Audio & Visual Ideas

This was a omnidirectional tesla looking speaker I built, though there is not relationship to the mechanics of a tesla plasma speaker, it worked. 

However, I used the “it worked” & “was” due to the fact I dropped it! 

I never explained the story of how I laid my hands on a free miniDSP 2x4HD and a UMIK mic… Well it was quite simple really. I emailed them and asked for one.

OK I admit it wasn’t that simple, but it’s not far from the truth. I’ll explain.

Though I’m barely able to sting a sentence together, be it due to dyslexia, crap education in England in the late 80′s/early 90′s or I just don’t notice my mistakes. This hasn’t stopped me emailing random people or organisation asking for help, advise or sponsorship. 

I try to be as honest as possible, stating who I am, what I’m after and most importantly, what it is I want from them. The latter usually required some form of leverage if you are after something, IE give and take.

I’ve been sending random emails out every morning for nearly two years now, though they’re rarely fruitful, on occasions you hit jackpot. My success have included making friends with the “godfather of stencil art”, miniDSP sponsoring me some vital equipment for testing my pet speaker project and a Tête à Tête with a leading loud-speaker manufacture CEO.

No matter what the media want to shove down your throat about how bad the world is, or ignoring the fact that most social media platforms look to be nothing more than data harvesting portals; receiving a response from an email you’ve sent does restore faith in humanity.

miniDSP sponsored me equipment they produce for free, however prior to the initial email I sent, I did build something which was a little out of the ordinary; my omnidirectional speaker. I knew this was a head turner with posting on Facebook and noticing the number of views as well as the engagement rate! 

Omnidirectional speakers use a method of dispersing sound energy in a 360 degree spray, allowing the sound energy to be uniform with its environment.

Unlike a conventional cone driver the reflections from the sidewalls will be identical to the signal that’s reaching you directly.

However their are many forms of omnidirectional setups, But my interested is the truest one of all. One which uses a spherical diaphragm that radiates sound vertically. By its design compared with the standard speaker, it changes the vectors of the frequency wave launch by 90 degrees.

The voice-coil is mounted at the bottom and when a signal is applied, it bends the segments, producing omnidirectional sound. 

Why I am building them? Because it’s addictive! Making a speaker enclosure is not making a speaker, rather, it is matching a speaker drive to an enclosure to hopefully produce a harmonious union of the two. Though this is a complex matter, there is nothing quiet like saying I built that - “FROM SCRATCH!”

My custom homemade Omni-Directional speaker - Working! This is what Sparrowlegs Speaker Design has been up to in the recent months.

I’m Titling it - Industrial style changing the shape of home audio reproduction.

DIY custom made HiFi Audio Speakers - Omni-Directional - Sparrowlegs Speaker Design.

For those who have never seen my work or my FB timeline - www.facebook.com/SparrowLegsSpeakerDesign/, initially I wanted to build the best audio speakers on a budget. Starting off the first construction was a sealed spiral speaker enclosure. Logarithmic, similar in shape to Bower & Wilkins “Nautilus” - Design by Laurence Dickie.

Why a spiral? Three reasons:

 To test my cabinet making skills

The cabinet becomes a sealed infinite baffle in design, IE it absorbs the speaker drivers rear waves

It looks cool - “Your ears have eyes!”

Moving on to Omni-Directional speakers, this transition evolved simply due to the potential problems an enclosure can produce. Get rid of the enclosure and there’s one less link in the chain. 

Open baffle speaker design has no enclosure, but this doesn’t fit in with SparrowLegsSpeakerDesign’s mantra - “ anything with a sharp edge wasn’t conducive to sound reproduction”. 

Omni-Directional speakers was the alternative. (Especially with the tools and materials available).