Resonance -- let's get this hammered out!

[$tarkiller]

No...lol... just the resonance chamber. "It would be so easy to fit it to your hilt"

Off hand I know rosewood is warmer then maple.

Alof of drummer pack their bassdrums with pillows and such to mute/reduce the ringing of brighter tones.

Actually, the reason they pack their bass drums, is to reduce friction of the pedal hammer on the drum iself, therefore making a more solid thump when used.

[Crystal Chambers]

Yes to get rid of the bright tone of the hammer hitting the skin and to cut out the snare ringing.

[Novastar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudspeaker_enclosure
Some information to help adapting a hilt to improve sound output.

Sunrider, yup... wikipedia is a great resource. Although, it's quite true that most of that really only applies in a more "substantial" way to fairly larger speakers. For smaller speakers... it's... pretty tough to do anything of the sort in a DIY sense... AND have it be effective.

A speaker PN that looks promising CMS0281KLX.

Ah, yes--this is essentially the "iPod" style speaker with a mounting bracket.

It's not bad, as... I've tried a few of these. In fact, one that is 45mm in diameter is in my Flange III "darkside" saber right now. Good stuff... not super-uber in some respects, but good stuff just the same!

I don't know much about the 28mm ones... although there is another I am using in my Flange III "lightside" saber right now. It was more like 32mm(?) though? I don't remember... it's been awhile--those speakers have been in the Flange III sabers since like... oh... I wanna say December of 2008.

At any rate--the silver "cone plate" or whatever... and the nice rubbery ring between the speaker and frame... are pretty nice, considering you'd rarely find the time & efforts to DIY such things.

Good post... sound is complicated... and takes a lot of work to "get just right"!

[Crystal Chambers]

hmm..I've seen a resonance chamber here in front of the speaker for the pommel, and for reverse sound I've seen one with the chamber behind the speaker.

Any relation here? I would think that having the chamber in front of the speaker no matter what location in the hilt would be a priority, and maybe some chamber in behind in addition, but this raises a new question to resonance in relation to speaker location.

[Amptrooper]

Here is what I did in my Mandalorian saber. I has sound coming from the pommel end and from the crystal chamber that is in the choke. The crystal holder is vented for the sound.
I went to lows and found pvc that fit in my hilt and was just about the right diameter for my speaker. I honed it out si that my speaker could fit half way down then stop. I used a plastic washer (kinda soft but ridged enough to not move while dueling) to put on the side that I honed out. The tube is about, oh, an 1" 1/2 maybe a bit more. BTW this is a tcss speaker. I then used plastic plugs that you can also get at Lowes drilled a hole in them and put them in the ends of the tube. Then I got two small cheap 99 cent funnels and cut the tips off. I used clear epoxy and attached the funnel ends to the holes with the larger side facing out. Oh, you have to make a small hole in one of the caps for your wires. This whole set up is about 2 1/2" long. So that really is not that bad if you have the room for some massive sound! I am going to make another one soon and I will show my work this time. I did this because I was not happy with using the hilt as the resonance chamber. It was loud but the sound quality was lacking and I thought I could get it even louder. It is louder and the sound quality is much better. I got the idea from the Bose systems. I am very happy with it. The forward sound is just as loud as the pommel sound. So it sounds like the whole saber is making the sound. Fun weekend project!

[Sunrider]

Nice amptrooper that is what i am going to try too. By reducing reflections, extending & porting the chamber at the rear of the speaker theoretically you can double the low freq sound quality. I think round interior edges & absorbtion material are key.

[Darth Securis]

I have been curious about this as well. I got a broken MR FX Anakin that I am converting and the speaker is blown. I replaced it with the TCSS speaker but it isn't as loud as the stock MR speaker. The speaker sold here is deeper (thicker) than the stock speaker so that might be why.

Anyways, it go me thinking about the resonance requirements for the two different speakers. I know with the proper chamber the TCSS speaker can be louder. I have been wondering how much room is ideal though and thinking about how to figure this out.

I came up with a little something that would be helpful for testing different setups on the same or different speakers. I made a sketch so you all would understand more. Basically, the rear sealed air space is separately adjustable from the front resonance chamber which is also adjustable. So you can try different combos of rear space and front space in the same rig without spending too much time changing configuration. Once you figure out what works for the speaker you have then you build the permanent enclosure. It would probable be better to make it out of clear tubing so you can measure the chambers easier. You could even go as far as putting inserts on the 3rd tube with different size holes instead of having a sealed rear chamber. Here it is:

[Jonitus]

MRFX sabers have a bad design in terms of sound. The speakers are tacked onto the end of battery packs, and there's no resonance at all. The back is blocked, and there's never any space to the front to serve as a chamber. Even when you replace a crummy MR speaker with one of the nice ones TCSS sells, you don't get very good results.

If you use a MRFX as a shell to do a custom install with soundboard and your own battery pack or whatever, you can free up a lot of space to make a good resonance chamber and get some good sound out of it.

[Darth Securis]

Yeah, I wasn't going to go into a lot of details on that cause this isn't the right location for it but that is pretty much what I will be doing.

[Novastar]

Everyone's moving on the right track with this... awesome!

The only issue that I'VE really found is... and, well, as if it'll be a surprise to anyone: free space = ARRRARRRRGGGGHHHH

In sabers, as many of us know--"real estate" becomes precious. Especially when you're an idiot like myself, and always looking to fit 15 pounds of potatoes into the 5 pound bag (quote stolen from Anthony Davidson "Necrolosis")... heheheh

Seriously though--I like tight choke points (for the forward hand), and generally short length hilts (10.5" to 11.5" maximum)... and of course in the Flange III sabers I stuff tons of extra LEDs... two 18650 Li-Ions... a vibration motor... two switches... CF... a recharge port... and of course, the speaker.

So... the point? IT'S BLOODY HARD TO HAVE 2" FORWARD AND BACKWARD OF THE SPEAKER that are just plain... well... "empty", heheh!

I try my best to allow a lot of gaps, where wiring is simply running through the areas... but... it gets stuffed just the same, lol.

I imagine ideal resonance could come from sabers >10" or ones using less "beefy" battery solutions. But I don't know... *I* find it darn TOUGH to do this resonance thing. Even though I'm an advocate for it...

Anyone else have that issue? Like... once it's down to brass tacks, your speaker has barely 0.5" of "resonance room"?? :P