Recently Christopher, Colleen, and I were talking about building speakers and exchanging links. We ruminated on it for a bit then I set it on the back burner.
Over my break I prepared for a workshop and looked at the great Makey Makey Interactive 'Zine project page where I noticed a link to a paper speaker project. It seemed simple enough so I built one!
Home Despot sells neodymium magnets and I had the conductive copper tape on hand.
I soldered hookup wire to the wires from a set of headphones I disassembled. I started with one speaker and removed the solder from one headphone. I soldered the hookup wires to the existing solder pads.
Instead of relying on the tenuous connection, I secured everything to a wood block. I used hot glue and two headed tacks.
I used Mary Fahl's cover of "Brain Damage" to test the speaker out for the first time.
I was so happy with the results and the aesthetics of the adapter that I built a second speaker and adapter!
Next to look into some amplification!
This was a great project that seems magical because you are coaxing sounds from the paper, magnets and copper. There are many better paper speaker designs out there but I loved the simplicity of this one and its packaging in a 'zine.
Comments
I'm interested in repeating this for our STEM Friday class here at the Library. Wondering if you have instructions or a link on the deconstruction of headphones and creating the wood block part of your setup?