I had the chance to help out on a “Physics of Speakers” class taught by Mr. Daniel Silverman at the Metropolitan Business Academy in New Haven. I also got to demo some of my own speaker designs. The students had the chance to rip open test speakers, see their inner components and how they work together. This was also the first time I’ve ripped open speakers ever since reading about them when designing the cardboard speakers!
The speakers sound surprisingly good considering they were made from foam plates!
What I found really exciting was how each of the components in the speaker had a “DIY” analogue. The paper springs functioned as the “speaker spider”, the plate functioned as the cone and the coil of wires had the same function in both designs. The only difference lies in how the DIY version has a detachable magnet as opposed to a strong and integrated magnet. The DIY version had a noticeable peak in middle frequencies. Real speakers are designed to achieve a smoother reproduction of larger range of frequencies.
It’s funny the difference between “know conceptually how a speaker works” vs “okay, so I opened up a speaker and I really know how the components work”.
{ lh.hantrakul } | Research Blog 