skyline diffuser speaker

2024

skyline diffuser speaker

project brief

the prompt for this project was to create an "heirloom" using two digital fabrication processes. reflecting on my high school experience of building a speaker and considering my enhanced skills, i decided to revisit and improve upon that project. during my research, i discovered a speaker design that incorporated a skyline diffuser internally for optimized acoustics. although the interior was impressive, its exterior was quite plain. this inspired me to design a speaker that not only delivers excellent sound quality but also showcases its complex inner workings.

type

industrial design
prototyping
laser cutting

date

12/9/2024

soundtrack

ideation + process

i began with rough sketches, inspired by tom sachs' "boom box series." from there, i moved to cad iterations and additional research. about halfway through, i decided to incorporate a skyline diffuser for better acoustics. the speaker's main body is made from plywood, cut into layers using a cnc machine. to showcase the diffusers, i laser-cut acrylic for the front panel. after cutting all the pieces, i glued the plywood layers together, tackling the challenge of sliding pieces by gluing two layers at a time. once dried, i sanded the tabs and smoothed the surfaces.drilling holes in the fragile acrylic for the speakers was tricky. the best method was drilling at high rpm with a slow feed rate. after mounting the speaker drivers to the acrylic, the final step was soldering the components.

fabrication process

cad (fusion 360)

renders

final

skyline diffuser speaker

2024

project brief

the prompt for this project was to create an "heirloom" using two digital fabrication processes. reflecting on my high school experience of building a speaker and considering my enhanced skills, i decided to revisit and improve upon that project. during my research, i discovered a speaker design that incorporated a skyline diffuser internally for optimized acoustics. although the interior was impressive, its exterior was quite plain. this inspired me to design a speaker that not only delivers excellent sound quality but also showcases its complex inner workings.

user persona

i began with rough sketches, inspired by tom sachs' "boom box series." from there, i moved to cad iterations and additional research. about halfway through, i decided to incorporate a skyline diffuser for better acoustics. the speaker's main body is made from plywood, cut into layers using a cnc machine. to showcase the diffusers, i laser-cut acrylic for the front panel. after cutting all the pieces, i glued the plywood layers together, tackling the challenge of sliding pieces by gluing two layers at a time. once dried, i sanded the tabs and smoothed the surfaces.drilling holes in the fragile acrylic for the speakers was tricky. the best method was drilling at high rpm with a slow feed rate. after mounting the speaker drivers to the acrylic, the final step was soldering the components.

fabrication process

cad (fusion 360)

renders

final