Polk Computer Speaker Hack~
by Arnoldofingo in Circuits > Reuse
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Polk Computer Speaker Hack~
Polk Computer Speaker Hack~
With my first experience with these speakers I found them to be junk. They were also to be found everywhere; everybody fell for the Polk name and came to find that these speakers were -are- worthless. On the Other Hand...
Why not reverse the intended use of this and create a set of sound capturing devices, as they will effective record in Stereo... and it's all so simple~ Not to mention, you'll have a micro phonic device that ironically looks like a harmless set of speakers... stealth~
List of items needed:
1. Polk Audio 000M3A2-0 Computer Speakers
2. Solder Iron
3. Two Condenser mic thingies
4. Common copper hot water heater line "INSULATION FOAM", the grey tube variety
5. Heat Shrink tubing... a must~
6. Expanding aerosol foam
To start-
Disassemble the speakers. The front webbing comes off easily to expose the speaker mounting screws. Note that there is one screw hidden Under the removable speaker stand; you just have to push the plastic wedged-in part back to remove. Look closely, I missed it the first time…
Use solder iron to release speakers from cord. Toss the speakers. They're useless~
Run the stereo cord through each of the speaker housings and re-tie the original knot in the line to preserve it's 'hold in place' effect.
Choose several pieces of shrink tubing for each line to be soldered to the condenser mic(s) leads BEFORE soldering... Solder in place and heat up the insulating wonder-tubing. I did several layers of tubing to insure that the soldered leads would not bend or otherwise incur any force that would break the connection.
Take your hollow speaker casing and cut a piece of the grey foam tubing -just enough for it to run the length of top to bottom of the inner front of the speaker face. With an knife, make two insertion cuts for the mic to easily, but firmly slip and settle into. You're almost there...
At this point, assemble the speaker casing back to it's original. With a noticeable gap now available, having only a the mic and the tube exposed, begin filling (slowly) the back recesses of the speaker with the expanding foam. Be careful not to overdoo this. It's expanding foam; it's gona expand a lot.
Give things a chance to set and dry. A Day? Hopefully you can wait that long. You'll need a serrated knife to trim off the excess foam... you might have also used some masking tape to keep the expanding foam from invading the holes used to mount the exterior mesh -which makes these speakers so attractive.
Conclusion:
I found these buggers useful for two reasons. I can now record without exposing the 'subject' to something that appears to be microphones. Two, with the density of the foam in the speaker making contact with the condenser mic's I manage to pick up deeper tones, especially bass.
Have a sound card? Download Audacity and get started…
Joy~
With my first experience with these speakers I found them to be junk. They were also to be found everywhere; everybody fell for the Polk name and came to find that these speakers were -are- worthless. On the Other Hand...
Why not reverse the intended use of this and create a set of sound capturing devices, as they will effective record in Stereo... and it's all so simple~ Not to mention, you'll have a micro phonic device that ironically looks like a harmless set of speakers... stealth~
List of items needed:
1. Polk Audio 000M3A2-0 Computer Speakers
2. Solder Iron
3. Two Condenser mic thingies
4. Common copper hot water heater line "INSULATION FOAM", the grey tube variety
5. Heat Shrink tubing... a must~
6. Expanding aerosol foam
To start-
Disassemble the speakers. The front webbing comes off easily to expose the speaker mounting screws. Note that there is one screw hidden Under the removable speaker stand; you just have to push the plastic wedged-in part back to remove. Look closely, I missed it the first time…
Use solder iron to release speakers from cord. Toss the speakers. They're useless~
Run the stereo cord through each of the speaker housings and re-tie the original knot in the line to preserve it's 'hold in place' effect.
Choose several pieces of shrink tubing for each line to be soldered to the condenser mic(s) leads BEFORE soldering... Solder in place and heat up the insulating wonder-tubing. I did several layers of tubing to insure that the soldered leads would not bend or otherwise incur any force that would break the connection.
Take your hollow speaker casing and cut a piece of the grey foam tubing -just enough for it to run the length of top to bottom of the inner front of the speaker face. With an knife, make two insertion cuts for the mic to easily, but firmly slip and settle into. You're almost there...
At this point, assemble the speaker casing back to it's original. With a noticeable gap now available, having only a the mic and the tube exposed, begin filling (slowly) the back recesses of the speaker with the expanding foam. Be careful not to overdoo this. It's expanding foam; it's gona expand a lot.
Give things a chance to set and dry. A Day? Hopefully you can wait that long. You'll need a serrated knife to trim off the excess foam... you might have also used some masking tape to keep the expanding foam from invading the holes used to mount the exterior mesh -which makes these speakers so attractive.
Conclusion:
I found these buggers useful for two reasons. I can now record without exposing the 'subject' to something that appears to be microphones. Two, with the density of the foam in the speaker making contact with the condenser mic's I manage to pick up deeper tones, especially bass.
Have a sound card? Download Audacity and get started…
Joy~