How do you build a subwoofer speaker?

What parts do I need for a working speaker?

• I'm doing a project where I need the base sounds from a speaker, and I don't have much money to buy a real, expensive one. I probably need to take the box off at the very least, and I might damage the cones as well so I don't want to buy an expensive one. What parts of a speaker are necessary for it to work? Can a subwoofer work alone, or a speaker cone, and how do I connect it to an audio source and power source? I probably will have a budget of less than 50 bucks, but I want to spend like 20 or 30 bucks. Where can I find something like this? Here is the video of what I want to build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zoTKXXNQIU

• Answer:

  You can get the woofer cheap at PE, for example... http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=299-068 Just $5. You also need a frequency generator and an amplifier with gain control. A good tone generator is pretty expensive but you might be able to download software to do this for you. You also need an amplifier, if you have an audio system at home you can use that. Or you can get something cheap like this... http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=248-460 Edit: A headphone jack isn't going to have enough power to drive the speaker. It might play but not very loud. You will need some sort of amplifier to drive the speaker. Speakers are just linear motors, motors require power. Signal from a heaphone jack is basically just information, not power or at least not much power. For what you are trying to do, it would be helpful to have the ability to drive the speakers with various frequencies and various amplitudes. Ideally you could even modulate the primary frequency with another frequency. If you could do this, you certainly should be able to make all sorts of interesting shapes in the material on the speaker cone. This is a cheap basic one that can NOT modulate... http://www.bkprecision.com/products/signal-generators/3001-audio-generator.html A really good one is about $2000. You still need an amplifier. A quick google search for "free PC based tone generator" turned up this... http://3d2f.com/tags/pc/tone/generator/ I did not download it so I don't know if it works. Be careful downloading free apps from the web, some carry viruses or a bunch of extra software you don't want. mk