Why Do People Love This Speaker!?

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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[xXDaReasonXx]

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.

[johndavidson]

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.

[REVCO]

“I got this recipe for bread, I’m gonna wing it with instructions “

[simonhickie]

The best panel material I've used so far is 2mm thick ceiba plywood. I use 60 x 40cm panels attached at intervals to a frame of the same size. My exciters are cheap £12 for two jobs. With separate open baffle bass support, the whole system can play flat from 35hz to 20khz using DSP and active XO. I actually tune mine to an in-room RTINGS curve. The Harman curve can work well too.

The panels you used were (a) too thick and (b) didn't have the 'skin fully removed. Once the skin has been removed from both sides, the panels need to be treated with two thin coats of 50/50 PVA/water mix.

Also EPS tends to work better than XPS, although I prefer the aforementioned 2mm plywood.

[asx]

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! 😂

[Clint]

Techingredients did a way more involved video on YouTube that seems like a way more legit build than the Tictoc video.

[michaeltuohy]

If they were piano black and cost about $10k. An audio magazine would recommend them! 😅😅😅

[TorontoJon]

I was shocked, "shocked" to discover that speaker concoction sounded terrible. Haha! Thanks for taking one for the team, Randy, with that audio project. :)

[shinygravel]

I have built these out of everything from 7 dollar home store "paintings", to frame stretched resin impregnated hemp canvas, to this foam. They may be "cheap" but they take a lot of time, effort, and creativity. Slapping them together just doesn't cut it. A few points: Bigger panels= more bass= even less practical. A sub will almost always be necessary. A frame with foam suspension makes a big difference. Also, with a frame, you can have a solid brace to actually mount the exciter to. If it's kind of just flopping around back there, of course it is going to distort, and have resonance issues. Maintaing linearity of the coil is crucial. Foam panel should have paper sanded off, and surface essentially plasticized, with thinned out glue such as elmers. Corners should not be necessarily be the same radius, helps reduce standing waves. .same with sides, they should be routed. Hard edges on any surface will affect sound. If there are areas of offensive resonance, you can glue small weights to that spot to dampen. Another you tuber had decent success creating "tweeters" with funnily enough, compact discs. Others have mounted real tweeters to the frame. They can absolutely be made to have a fulfilling sound. But it takes time effort and eventually enough money to where they are no longer cheap. The best bass response I ever got was the 7$ 14x14" print. It was on a hollow plastic frame that acted like a resonant chamber of a sort. While not loudly, it played to the low 30s at a reasonable, and usable volume. It also played significantly higher than foam board as it was a thin, plastic like membrane. Subwoofer, Eq or passive crossover, tweeter that can play relatively low, and you (could) have a very full and rich midrange. A full range speaker, it is not. Audiophile, of course not... But also maybe. Fun and satisfying? Absolutely! I'll try to find, and post video of it if anyone is curious. But yeah, buy one these for 3 bucks, and turn you bedroom door in to a speaker. Or whatever else you wanna stick it to that can vibrate. Have fun, they're pretty cool.

[steveh]

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.

[justavian]

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.

[eddents]

"Hot Garbage" That was the name of my garage band as a teenager! Of course it sounded crappy!

[silvertamman]

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.

[bobpreston]

Even the power of social media can't change the laws of physics.

[chancedunn]

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.

[augcoitrtretired]

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.

[fubartotale]

Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.

[Blizzard]

@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 (Youtuber) 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.

[xaviermontalban]

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.

[MarkGray-hz]

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! 😂