Why Do People Love This Speaker!?
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- These types of speakers are touted as the world's best speakers for the price. Have I been wrong this whole time?
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I was shocked, "shocked" to discover that speaker concoction sounded terrible. Haha! Thanks for taking one for the team, Randy, with that audio project. :)
Even the power of social media can't change the laws of physics.
I played around with these a couple of years ago. You need to sand off the panels until dull and apply two coats of 50/50 water and white carpenter glue.
Apply heavy duty foam weather stripping around the edges. This improves the sound.
In my dedicated listening room, they were fun, more like being at a live concert, warts and all. But they certainly aren't hi-fi by any stretch. They do scale well with high end amps which really surprised me.
I doubt if the technology could be improved even if the panels were made of some near perfect materials.
I don't have the experience with a variety of speakers like you do, but I made these according to the Tech Ingredients youtube video. There are key differences that may be impacting the sound. I think your exciters are way too big and heavy, so not letting the board vibrate. The hangers are too long, not letting it vibrate. The board appears to be 1 inch, not 3/4, not allowing it to vibrate, you see a theme? I can't say they're the best, but when paired with a woofer for the low end, they sound really good to me.
Ha! I was listening to this video using my Fosi Audio T20 tube amplifier and a pair of Sony SS-CS5 speakers (which I love) and yeah, those makeshift speakers do not sound great, but for someone interested in tinkering around with an audio experiment, I hope they have fun with the learning process while not expecting amazing sound as a result. :)
I work at a cardboard packaging company, and as a fun project built these out of reboard (2 layers of paper separated by a honeycomb structure) Also stiff and lightweight. Same results all high-mid, no lower end. Paired them with a little sub, and now they sound decent enough to act as good conversation starter. ( Yep, even our speakers are made from paper ) Was able to full colour print the reboard though. That gives it a nice touch. Nice video!
Exciters do have their place, but not here. My sister and brother in-law were building a house and wanted to have background music in their living room for when they entertain guests. They were going to use in-wall speakers, but my sister didn't want to be able to see them.I suggested putting exciters in the attic space. We attached the exciters to the ceiling Sheetrock between the joists, one in each corner (total of 4). We connected them to a Dayton audio class D amp, and for background music, they sounded rather good. Great for Christmas music. They were thrilled with the results and the fact they don't have to look at them. It's all about the application and expectation.
I believe exiter placement position is the most important design consideration for these sound radiators. Also thickness and flexibility of a pannel should matter a lot.
Nice experiment! I think we knew where that was going, but i was willing to be surprised 🤷🏻♂️
I’ve seen the original video. I’m thinking GATORBOARD which is like very dense foamcore. There are many types of these thingys. I would have built it EXACTLY like the engineer prof in the original video. He did a lot of testing with materials etc to arrive at the final product. This type of thing is standard stuff in the world of museum displays and trade show setups that need audio. Fun video.
Ha, ha, ha. Love the description of "Hot garbage". Really like your channel.
I’m not surprised they sound bad, the moving mass is really high so the detail can’t possibly be there
Acoustic ceiling tiles are waaay better than the foam in my experience. Very little bass extension (needs a sub), but the clarity from the celling tiles was great. I also used the slightly better exciters.
Thank you I was going to try these,but not now.
In most of the other implementations I’ve seen, the panel has been hung up against a wall. I’m wondering if that makes it sound even better?
Sadly, the gen Z ignorants who only listen to highly compressed mp3 music on their phone can barely tell, because they have been accustomed to crappy sound.
You're hanging strings were not vertical. And also they were yellow. There are your problems
Flat panels ( exciter ones, not Maggies etc.) as a concept come around every 10years or so. Always terrible. I had a desktop set once. They were acceptable with a sub, but only just.
Perfect for placing in the washroom, auto play when people enter, the folks don't take long with their business in order to save what remains of their sanity, and out the door really quick! 👍
It might sound better with thin plywood, plasterboard or a tin can. There are companies that offer ready-made systems, e.g. for the home cinema or if you don't want to see speakers in the living room.
As far as I know, they always have to be measured and equalised.
Thank you for doing some DIY content!!
Hey Randy, would love to see you do the ABX Open Baffle build.
LOL! That put me in good mood before going to work.😂
yeah, i used a dayton one, did the same, and damn, i was so dissapointer a threw them away the same day i built them. Talk about throwing money away.
That it worked at all is more surprising to me considering it came from tiktok.
So much fun watching this one. Brilliant!
I'm guessing the original social media posters of this idea are pleased you gave it channel time because one's attention is the product for them, versus the merits of their dubious speaker design. In all fairness, they could actually believe it sounds good, when compared to playing music over their phones for instance. I liked the part where putting a radius on the corners on the foam board was a big deal for the final product to sound good. 😂
But look at how esthetically pleasing they are in that pastel pink! Psyche! 😂
You can paint them or apply a fabric to them, Tech Ingredients covers tips for painting which is important as the solvent in spray paint can dissolve the foam.
I was on Nevada Blue crew 1992-1996
This shows what happens when you do a half arsed job in construction and placement and expect them to sound good.
Take it seriously and do a proper job. Imagine what would happen if you took the same 'care' with a traditional speaker build.
Years ago I bought a set of Mission (very decent speaker brand, once upon a time) NXT flat panel speakers, which came with a little sub. They were on sale, probably at Richer Sounds (it was 20+ years ago, my memory is a little foggy). Anyway, they sounded like CRAP. I really expected them to sound great, given the pedigree of Mission. Took them straight back for a refund. Also, I once bought a pair of Grundig flat panel computer speakers...even more crap than you could ever imagine! These all worked with some kind of exciter and a stiff, flat panel. The technology was successfully used in fighter jets, for noise cancellation, but for hifi...forget it! Nasty. Anyone interested in trying out "real" NXT flat panel speakers can pick up a pair for about $20 on eBay. You'll be disappointed, but at least you won't have to cut up pieces of craft board in the process 🤣
Unrelated suggestion. There’s hardly any reviews of Martin Logan’s Foundation lineup, and as being a huge fanboy would love to see
You forgot the epoxy on the back of the panel to attach the driver too
I've seen these types of speakers for years. People like them I guess is because they are cheap.
I do have a friend that likes to DIY audio stuff and sometimes, just for some testing will use cardboard or whatever to see what it sounds like .
You did nothing wrong. You did everything correctly. It's garbage. Thanks for being honest.
Excellent - I had trying this in my bucket list, now I can skip it.
That was the best laugh this week...
Hooking up audiophile speakers to crap. If you wanted it to succeed you'd have used your advance Paris A10 and audiophile class speaker cables. We all know the huge difference just the cables make.
i think even some of the vintage 20-40euro or dollar speaker pairs on marketplace is still better than those.
Hot garbage. lol. I’m glad someone with a legitimate opinion took the time to do this.
Let's get a review of the Cerwin Vega LA365.
I've also made these speakers. I can just say that I totally agree with you. Absolutely garbage!
The driver you have looks like a modified normal speaker? They dont look like that normally, they normally have 'fingers' / sticky pads that sit directly on the panel as well as the center of the motor , i have no idea but your units look home made hahahaha.
Like normally the pad sits directly on the spider, and the pads on fingers stops the magnet of the speaker itself moving in and out ,transferring it to the panel, and stop the panel moving (or a sprring setup on the magnet) Never seen a unit quite like the one you have there hahahaha
These sound like hot garbage for sure, but i can say very confidently other peoples channels sounded infinitely better my end and not just recording quality
Not saying they are 'the best speakers in the world' but something going on with those units for sure :P
UNBELIEVABLE AMAZINGLY FUNNY!!!!!!!
From what I remember these don't do well as full range drivers. Like any kind of driver they require a bit of engineering to sound good.
Crap is Crap. You can't change crap. Start with Crap, end with Crap.
If they were piano black and cost about $10k. An audio magazine would recommend them! 😅😅😅
That made me chuckle
If I recall correctly, the hifi press DID praise a bunch of NXT flat panel speakers about 25 years ago. I tried some, HATED them. 🤷♂️
At that price they would have look wood and retro. Black just looks too cheap 😁
That well. It’s true!
Techingredients did a way more involved video on RUclips that seems like a way more legit build than the Tictoc video.
Exactly, also explains everything using data and with more than just his personal opinion.
Have you watched the videos of the original creators? I think it was tech ingredients. If I'm not mistaken, the panels looked different, and they already stated you need a sub. They also superglued the exitors to the panels.
There were also 8 panels in total of various shapes and materials.
Randy, The funniest thing about this video was your face whenever those ‘speakers’ were playing. You didn’t need to describe the sound your face said it all! 😂
Yes, that's a very unhappy face. I loved how quickly he could identify their faults and the differences between the two panels.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣creo que es el video más divertido del año
Tech ingredients channel did some videos on worlds best speakers 5 or 6 years ago that looked promising or at least like a fun experiment. Alot more in depth than the TikTok crap.
I'm betting he (tech ingredients) originated the design.
@@bryanmcgivney3778 I think Tech Ingredients was the one who came up with this design. I watched that video years ago. You can even see that video at 1:10 in this video. I'm pretty sure it just spread much more on Tiktok and that's where most people hear about this.
If I remember correctly, Tech Ingredients also glued some metal bars at certain locations across the back of the foam board to help with resonance or something. The few videos I saw replicating this speaker never included this step. How much this will actually help to be seen.
@@bryanmcgivney3778 That's a bet you would lose, these types of speakers have been around for years.
@@bryanmcgivney3778 yes
Yes, Tech Ingredients was the OG poster, with instructions on how to make separate bass panels too, out of ceiling tiles.
Very complete, detailed instructions.
"Hot Garbage" That was the name of my garage band as a teenager! Of course it sounded crappy!
“I got this recipe for bread, I’m gonna wing it with instructions “
Im glad someone said something.
was thinking that. if randy had not only listened to 100s of speakers but also built 100s of speakers, the results and/or setup might be quite different.
No worries, I made the best bread in the world already in 1998. Any future attempt to make the best bread would be considered disinformation.
My wife says looks don’t matter if they’re well hung. I have no idea what she means or course. Kudos for thinking outside the box.
any audio gear that the wife likes, isn't worth buying
that's what she said....
If you actually construct these according to directions using the proper drivers, hang them PROPERLY (which will YES rule them out for most people), and supplement them with sub woofers to provide the bass, I think you would end up something that sounds much better. GIGO? When you go into a project with a defeatist attitude using subpar ingredients you end up with a subpar experience. Try building a Sony SSCS5 with "whatever you have laying around" , using whatever tools you happen to have even tho doing so you know going in would kill it, then what, you think you're gonna end up with a perfect clone of the Sony? I Don't THINK so..............
You’re right.
Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.
@cheapaudioman, It's really funny that you made this video, because building this speaker myself ultimately led me to find your channel. I was initially into headphones and decided I wanted to experiment with speakers at an affordable price. That and I was looking for a project to do with my father-in-law to build our relationship. Built them, sounded terrible, decided maybe it was the crappy amp I used. Looked for a cheap decent amp, found your review of the Aiyima amps. Bought the amp, came to the same conclusions you did on the speakers. Now I have Jamo speakers (per your review) connected to the Aiyima and am happy I went down that journey.
DMS (RUclipsr) also had an interesting take on these speakers... He used a thinner foam core, but 12 of them and mounted them to completely cover a wall. He then used a ton of software to correct the missing frequencies. It looked cool and he said that it produced a unique "expansive" sound that was decent but ultimately was a lot of work to get a that sound.
No replacement for displacement. Good enclosures are the majority of the fidelity.
@@jordanrussell345 This ain't a drag race, and IB disagrees.
It’s the lack of room treatment😂
I was thinking it was the non-thousand dollar cables
"Garbage"
Probably too much toe-in.
I saw the same video a few years ago and decided to make the speakers. I used the same parameters as the professor that made the video. Especially placement of the exciters. As you profess, they didn’t sound great when I made them. I used an in-line capacitor as a cheap crossover. I bought a 10 inch subwoofer from Goodwill and I hooked them up to a, The Fisher 195. They are in my garage where there is a lot of room. I still have to turn down the treble on the fisher. You can make them sound decent, but you have to put some work into them.
I built the ones with the acoustic ceiling tiles, and they sound ten times better than the ones with the thick foam. I'm not an audiophile, but for the price i've never had a more room-filling non-directional sound than what i get from these.
Any previous videos on these says They’re supposed to made with acoustic panels. The tictoc video mustn’t have mentioned that or I’m sure he’d have used them. Hopefully he tries them in future. I’d like to see them working with ribbon tweeters & a good sub
It's hilariousness at the angry look on your face that the speakers are giving you
People should try out some medicine, was the best. 😂
Almost positive the problem is you still need crossover and need 1 exciter on a pannel to do highs and 1 on a pannel for lower end. You can try it since you already have everything you need(now half the size lol) but will end up with one speaker channel. Would be a fun test and an extra video if it came out sounding good
If he was playing it back and it sounded full-range, but was having trouble with distortion and maintain control, then this would make sense. But separating the frequencies isn't going to magically make the setup capable of playing frequencies down low.
I seem to recall the original creators said something along those lines
Omg, the entertainment value...
Between the sound being produced, the song selection, the look on your face as you tried to say something redeeming about the outcome and finally the look on my dog's face as i laughed until i cried. What a fun video. Thanks Randy! 😂
You need some No-Rez and tube connectors.
Needs expensive components for the crossovers!
edit: spelling
I too was drawn back into the hifi audio world by the evil allure of the dyi panels.
Yes, the DYI foam panels are absolute crap. That said, the foam does have remarkable sound transfer properties so I decided to try a different route. First I needed an affordable yet decent and highly flexible, basic stereo system. So, based on many of your recommendations and lots of research I settled on the Fosi BT30 amp and their matching little pre-amp. (Amazing stuff) Then I added a Pyle 6 zone selector to be able to isolate and AB lots of speaker combinations. I grabbed a couple of cheap 6 inch Sony subs for $20 from the thrift store. I bought a pair of Klispch 500 rp bookshelves and I re-foamed my dad's old early 90's AT-8 Vegas. Finally I decided to try the dyi panels. The first thing I did was to not slap an actuator on a flat panel and call it done. I used my 30 or so years experience in the audio visual world and as an artist and maker to shape and construct the foam into proper speaker heads. I then placed them into a housing with soft surrounds just like an actual speaker...duh. Right out of the gate I knew I was on to something. They sounded incredibly clear and rich. My guess is that the cellular nature of the foam is a more efficient transfer medium than compressed paper. I can't speak. to the other types of cone materials used. All the needed frequencies are in those little full spectrum actuators but you have to tease them out with the proper shapes. It took about 3-4 months of prototyping and experimentation to understand what works and doesn't but I can say with some conviction that they are actually now superior to the manufactured speakers I currently have access to. For one they have far more latitude in tuning than speakers with built in crossovers or preset tunings. Being able to shape the sound to the desired texture is what I am fundamentally after and I'll never be able to afford Band and Olufsen speakers so I'm left with figuring it out myself.
Bottom line is, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. You really can dyi good speakers using stone knives and bearskins as Spock once famously said as he cobbled together a video time machine from 1930's electronics.
@@jeffsoard5056 Would love to see what the the result of these efforts was!
Randy, the failure of your speaker build is obviously from not having used Sith Audio high-fidelity exciter tape to affix the drivers to the panels and their associated panel hanger hooks. A classic newbie mistake. Available for only $799 per panel.
Couple things,
1, ceiling tile, the kind used for absorbtion, or something similar. Plain packing type foam board isnt really gonna do much.
2. Mount them using rubber bands in the corners to hooks on the wall putting them maybe an inch away from the wall,
3. I used a 4x8 sheet for my builds
4. run dsp correction. Mine are hooked to my 4x8 for a reason
5. Sub or bassbin woofer for everything below 200hz
Ive got 4 4x8 panels hooked up around the living room with 2 6 inch woofers in 2 corners, everything sounds pretty darn good. Nothing like this demo. But yes, was a good bit of work to get it done like this.
Try dancing around like a lunatic and then sprinkle them with a little bicarbonate of soda... makes them sound like Wharfedale Dentons, I swear it's true 🤞!
That was funny Randy! Problem was you used cheap imported crap to drive them - you should hear these on a pair of Macintosh mini blocks. and sith audio wire to hang them
I made these. I put the exciters in the same place on both panels (not center). The separation is amazing! Yes, there is no bass. But try it after you move the center exciter to match the other. Then move them about 6 feet apart. Would you review any other pair of speakers right next to each other? Smdh
I have a friend who has built these speakers. He used 4 panels, 2 on each side, so the exciter placement was identical on both sides. After sanding, he also coated the panels with mix of water and PVA glue. He used epoxy to put the hooks in the foam to hang them. The panels where then painted black with a specific spray paint. He built a rack to hold the panels taut at the corners. They sound amazing. He does use a sub with them to cover the lowest frequency but the sound is detail, spacious, the highest are natural and airy.
I did similar project. I glued frame behind the board and screwed the exciter on the crossmember wich connects to sides of the frame. This took away this rattling distortion and gave little more bass.
Now with the help of equalizer they are playing backround music for the back yard on my balcony.
I did measure frequenzy responce and usable range is between 90-8k hz. Under 90hz is nothing! But over 8k it fades down somewhat smooth.
It’s two weeks later and this guy is still finding purple foam dust from sanding in his dining room
I finally came to the conclusion to build a quality speaker from GR, like something from the NX series and just be happy with with it. I have the XLS Encore and it really is a great small to medium size room speaker. I have never had a speaker I could listen to without messing with EQ to get it to sound right to me until I built a kit speaker.
If it where that easy to make a good sounding speaker some manufacture would be making them and selling them for 2k each
I built those more than a year ago. And yes... It's actually garbage :D Now I use Elac DBR62.
Audio myth busting and experimenting. Love it!
Are those Deposition Sound FDM5 loudspeakers in the background?! ;)
"This time on Mythbusters, Randy delves into...." I can hear the theme music now.
Sounds like B&W, KEF, Dynaudio... 😄
In one of Lenny's recent videos he travels to a vintage store in PA and toward the end of the video the store owner shows him a pair of speakers that are remarkably similar to these in concept. Lenny was impressed.
Check it from the 15:30 mark to see the Bertagni speakers... almost the exact same thing, which leads me to believe the shape of the panel and the frame have a lot to do with the sound. Thanks for taking the time to build it Randy.
The pair I made sounded pretty good. I ran then through a subwoofer with an adjustable crossover. Gotta have a subwoofer. I never used them because I have no place to hang them.
Thanks for taking one for the team.
Maybe if you could connect them to a $10,000 Macintosh amplifier they would sound better. 😂
DML's are design dependent, the better the design the better they will sound. The design you built is an entry level beginners design intro into DML technology.
Pretty cool you served on the Nevada. Not many folks can make that claim. Thanks for your service! Did you ever make a tour into Puget Sound? I've seen her in the straits here over the years.
“Blown 80’s Tv speaker”😂. My wife showed me this tik tok video, thinking she found a replacement to my big NHT 2.9s…..i am going to show this video to her. 😂
I already pretty much knew they were gonna sound exactly like you described, so yeah... Gimmick, nothing more, nothing less, LOL!
You did a bunch of things wrong. Firstly, they shouldn't be square. All 4 corners shouldn't be rounded. Your giant metal hooks ruin the weight advantage and the big holes you made to place them are causing issues. You discovered the use of pressure....but also the drivers you used are designed for midrange only.
I got into these a few years ago and made some really great ones. They suck for bass...you need a subwoofer and crossover.... But mine sounded AWESOME when finished....
Sadly, after about a year and a half of use they "wore out" and thespund is not nearly as good. IDK if thefoam loses it's structure over time, or maybe the anchor of the driver...but now they sound slightly better than the built in speakers on my nice Sony TV and not nearly as good as my Yamahas. They were never "the best speaker in the world" but they sounded pretty good.
The DML structure also has some interesting side effects as far as room interactions with the sound. There is a company Maki g real speakers to take advantage..
This video inspired me to build these panels. Not hot garbage. They definitely need the help of a subwoofer though. I would call the audio coming from these as "bright". Perhaps, too bright. But I have them hanging in my basement. I'll paint them or put a thin cloth over them. The pink color won't work for me.
Randy, TikTok is for chicks with stripper shoes and 12-year olds. Tech Ingredients did a series of videos that explained a lot.
You did it wrong buddy. Used the wrong drivers, and loosely followed the idea from the tik tok video and proclaimed it bad. They are placed 1" from each other, hanging from a central point (yawing left and right) and you're playing some low-res crap 'music'.
Are these going to make me give up my Magnepans? No, but for $20 you can fool a lot of pretentious audiophiles.
Straight off the bat, wrong driver, and wrong material. Then placed in the wrong environment. I could write a whole dissertation, but I'll keep it brief.
The design is incredibly room-specific, and placement makes a huge difference. Moreso, the material you use for the panel has to be paired/matched to the driver. The drivers you used here are way too powerful for the size and density of the panel, and that recipe predictably leads to blown-out midrange with no treble and no bass.
As for bass, you will never get a "reasonable" amount of bass out of any panel speaker like this. One of the designs I built uses a 2'x4' 1/4" foam-core wood-laminate panel with a single 25W Dayton exciter, crossed over at 100hz, elastic-suspended from all four corners onto a frame mounted to a base cabinet with two 5 1/4" aluminum cone drivers straddling an oversized diameter flared port. Designed them specifically for a 400 sq. ft. studio apartment I was living in at the time. The detail and depth I got out of those surpasses multi-thousand dollar tower speakers in a controlled listening environment.
Those same Dayton exciters, however, cannot adequately drive a 2'x4' ceiling tile. Slice that tile into two 1'x4' sections, install the exciter high, add some sound deadener to the opposite location at the bottom, and you're back to the sweet spot. A high pass crossover is, however, always necessary.
Sadly, you can't just slap any exciter onto any material and expect it to sound good, same as you can't drop any woofer into any box and expect it to sound good.
If you hadn't snapped those panels, I'd tell you to mass-load the hell out of the edges on the back, and hang a plumb bob off the bottom center, and put them in a better listening space. I haven't used those specific exciters, so I'm not sure what they're capable of on the high end, but you need a LOT more mass to tame them than you have with those tiny little foam boards. :)
I have always thought about installing those exciters to put behind the wall of the shower. I haven't, because that's way to much work for bad sound, but I've thought about it.
There's a big difference between an Audiophile and Speaker Builder. one has a workshop. and the other has a kitchen table. LOL (No offense I've Done The Same)
If you look to the originator of this project. Techingredients, They tell you that they have no low end, and require a subwoofer. They do a pretty in depth tutorial, and tell you how to actually assemble these things. I believe what youve done is jammed a metal rod through the resonant surface, 2 of them in fact. As well as the shape and structure of the exciter, they are shaped differently for different applications. Different material.
Sure theyre not really "the best speaker", but if youre going to judge a totally different platform of sound, AT LEAST BUILD IT CORRECTLY. It deserves a fair shot. DMS has a pretty good video on these as well.
the resonance is from the shiny surface. you need to random-orbit sand these until they are matte. I measure about 10% THD with any surface other than fully matte front and back, but you can get it under .2%
ok, so there's really only 1 application where these are GREAT: surround speakers when your couch is against the wall. I have a small living room, and these panels sound about the same off-axis as directly in front of you. hence, hang them on the wall above the couch, and that's your rear & side surrounds for MOVIES. like you said, they don't "image" for 💩- so not for music! I also put 4 on the ceiling for ATMOS b/c why not?
Also, the whole 2-fiths / 3-fiths thing is ...sort of a guideline? I drew a grid on the back and experimented with exciter placement + a measurement mic to get rid of the valleys in the frequency response - you'll need a 4+ band parametric EQ to tame the peaks, but EQ won't fix valleys so unfortunately placement matters. oh, and if you're suspending 2" from the wall you have to place the exciter and EQ for that. But no matter what you do, there's nothing below 180 Hz and nothing above 8.5 kHz. I'm not saying you need a PhD to make these sound good, but with *a lot* of trial, error, and *measurement* you can use them for home theater (when paired with a sub) + a $500 home theater receiver with Audigy will have the per-channel EQ that you'll need to manually dial in for each panel b/c you didn't sand them the same or whatever - I mean, how precise can you get with hot garbage ;)
Then, to add insult to injury, after a few months the 3M adhesive will fail because you can never get all the sanding dust out of the open-cell foam, so the exciters will start falling off. So after investing 100+ hours to get a home theater setup, it will just fall apart 🍻
I have never built speakers, have nothing invested in 'em, but my observations: "The recipie" calls for the membrane to be light and somewhat stiff, you added 2pcs 8inch? long steel rods? Well, "light" part of equation is now gone, it also reinforces the membrane partly in one axis, making several of the resonant modes dampened or maybe dead all together. Maybe with these points addressed it might still be hawt garbaj.
Interesting. I made these, not from Tik Tok, but from the Tech Ingredients channel. I'm going to assume Tik Tok ripped them off. Anyway, mine sound pretty good -- yours seem to sound muddy (best guess over the internet). Mine seem overly bright, lots of mid, and no bottom end. I'm running the Loxjie A30 to power the speakers using Tidal streaming through the USB port. There's no low end, so I'm running the Elac SUB1010 for the lows. I'm in a small office (15x15) and they seem to do a good job. My only complaint is the resonance. I have mine hung with thin wire and the wire resonates at certain freqs. I may add weights like fishing weights to change the resonance and cut the buzzing. I would re-check your exciters to see if they are the same ones Tech Ingredients recommended.
They might sound a little better if you'd hung them with fishing line sewn through the corners. But, yeah, every one I've ever heard sounded like a cheap car speaker in a cardboard box. OTOH, exciters don't actually sound too bad when stuck to a couple of Big-Box end tables. Just have to glue your lamps down.
Howdy Cheap Audio Man.
There was a company that got sound exciters to work quite well. Vetr Audio. They tried a TON of materials to get the sound to work properly and it came down to weight and rigidity. Wood it lite weight but not rigid enough, foam.. well you heard the result, glass? Well glass worked but was Very thin as it’s extremely rigid but also heavy. They needed something light weight but rigid. So what fits that bill perfectly? Carbon fiber.
Two drivers to each panel with a bit of damping and the sound above 100hz was great.
My brother and I gave up on the project as he’s an engineer and I’m a finance guy so selling them proved to be difficult. I have a few units of the original(only) run left and would love to send you a full setup with powered sub we sourced and paired and have you try them out. We no longer operate but I’d love to have you try out sound exciter speakers that actually sound pretty good.
I’ll cover costs of everything to get them to you, it would be fun to see a project I worked on almost 10 years ago reviewed again!
😂😂😂 Well, without a backing Membrane of damping it's already junk. And to radius the edges of an already dampening material doesn't work. I have heard from our Bro Crazy Kenny a pair of seriously interesting Styrofoam Speakers that made the sound seem Omni Directional. No real Bass though it was evident. And it was good. You'd have to be there to appreciate it.
Not sure on what hot garbage scale these would still be on but could the long metal rods / hooks you used added a ton of weight to these boards when taking into consideration that the whole premise is to have something not only ridged but LIGHT??
Is this why the bass / low-end sounded better when you held it?
Not sure. I doubt these would sound that great to those of us who actually listen to music on above average equipment but I’d be curious as to how they would behave had they been hung using any method that didn’t increase the weight of the board 1000+ fold.
Also I’m not even sure that foam boards are really what you want to use for a project like this. It appears the most successful projects have been ones using ceiling tiles.
Fun video though!
I had some of those exciters kickin' around for a project. For fun, I put one on the soundboard of my piano. Now my piano is a bluetooth speaker when I'm not playing it.