PVC Pipe Speakers

[MannyE]

I was just reading a post in Dollars and Sense where a pair of PVC pipe speakers is for sale and someone commented that "plastic lets sound go right through." Is this accurate?

I have been collecting (scavenging) speaker drivers in order to have some fun making PVC pipe speakers but this comment gave me pause. I always figured if I filled the cavities with some kind of batting, it would be enough.

 

[DrTebi]

I would say that is inaccurate. Just take a big plastic sheet, put your wife on the other side and talk to her Do the same with a piece of wood, I doubt the difference will be significant enough to say that "plastic lets sound go right through."

I believe the LxMini speakers from Siegfried Linkwitz, a well respected speaker designer, are also using PVC pipes. I doubt that he would use those if sound would just go through...

You should check out what's commonly referred to as "Sonotube" subwoofers. That I find quite interesting and want to try one day. I think sonotubes are made of very stiff cardboard though, not PVC.

There is one guy who build an ultimate (as in exaggerated, obsessive...) speaker system with some 7 foot or so sonotubes, using 15" woofers that went down to 16Hz. I think he claimed that some people felt a bit dizzy after hearing the low-end they could produce. He also mentioned that there is an unexpected amount of low-end noise on many recordings , which was simply not filtered out due to the fact that the studio monitors in the recording studio did not produce these sounds...

Here is a link to free sonosub design software: http://www.subwoofer-builder.com/sonosub.htm
Here another to a similar sonotube as described, this one is metal though: https://spinditty.com/instruments-g...your-own-DIY-sonosub-style-cylinder-subwoofer

Can't find that link to that "ultimate" speaker system... I will try to find it, it was a pretty spectacular built.

Anyway, for (sub-)woofers, I think tubes can be quite interesting.

 

[ETLS]

Tube amps, tube speakers. Lol. Saw another thread of a speaker in a tire.

 

[MannyE]

I would say that is inaccurate. Just take a big plastic sheet, put your wife on the other side and talk to her Do the same with a piece of wood, I doubt the difference will be significant enough to say that "plastic lets sound go right through."

I believe the LxMini speakers from Siegfried Linkwitz, a well respected speaker designer, are also using PVC pipes. I doubt that he would use those if sound would just go through...

You should check out what's commonly referred to as "Sonotube" subwoofers. That I find quite interesting and want to try one day. I think sonotubes are made of very stiff cardboard though, not PVC.

There is one guy who build an ultimate (as in exaggerated, obsessive...) speaker system with some 7 foot or so sonotubes, using 15" woofers that went down to 16Hz. I think he claimed that some people felt a bit dizzy after hearing the low-end they could produce. He also mentioned that there is an unexpected amount of low-end noise on many recordings , which was simply not filtered out due to the fact that the studio monitors in the recording studio did not produce these sounds...

Here is a link to free sonosub design software: http://www.subwoofer-builder.com/sonosub.htm
Here another to a similar sonotube as described, this one is metal though: https://spinditty.com/instruments-g...your-own-DIY-sonosub-style-cylinder-subwoofer

Can't find that link to that "ultimate" speaker system... I will try to find it, it was a pretty spectacular built.

Anyway, for (sub-)woofers, I think tubes can be quite interesting.

You're right! I totally forgot about the Linkwitz speakers.

This isn't for anything serious right now, more of an art project that has sound than anything else. I'm imagining an external crossover and a collection many pipes that creates a thin, sinuous "tentacle speaker" kind of thing. Maybe I'm watching too much anime porn...lol.

 

[Hyfi]

Poultryguiest made some PVC tube speakers....can't find his threads tho.

 

[rothwellaudio]

I...and someone commented that "plastic lets sound go right through." Is this accurate?

No, it isn't accurate - it's total rubbish. Even the word "sound" is far too vague for making such a sweeping generalisation - sound at 100Hz does not behave anything like sound at 10kHz, for example.
The other mistake is to think that a material has certain sonic properties regardless of how it is formed. Not true. "Plastic" in sheet form will not perform the same way as plastic in tube form.

Anyway, PVC piping is certainly a good enough material for your speakers, particularly if they're more of an art project.

 

[mars_volta]

Some Cantons were plastic. Sound good to me.

 

[ETLS]

The perfect speakers for spinning The Plastic Ono Band

 

[Hyfi]

The perfect speakers for spinning The Plastic Ono Band

Or, you could enjoy George Carlin performing Down the Tubes

 

[darkblue94]

The perfect speakers for spinning The Plastic Ono Band

There is no justifiable reason for playing The Plastic Ono Band except perhaps in a case of the torture of terrorism suspects.

 

[Binkman]

Memory recalls seeing pics of an Italian who made a pair, among quite a few other posters under topic 'design'... subject was mounting and ell ell, driver flanges and filler etc.. Only reason I remembered that thread was he used sheep wool as filler.

 

[mhardy6647]

The PVC pipe loudspeakers were a thing 15-ish years ago in the high sensitivity/full-range communities.


... and then, there's always Nelson Pass's El-Pipe-O:

http://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_elpipeo.pdf

 

[No Money]

There is no justifiable reason for playing The Plastic Ono Band except perhaps in a case of the torture of terrorism suspects.

Wouldn't work with me, I like Yoko Ono.

 

[darkblue94]

Wouldn't work with me, I like Yoko Ono.

 

[soundmotor]

There is no justifiable reason for playing The Plastic Ono Band except perhaps in a case of the torture of terrorism suspects.

I use it for my music-on-hold. Only the truly worthy get through.

 

[dB happy]

I made a subwoofer out of a piece of scrap pvc sewer pipe when I was a kid. It was different than what you get from home depot though. It was double walled with concrete or something between them. The pipe was about 15" in diameter, and 5' long. It was bigger at one end so you could fit them together. The walls were over an inch thick, and it was extremely rigid. Made some end caps out of 3/4" mdf double layered, and stuck together with liquid nails. Cut a hole in the one for the big end for a 12" woofer, and glued them in there with a ridiculous amount of silicone. It would literally rattle rust off of my old truck. Sounded good when it wasn't in the bed of the truck though.

 

[beanoil]

Maybe I'm watching too much anime porn...lol.

Blasphemy! Anyone says that, just don't talk to them anymore. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

 

[MannyE]

I think I'll start by scrounging crappy drivers from thrift store speakers. Then the tentacle speeakers will come to life! I just saw that PVC can be bent into very smooth curves with some heat and a spring.

 

[Fitero]

10 years ago I made a set of Linkwitz Pluto speakers and a pair of subs out of some pvc pipe that I scrounged from a work-site. Fun project.

 

[MannyE]

10 years ago I made a set of Linkwitz Pluto speakers and a pair of subs out of some pvc pipe that I scrounged from a work-site. Fun project.

Those speakers have such a great reputation. After owning them, do you think they live up to the hype? I was looking at the website and the full boat speakers start to get very expensive if you're going to build them with all new parts. Not to mention the amps!