Ever since we first showcased her charming Los Feliz home, musician Sara Lov has continued to impress us with the variety of custom DIY projects, all focused on tricking out her home office/studio on a budget. She's back with a speaker customization project, born from a desire to slow down, ditch the iTunes/iPhone playlist, and enjoy the warm analog sounds of vinyl records.
I used birch plywood, plumbing pipe, tiny casters & industrial strength velcro.I also created a space to sit and play records. It feels special, and I love that it forces participation. Arts and crafts is another thing that puts me in the moment so here's my latest project...I gave my speakers a makeover and built some stands too.
Who says speaker grill fabrics always have to be black? Sara customized her pair of speakers with a feminine floral print and built custom speaker stands, totally transforming the audio components as a decorative extension of her eclectic and inviting home.
See how Sara transformed her home audio setup into a personalized corner to help recapture an appreciation for "being more in the moment" at her blog, Lov Your Space.
(Images: Sara Lov)
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Love it! Also, what record player is that? We're in the market for a replacement.
She's a smartly creative lady!
I love this idea. Not my taste in fabric, but I honestly never thought of changing the fabric on my speakers.
@veggiemar, not totally sure, but I suspect it's a vintage Marantz. I'm also in the market for a record player, preferably one just like Sara's.
omg vinyl is vintage I am getting old...loving the idea of the speakers!
LOVE.
@veggiemar I know that Pro-Ject makes turntables with a similar profile, and their classics line is available in olive or mahogany. Highly sexy, but not a low-cost option.
No to rain on anyone's parade but unless you are using acoustic fabric you are going to dull the sound more than you would think. Take a listen to your speakers even after taking off the included speaker grills and you will notice a huge difference in high frequencies. Now, throw a t-shirt over them and take a listen, pretty dull...
Love it.... I literally have a record player being delivered today!
Oh, I have those curtains.
The rule of thumb for speaker fabric: if you can see through it (when held up to your eyes), it's good. An open weave fabric will do nicely. You can even stencil the fabric after the frame is made to customize it. Heavy, tight weave fabrics will knock out your upper mids and highs, dulling the sound. I would make the base of the stand at least the width of the speaker to reduce tipping if accidentally hit. For those picky about wires, you can drill holes in the base and top platform so the wires can run through the pipe. You'll need to either create a groove in the top for the wires to nest under the speaker. And instead of Velcro, I use Sticky Tack to secure my speakers to my stands.
Ah, turntables. I've got an old Technics manual direct drive that's served me well.
To @veggiemar, I'd recommend the Sumiko Essential Phono. It retails at $300, and the quality is excellent. Far superior to those plastic platter phonographs at the big box electronic stores. And the come in colors (well, black, white and red). You can always tell how good the brand is by how good their top line stuff is, and their stuff is good.
I like this idea!
that fabric is killing the sound quality. turntable looks rather pioneerish to me... could also be a marantz
david: I think you're right, marantz.
another ditto on the fabric dulling the sound. also, those castors aren't doing you any favors either for your lows. You'd be better off with screws through the bottom board sitting on pennies on your wood floor to get your bass tighter.
Of course...we're being pretty audio-nerdy here...now who's in for some silver oxygen free speaker cables?
Love the idea, and I would agree, the fabric may be a bit heavy for proper sound dispersion, but they DO look nice.
That said, I have a full cadre of vintage gear of various eras, from the early 70's, to the mid to late Oughts.
The TV is the newest component, a Samsung 32" LCD set from 2008, the DVD recorder, 2004, the receiver and CD player are from the mid to late 90's, the turntable, 1985 and is a lower end belt driven semi automatic Kenwood table, plastic plynth, aluminum platter and fitted with a Sure M97XE cartridge. The speakers, vintage Sansui's from around 1973 or so.
They could use their crossovers replaced, and I have Dad's older ones with horns and an even larger woofer from '71 that also need the crossovers rebuilt in storage.
I would like to upgrade the table someday.
I'm all for appreciating vintage items but isn't it about time the last holdouts move on to better quality sound that is offered by high bit rate digital? Yes, I know some of you will insist that vinyl sounds better to you but that's most sentimentality speaking, whereas the fact that record quality quickly and noticeably degrades after even a short number of plays through wear and the resulting pops and clicks from dust and scratches are a fact of life with records. Let it die already; there is a far superior option that's been available for over 20 years now.
I grew up with vinyl and hated it. CDs don't skip the way records used to.