Speakers from the sewer

By Esben Beck
02 Mar 1997

Introduction

All around the world, there are millions of them to be found, except in those areas completely untouched by civilisation. Forming gigantic networks whose only mission is to carry away whatever you decide to leave behind in your bathroom. Except two of them. You'll find them in my living room with a quite different mission of life -- playing music. I'm talking about the worlds most aristocratic sewage pipes Fig. 1. Picture of the finished speaker.

It all started one Sunday afternoon about two years ago. I was out for a walk, and passing a construction area, I saw a pile of moulded concrete pipes. At that time, I was meditating a lot about alternative enclosure materials, so I decided to make a call to the local sewage pipe manufacturer the next day. After some confusing seconds during the introduction of my idea, they got sympathy for the project and gave me some information about density, wall thickness, diameter, weight, length etc. for their "most popular" models. After making a few calculations, I ended up buying two pressure-moulded, non-reinforced pipes. I paid about $10 each. But of course, feel free to use second hand pipes if my project inspires you. For some degree of hygiene, try to dig them up somewhere after the purification plant. The pipes measured as follows:

Total length: 107 cm (42 1/8")
Inner diameter: 20 cm (7 7/8")
Outer diameter: 27 cm (10 5/8")
Wall thickness: 3,5 cm (1 3/8")
Weight: 76 kg (168 lbs.)

The pipes also had a wider joint section that would work well as a base for the speakers. The joint section also proved an ideal separated enclosure for the crossover network.

Drivers used

• Seas H519 tweeter
  
• Seas G17RE-P bass/midrange
  
• Scan-Speak 18W/8545 woofer

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