The singing shoebox: A $5 loudspeaker project

Moving-coil loudspeakers typify the interdisciplinary nature of acoustics. In order to reproduce sound, these devices employ principles of electricity, magnetism, mechanics, and acoustics. The widespread use of loudspeakers has made them familiar to students and thus a valuable opportunity to introduce students to acoustics. In this paper, the authors demonstrate a loudspeaker-enclosure system that is easily built from scratch. The system is mostly constructed from common household supplies, making it low-cost and accessible to a wide audience. In addition, this project is well-suited for use by the K-12 educator as the content can be scaled to fit a variety of different academic levels. To this end, the speaker’s design and construction will be presented and its relevance as an educational demonstration discussed. Finally, the loudspeaker will be auditioned and its performance demonstrated.