The production quality was on par with youtubers with 10,000x more subscribers. Keep up the good work!
Big thanks, I really appreciate your comment, it actually means a lot ❤️ I'll keep them coming!
I'm gonna need you to make more content on Lego speakers ASAP! We need different designs, materials, strategies. Make a Sub and tweeters with crossovers. That would be some quality content. Awesome work!
Looks like that's what folks want, so I'll do some more experimenting over time! And thanks 😁
Wow, your video quality is incredible. I was completely surprised to see how many subs you have. Keep it up, man. You're going to become an amazing lego RUclipsr!
Thanks so much for the encouragement - there's many more ideas coming! Appreciate you 😁
Holy cow the sound you get out of that is impressive at the end. I'd buy a kit for students! Just the simplicity alone is impressive.
A project idea I have would be to make a pill dispenser with two buttons for morning and night. It will dispense whatever you select works for each. Let's say 8 types of pills. 3 you take only in the morning 2 only at night and 3 are both. Each section of pills would need a way to select if it's a morning, evening, or both. I'd imagine it could be a modular system as well.
Thanks! Yeah I was astonished how good it sounded. Need to scale it up now. Yours a pretty interesting concept.. I wonder how you'd know (or infer) what time of day it is?
@@JamiesBrickJams I would imagine some kind of stepper system, so that you can schedule which one to put for each morning, and night for each day
This is an incredible idea and a great example of why a good sounding system typically requires multiple types of speakers and proper crossover
Definitely agree, it's given me a lot of admiration for just how perfect a basic commercial speaker system must be!
You created a Lego panel speaker :) a good improvement would be to place the coil off-centre in both directions, Tech Ingredients found 2/5th a good position to eliminate harmonic resonance.
Now that's interesting, I didn't know other positions would yield better results. Sounds like I've got some experimenting to do - thanks for the recommendation!
If you keep delivering videos of this quality your channel is gonna explode!
Unique and fresh content, and the production quality is top notch.
Love it
Hey thanks a lot, I'm really glad you're enjoying the experiments! Really appreciate the support - will keep them coming 😁
Maybe the second one is not pretty, but it has an appealing kind of brutal technical aesthetic. Also it would make a nice backdrop in any MGS or NGE diorama. I'd love to make one.
Aw thanks 😁 Best of luck if you dlo make your own!
Can't wait to see your channel hit 50k subs, it's guaranteed with this quality of content. Great vid!
Aw thanks, appreciate it! That'd be an amazing day, but happy to just enjoy the process for now
for the paper "cone" you should have it suspended like the lego "cone" because the bass freqs weren't dissipated when it got to the outer rim causing the freq to "ripple" back causing the distortion.
You're totally right. I actually did try that, but then it seemed like using Lego at all was pointless, and I nearly scrapped the video. Just got lucky that the Lego membrane happened to work. But I'll be trying your suggestion again on a larger scale in a while ...
I know why there was buzzing in the first speaker, it's because the membrane and the structure weren't one solid piece, and are in fact not properly sealed together to leave no room for the parts to vibrate against each other kind of issue.
5:45 reminds me so much of the times we were drifting around in old crappy shitboxes back in highschool. Every car had audio that sounded like this
😂
Unbelievable that the second design sounds on par with or better than commercial speakers installed in stores/malls/elevators/parks/stadiums.
Definitely wouldn't go that far, but appreciate the compliment 😄
@@JamiesBrickJams Well, I haven't heard it in person so I can only compare this speaker through your microphone (same as mine BTW) and my headphones, versus terrible PA system I've heard with my own ears. There's some terrible stuff out there being sold to giant companies that don't care how their speakers in stores sound.
Maybe this can be further improved by uping the voltage and using thiner lego for a membrame? Still amazing this works at all.
Upping the voltage (and thereby power) makes it sound much worse as the rattle increases 😅 But yeah, a thinner lighter membrane, along with an enclosure would improve it a lot
I'm thinking that the reason why the second speaker is better but less loud, is because the diaphragm is solid, thus moving less air, but not having to contort to fit around a circle thanks to it being attached only via a couple rubber bands.
I think you're exactly right 👌
I believe the buzzing/thwacking is from the paper reaching the end of its travel, I could easily be wrong, but I feel like a paper diaphragm with some folds in it to add travel distance would mitigate most of the buzzing issues.
You know that's a great idea, I didn't think of folding the paper - I'm gonna give that a try. Thanks!
Put it in a transparent ported box, it’ll be wayyy better
Transparent Lego here would be a cool touch!
I respect you on your choice of using lego as a speaker. You made an excellent choice of using lego.
Thank you sir, you seem to have good taste 😁
Love your video quality and ideas! I am surprised that you don't have waaay more subscribers yet. Definitely subscribing.
I really appreciate that, thanks for joining!
Maybe try building a Lego speaker box for your Lego speaker? You would get more bass or low end sound out of it. You might get a kick out of going online to Parts Express and looking at their cheap Exciters & Tactile Transducers. They are designed to turn almost anything instantly into a speaker
Woah cool site, cheers for the heads up!
This would make a really fun lego kit for kids, if a couple of those electronics pieces were wrapped up in lego
That'd be amazing, I wish Lego would launch some basic electronics kits!
I feel like you could take this concept even further by suspending the diaphragm with a rubber membrane (to address that rattling sound caused by tensioning the paper plate), and maybe using a stronger magnet. Combine it with a lego dome tweeter, put it in a vented plywood (or cardboard, really) box, and you'd have a full on speaker!
or you could even cut a hole in one of those Lego tubs lol, i'd love to see a follow up video, I feel like this concept could be taken to a much further extent considering that all dynamic drivers are basically just a voice coil and a magnet. I've been trying to understand speakers better myself, and I feel this is a super interesting example of how speakers really work at their core.
Some great tips, cheers man! I'll certainly be doing an upgrade in the future with an enclosure and crossover to send higher frequencies to a tweeter. I love the idea of using a Lego tub or cardboard box. Could save me a lot of pieces I'll never use again 😅
I know alot of people have people have thrown tips at you already, but it's worth throwing this out there: a good speaker has these attributes: a light but rigid diaphragm, a well wound coil thats tight to the magnet without restricting movement, and a large magnet. You should also consider adding a surround/suspension to the outer edges of your paper plate model, this will give greater freedom of movement to the diaphragm and eliminating much of the distortion. The diaphragm should also be a cone or concave, this gives lighter materials strength they lack when flat. Flat diaphragms suffer from distortion much like your first version because they are too flexible across their surface. Your second one worked better (partly because it had rubber bands acting as a surround) but its mass (weight) was creating unwanted resistance and absorbing much of the coil's output, thus how much quieter it sounded. A combination of the two, with the paper plate model handling mids and the highs and the rigid plate model handling the low mids in the base probably would have sounded better than either of the two on their own. That's why you commonly see a tweeter and a mid speaker (and sometimes a bass) in hifi stereo sets. Spreading the output across multiple speakers based on frequency increases the fidelity of the reproduced sound. Food for thought.
All fantastic advice, thanks so much for taking to time to write that all out! Yeah you're definitely right, I think suspending the paper one would have yielded better results. Do you think using pneumatic tubing as a dampener might also work? Just brainstorming some ideas to keep more of it Lego. I'm guessing (just listening to other commenters) that building an enclosure for the woofer would allow better reverb and boost the lower frequencies a little? As you mentioned, I think a next step is to filter the audio signal to separate tweeters and woofer. Thanks for the helpful commenting! 🙏
@@JamiesBrickJams Yes I think you could use pneumatic tubing for the surround. If that fails some thin foam (like the kind used for stacking china plates for storage) cut into a ring and glued to the paper could work. An enclosure for the bass would help but remember not to seal it off or provide something flexible in a wall cut out to act as a buffer for the changes in air pressure, otherwise the bass speaker will be fighting against the air inside the box. I think the biggest problem you will have keeping it mostly Lego is that the diaphragm really can't be made of Lego without poor sound quality. Do you have any of the plastic sails that came with the pirate kits? Those were pretty flexible and they had holes in them so you could mount the pneumatic tubing to them
Looks like I'm gonna have to go shopping for pirate sails ☠️ Gotcha, so keep a hope in the box (I'm guessing like most woofers have) to allow air to travel in and out. Thanks again for the pointers!
Lego speaker + lo-fi stuff, that would sound amazing.
I'll have to give it a shot 😉
This is awesome, would like to see how it would sound with other lighter or even heavier membranes, Would also be nice to see a problem and solution explanation. Like the bass isn’t good because the membrane is touching so rubber bands will help suspend it. Anyway look forward to see more of your projects and videos
You're totally right, I'm kicking myself for not covering more of the problem/solution journey. A good learning point, and thanks for pointing it out - will try to add more of that process in future videos!
Man, this needs to be a real lego set. Would teach kids how speakers work
I'd kill for official Lego sets like that!
9:21 The full lego speaker sounds almost like an old fashioned radio. Which is not bad
It does a bit 😁 It definitely needs a lot of improvement, but at least the concept works for now!
You 100% gotta make instructions for this. Id love to try to build one myself. Great video, great build and idea. 10/10 definitely gonna be watching more of you
Aw thanks v much! 🙏 I reckon at some point I might make a tutorial on how to make one. But it definitely needs some improvements first
awesome video Jamie! the quality is perfect. please consider making a part2.
Thanks! I sure will - got a couple videos to release first, and then will attempt an improved version with some bigger modifications
paper for mids and highs only and lego plates for bass only combined and perfect speaker
You're right, definitely a good idea - I'm gonna try filter out the frequencies and do a separate woofer and tweeter!
9:48 you should have tested it on a video to see if it can handle those to but it can handle music perfectly.
the "solid state" speaker from only lego and rubber bands looks dope and industrial as fuck!
would totally put this in my living room bc im a sucker for technical lookin crap
Keep up the good work!
Thanks man, appreciate it! Haha 'industrial' is one word for it 😅
this is so sick
Never realized it was the coil that moves, not the magnet in speakers.
Yeah there might be some that move the magnet.. But typically the magnet is heavy, which you don't want to mount on a membrane or it dampens the movement
That is very impressive. Love the second design because it only uses lego with the exception of the copper coil and magnet.
For 100% lego, consider the use a DC lego motor as the magnet and coil arrangement.
I'd love to make it all Lego! Someone suggested a pirate sail membrane, train magnets, and power functions wire - will see what I can source
I did make one with the coil wrapped around some linkages and it was in vertical format with half between two magnets (if I'd had 2 more magnets I would have switched them to opposite pole orientation to do the top half of the coil. This was attached to some scoop shaped paper half cylinder/arch shape to produce sound. It worked okay but was not very efficient. I would enough wire not to short circuit the stereo I was using.
Tbh a lego speaker set with specialized Bluetooth modules and safe lego motor type wires would really sell
It'd be like something in a S.T.E.A.M. line
I'd kill for sets like that - I'm honestly astonished Lego hasn't created lines for machinery like pneumatic engines and whatnot. They're leaving a lot of money on the table!
5:50
😂
really like the all Lego one it has this nice chill lo-fi feel
It's definitely the less offensive one 😅
You need to have some sort of enclosure behind the speaker for it to produce any meaningful sound at any meaningful sound volume
The reason the plate speaker sounded better is because of the different kind of speaker. With a solid plate you don't necessarily need that back enclosure. There's a whole bunch of physics and air flow that goes behind it. I bet you 10 bucks if you put the round speaker in an enclosure it would sound way better than the plate one.
You're totally right, I'll experiment with that in later builds!
Throw in a crossover, and use the paper one for the mids and highs, and the all-lego one for the bass
Definitely on my to do list 👌
Crazy underrated channel, im sure you gonna blow up soon. Mindblowing build and quality content. Keep it up!
Really appreciate your comment, thanks! 😁
I need to see a case of some sort on that bad boy. Yet another thing i had no idea you could make with lego😂
You're right I really should have got some more reverb going - will add to the next upgrade!
Cheers friend! I can't wait to watch you succeed!
Cheers buddy, and likewise!
finally someone who actually makes a speaker from scratch. I watched a dude's tutorial on how to DIY a high quality microphone and the tutorial started with getting a microphone.
Damn you mean I could have saved all this time if I just started with a speaker?!?
6:56 ah, the black 3L pin, how we miss thee!
That piece is probably about 25 years old 😅
@@JamiesBrickJams Don't get any fancy cleaning products on it. I have parts shattering now all over my room after wiping them with a sanitizing wipe or spraying them with a sanitizing spray. One model turned back into granules after using the latter. Every pin shattered, every filled axle hole split and crumbled (sans the gears), even some of the straight beams broke. It was a 1:10 Ferrari from 2004.
@@GeneralPurposeVehicl ah man that's heartbreaking 😥 Cheers for the heads up though - these pieces will just have to stay dirty
This is the best video quality i have seen from a < 50k subs channel
Wow that's a hell of a compliment, many thanks!
The cone or diaphragm needs to be flexible but rigid in just the right way to recreate a truly authentic unimpeded sound. Unfortunatley, not one substitute will do as there's a crazy amount of engineering that goes into this alone.
Very true, I'm realising now how easy is it to make a poor speaker.. And how difficult it is to make a good sounding speaker!
Wow! Can't believe it works 😄
Amazing video James!
Thanks man, I was as surprised as you! 😅
What kind of amp do you use? The second speaker actually is fantastic, more coils and some more magnets and that would maybe do the thing 😅😁
Haha now that you mention it, I've got some tests planned with much bigger magnets, coils, and plates. Wanna see just how ridiculous a woofer you can make with Lego 😄
At the next weekend test i miself to build a Lego speaker!
Beim nächsten Wochenendtest werde ich selbst einen Lego-Lautsprecher bauen!
Good luck with it!
For the first speaker design, Youre missing the suspension, for what you have on the second design is more like a tweeter, the rubber suspsneison is what will help give it the excursion and will give it better bass response if its decoupled from the rest of the body. In therory the first desgin is actually better for the full spectrum of sound and the second design is more similar to just producing higher frequencies.
Yeah I think you're definitely right, I should have tried the paper membrane suspended.. but I really wanted to keep it as much Lego as possible, and having a suspended paper membrane with rubber bands felt like there was no point to the Lego. But a couple comments suggested using a Lego box to keep it Lego, so I'll give that a try 😄
This is really fascinating! I thought it would take a lot more to make a passable speaker, but apparently it's possible with even LEGO!
It's surprisingly straightforward! Though making one that sounds really good is another story...
This is super cool! You should try making a planar driver next! I also think you could make a crossover for the paper and Lego speakers because the paper was better for treble and Lego was better for bass
That's a great idea! I've actually been toying with the idea of that as there is a surprising amount of mechanical engineering in building a regular speaker (out of Lego). A planar driver might actually simplify that a little. And definitely will try a crossover - it's ordered and waiting for it to arrive 😉
As a general basic rule, heavier membranes equal better bass but worse everything else, lighter membranes are better in the highs and worse in the lows
Too right, I somehow made the worst of both worlds 😅 But filtering to 2 separate speakers for woofer and tweeter seems like a worthwhile test
Wow that sounds way better than I was expecting, good job!
Thanks! It's got a lot of needed improvements, but it's a good start
It’s all about the suspension. Great video. 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻
A useful learning for sure, though there's a lot more to refine now!
Now play Scarlet Fire through it using a chord mojo...
Coming soon!
You could use the paper membrane for the highs and mids and the lego one for the lows
Definitely, got a crossover ordered, so that's on the menu 👌
I want to build a larger one and record a metal album. Also with weighted posts in the membrane you could probably tune it a little bit.
Tuning with weights is a cool idea!
Nice video.
As a side-thought: If you add a crossover, maybe you could use both, and have the best of both approaches.
Definitely! I've just ordered a crossover 😉
Try to make a box and put it in like a normal speaker and after that perhaps a stereo set! Very cool project!!!
Thanks man! Definitely a good idea - I'll for sure be making an enclosure for it. And if I have enough pieces, stereo would be the dream
you deserve so much more recognition
Hey I just appreciate folks like you enjoying it for now! Thanks!
5:43 Me in the morning, thanks IBS!
😂
That's SO cool! I actually want these speakers in my bedroom!
If you've got some Lego lying around I'm sure you could make them!
I kind of want to hook my bass up to something like that paper membrane speaker. Could give some old school shredded speaker cone distortion vibes!
Haha RIP eardrums 😅
Now do a Lego speaker build with the frame, coil, spider, and diaphragm!
I'm experimenting with each of those, cheers for the suggestions 😉
i watched your wiggler video yesterday but just noticed how little subs you actually have. what in the hell? the whole experience is so high quality I'd have expected you to have way more. underrated as hell, i hope you get the recognition you deserve, keep going man! :)
Well that's a hell of a compliment, thanks a lot! I'm totally new to RUclips, so I really do appreciate how supportive folks are!
Channels don't reach 1M subs overnight. Is the first view to the channel going to say "why don't you have 1M subs yet?"
@@RennieAsh taking apart that they sometimes do nowadays, i was appreciating the skill and quality of the videomaking, comparable to a channel with a way higher budget
This would be a nice sub/woofer. Maybe if you would make a small voice coil for the high frequencies.
For sure, I like the idea of filtering the lower frequencies to a woofer, and then using the paper one as a tweeter.. will see how the tests go 😁
Just WOW!
Ha thanks! 😁
This is so cool! Glad I got it recommended. Keep up the good work! Your content is as good as JK, Brick Experiment and Brick Technology's. You´re worthy of much more than 3,6k subs, I hope you continue to gain traction!
Holy hell I wouldn't dream of comparing my stuff to those giants 😳, but I'm honoured to be mentioned in the same space - I absolutely love their work! For now I'll keep putting out these odd experiments and trying to bump quality 😁 Thanks man!
Your basic idea is good but you might want to see how a real speaker is made or take a real one apart. I think one of the huge problems with the sound and action of this is the voice coil part. It needs to be closer (very slim fit but not rubbing on the magnet, or magnet mounted steal center poll) or centered on the magnet (back to front with out the second magnet) is my best estimation. A funnel, cone shape will give it more clarity as well.
Thanks for the advice here - very helpful! Deffo agree, this was a very sloppy job, and needs a lot of refinement. Got a few more experiments to do with the Lego one, but will attempt an all round upgraded version in the near future! Appreciate your tips 🙏
I hope I'm not the only one who wants to hear scarlet fire coming from these speakers.
You're certainly not - will give it a try soon!
You earned a sub. These videos are entertaining and great. This channel needs more subscribers FOR SURE.
Appreciate it, and thanks for joining! Got some pretty whacky stuff on the way 😁
@@JamiesBrickJams i can't wait for a new video. Keep up the good work man😎
You made a Lego DML speaker, that's awesome
Ha I guess it pretty much is 😄 Would be cool to make one you can attach to other things
I like to work in car audio and this was extremely extremely educational.
Hey thanks, I'm glad it was useful in some way!
You just won a loyal subscriber here!
Hey thanks for joining, appreciate it!
the paper cone was a better idea .. if you had put some sort of flexible membrane around it between the cone and the frame .. it would have been a typical speaker .. worth revisiting with a flexible membrane
The circle one sounds like a speaker that the cone has detached from the coil
what about if you used a balloon as the speaker membrane? blow the balloon up, push it hard against the ring and deflate, it'll hold its self in place too.
Damn that's a great idea! I'm absolutely going to try that - thanks 🙏
You appeared on my main page, great production quality! Earned a sub :)
Awesome, appreciate you!
I hope this blows up
Haha big thanks, fingers crossed!
The speaker or the video
@@randomqrcod.e 😂
omg 35 years and thats the simplest speaker ive seen (with the tape) have a great day!😄
You have a great day too 😁
You should make the edge of the circle rubber it will sound way better
You're totally right, I'd like to try and see if pneumatic tubing might help
Dankpods has me conditioned. I just mindlessly expected scarlet fire to be the song to test/blow out the speaker.
I'll be doing a test with Scarlet Fire soon!
This is madness for such a small channel
Appreciate it, cheers 😄🙏
Now we need the computer, monitor, mouse and keyboard made out of legos for a full lego setup
Haha that'd be the dream ... Maybe a project for the future
thanks for the idea
I'll be making 2.1 sound soon
Awesome, good luck!
"It's not pretty" I heartily disagree! It looks amazing! Having that playing music in the corner of the room would be something I'd definitely do.
Aw thanks, appreciate it 😄 It's definitely ... 'Unique looking'
5:43
Bro WTH 😂😂😂
Haha apologies 😵💫🤮
@@JamiesBrickJams I meant it’s funny…I don’t blare crap on my headset so it was actually quite funny.
sounds like some one slammin heavy bass through a clapped out altima