Designer:
safehans

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
I wanted to build computer speakers that were small and could be built extremely quickly.

Design Goals:
Very small, no electronics, quick build yet decent sound decent at least when pointed straight at you 2 feet away from you

Driver Selection:
From the design goals you can see there aren’t any drivers that would really perform under these crazy conditions.
So with some compromises I picked Dayton Audio ND65-8 2-1/2″ driver that promises to perform fairly well.

This would be used in full range duties with no crossover.

Enclosure Design:
Since I wanted something really quick, I didn’t want to build the cabinets from scratch. My previous builds are still in Garage after a thrid coat of paint and after months of work.

I also did not want Munny dolls funny looking cabinet. So I ordered a few wooden vases from Amazon that had roughly the right size and volume. Among these were Oval mango wood vase, banboo cylindrical vase etc.

I chose the Mango oval vase for the project eventually as no cuts or mods were needed to this.

Enclosure Assembly:
Enclosure is built from a 5″ outer diameter oval (or ellipsoid?) vase from Amazon that has roughly .015 cu ft internal volume. All I had to do was to sand the front face over a belt sander until the opening was exact size needed for this driver. I had to shave off 3-4mm of material at max.

Rest of the assembly was super quick with two holes in the back for binding posts and two on the bottom for a stand.

Stand is built from a stainless steel wire that keeps them pointed up to the ears

Finishing was done with Automotive spray paint in Piano black. Single coat did the trick.

Crossover Design:
No crossover was needed

Conclusion:
These actually surprised me after first listen. I actually thought my bigger bookshelves were ON. When they pointed straight at you and aren’t too far from you, they almost sound like real monitors. Low end is actually acceptable given that these are 2.5″ drivers in a small sealed box. They don’t really perfrom well over 15K hz which was expected

About the Designer:
When given a choice to buy something for really simple and cheap, he always opts to build something complex and expensive. How else would he learn!

Project Parts List: