Final Post

1. Lab work done and physics learned:
There was a lot of lab work that went along with the audio project. For the first few weeks, I spent most of my time just taking notes on a couple different books. We also had to do a decibel reading test on 5 different speakers. I really learned physics throughout my whole project. I learned about what sound is and how it works through the notes, and i learned about speakers and speaker system set up while building and assembling my speakers.

 2. Specific goals and how could they change:
The main goal of the audio project was to produce and build your own set of speakers. It was to learn about sound and how it works, and then apply that to building and assembling you own speakers. And I thought that it was a good process. It went well for me. I learned a lot, then i used that knowledge to build my own!

 3. Outside the classroom:
In my opinion, a lot of this project was outside of the classroom. I spent many hours buying my parts, cutting my wood, building my speakers boxes and crossovers, wiring, caulking, and finishing them up. We also had to do some decibel testing outside the classroom. It was nice to be able to do this work outside. I enjoyed it. But it also did take a long time to build my own box and everything that goes along with that.

 4. Grade deserved:
I think I deserve an A on this project. I put tons of my own time outside of the classroom into this project. Not only time, but I put a lot of quality work into it as well. There were many notes taken, many tests performed, and many parts put together and then assembled into my speakers boxes. I also think that i learned a lot about sound and speakers and how they work, and i think that was the main goal of this project- to learn- which i definitely did a lot of.

Procedure and Conclusion for my speaker test

Procedure:
I set up my speakers, and put the decibel reader 1 meter away from the speakers. I calibrated it to 1000 Hz at 75 dB. I played the different frequencies, and recorded the decibels of each.

 Conclusion:
My speakers did pretty good on the decibel test. It isn't a perfectly straight line, but it was somewhat consistent. There was a drop in decibels from about 1000-4000 Hz. Also, past 16,000 Hz, the decibel reader did not pick anything up. I was very happy with the quality, the clearness, and the loudness of my speakers.

Comments on Pictures

Picture 1:
Using a drill press to cut out a hole for the tweeter.

 Picture 2:
Measuring and marking on the wood where to make cuts.

 Picture 3:
Using a jig saw to cut out the hole for woofer.

 Picture 4:
Using a jig saw to cut out the hole for the terminal.

 Picture 5:
Filing the hole for the woofer to fit.

 Picture 6:
Seeing if the woofer fits.

New Decibal Readings Chart and Graph

Click here to download:
speaker data.ods (38 KB)
(download)

 

 

Procedure:

Set the decibel reader1 meter away from the speakers. Calibrate it to 1000 Hz at 75 dB. Procede to play the different frequencies and record your data.

 

Conclusion:

Most of the speakers were not as good as i expected them to be. They were all fairly average. There wasn't much of a straight line. Towards the higher end of the frequencies, the decibels consistently got lower with all the speakers. It seems that they have a hard time with the high frequencies. But I did learn how to use a decibel reader.