Has anyone ever carved a sub out of solid stone? (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Bort]

Now this may just be a mental exercise, but as I was washing my marble rolling pin this morning (and thinking about SVS cylinders) I was wondering if anyone (in the world that you know of) has ever carved a sub enclosure out of stone, either for box or cylinder. What would the advantages be? What would the disadvantages be?

Theorize away...

 

[Garrett Lundy]

It would be nearly impossible. Stone has a tendency to chip&beak instead of making a clean cut like wood. To get the square edges using in building materials marble (and other hard stone, like granite) the stone has to be cut with a diamond-tipped saw spinning several hundred RPM and being cooled with a constant water jet.

Noww try using a table-saw to hollow something out. Not very practical is it? And all the stone drilling technology is more worried about getting through the stone rather than making it smooth & look nice.

Now assuming that those problems are solved.

A 16" x 46" cylinder of marble would probably weigh on the heavy side of 1000lbs. You could no longer use man-power to build the subs, but would need to hire heavy-equipment operators.

And lastly:

Remember that unlike wood or sonotube; stone is not flexible, and the thousands of vibrations that a driver create would pulverise the stone surround the threads of the screw that holds the driver onto the stone!


Now non-brittle metal on the other hand is very heavy and acoustically inert (for simplicties sake). The problem is that its expensive. This is part of the reason why Krell's LAT2 bookshelf speakers cost $10,000/pair (they are made with aluminum cabinets).

 

[Phil Iturralde]

The closes to your question would be this ... CLICK HERE!!! (posted many, ... many, ... many times before)

Phil

 

[John Garcia]

Norh makes some of their speakers out of a solid chunk of marble that is hollowed out, as well as ceramic versions:

http://www.norh.com/products/norh4/index.html

 

[Mike SJ]

"It would be nearly impossible" and NORH uses the REVELATOR!!!!!!


That right there is reason enough to check out nohr.
Ive always wanted to hear them but they dont have dealers close to KC :frowning: oh well we have martin Logan in our backyard

 

[Nathan W.]

HERE is Norh's Marble Subwoofer.

 

[ChrisBee]

Commercial box speakers have been made out of cast concrete in the past.

Ceramics would be the obvious choice and are readily available in many sizes as fired-clay drainage pipes and tiles.

Big ceramic pots and vases are possible as sub enclosures. Though who knows if they would handle long term compression and resonance?

I investigated concrete drainage pipes for subwoofers. But in suitable sizes 18-24" diameter they are very thick (and very heavy) for strength underground. Getting them indoors might be fun.

There is no reason why large ceramic or marble tiles couldn't be glued together into a suitable enclosure. 24" square is available. They could be cut with an angle grinder and stone-cutting disk.

Marble or granite shelves or kitchen & bathroom working surfaces be assembled into suitable boxes. I saw some remarkably cheap polished solid granite working surfaces in the local DIY superstore only yesterday. Shame they weighed so much despite a neat 18" round hole made for the basin (or nice big drive unit!)

A cube of solid polished stone could be hollowed out with an air/abrasive or water/abrasive cutting tool. But it would be very heavy and difficult to sell when you finally upgraded to an SVS. :wink:

ChrisBee

 

[Garrett Lundy]

OK OK, I stand corrected. You can build a subwoofer out of marble. And with a roll-off at 40hrtz.... not a very good one for "bottom-dwelling" SVS fans like you and me.


But what are those speakers on top of the subwoofer, they are sooooo cute! My GF will love them!

 

[Eric Eash]

it's defineately not impossible. here is a speaker set stone speakers. also, the heavier the better when it comes to subs.

eric

 

[Dan Hine]

Have you really never heard of nOrh? Wow, they used to be THE speaker with a cult following. Though they do still have many raving owners. I almost bought some but decided to go DIY.

- Dan

 

[Joey_V]

my friend's uncle has the nohr marble sub - he has an extra HSU tube sub to augment the lower bass regions.

 

[Stephen Bort]

Wow, you learn something new every day. Thanks all for your input.

So it looks like it can be done. Now the question is, is there any advantage to doing it? (from a tech standpoint)

 

[Chu Gai]

Link to DIY Concrete Speakers and other fun stuff.

 

[Brian Tatnall]

I like these:

http://www.jameskelseystudios.com/he...strumpets.html

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Nope, I just got into this whole HT/music business a few years ago (all previous experience has been with table-top units). I can't say I have ever heard of nOrh, nor ever seen in person: "tubes",a turntable worth more than $25, a speaker that costs more than $800, $200 interconnects, or "magic bricks"

My audio-career started with CD, and reading the posts about the problems with vinyl I can't say I'm very sorry about it.

Heck, I have the best system I have ever heard: Paradigm Atoms v.3, SVS PCi20-39, a Pioneer VSX receiver, a Sony CD megachanger, and RadioShack connectors. I live in a bizarre alternate reality compared to some people who have 500% of my entire systems worth just in their power conditioners.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I figure I should explain myself before a vinyl fan trys to shank me in a dark hallway:

When I mentioned vinyls "problems" I was refering to such things as:

adjusting/repairing turnatable drive belts

tone-arm balancing

having to replace a diamond tipped needle or something

dust, scratches, pops, skips, and somebody said something about having to wax them (but I think they may have been lying). CD's on the other hand...just keep your grubby fingerprints ooff them and they'll be fine.

The comment was never meant to imply any weakness in the soundquality of vinyl (ie: "warm" or "Live" get used alot).

 

[Arthur S]

Who is it, Wilson or Krell that uses an 800 pound metal box?

 

[Chu Gai]

Dracula.

 

[Thomas F]

I know a guy that made a wooden bowl with a table saw!? I never would have thought it was possbile.