Research on Spikes

     So far, research has been done on various methods of isolating the speaker. The most shocking thing that was found was the number of conflicting designs and viewpoints on the competency of the designs. The biggest of these was the application of spikes present in many of the designs. Many designers claim that this will vastly improve the quality of the sound. However, the online magazine Audioholics says that at best they "seem[s] to have a noticeable effect", though depending on the situation they are used in, research "indicate[s]d that cones are of doubtful use if the intention is to stop vibrations passing from the speaker to the stand." Based on this disagreement, a decision has been made that spikes will not be used in any tests. Pictured below are stands with different spike setups incorporated on them.

Loudspeakers

In order to complete our project, a set of quality loudspeakers must be purchased. Our group has gone through many different speakers and has now narrowed it down to two different speakers. There speakers are the Bose 201's and the ELAC B5's.

The comparisons we have done between them left us with the following. The speakers are about $10 different in price, with B5's being the pricier. The B5's are 8.8" x 7.9" x 12.8" and weigh 12 pounds. They have a 5.25" woofer. The 201's are 13" x 8" x 8" and weigh 22.4 pounds. They have a 6.5" woofer.

Our first instinct tells us to go with the Bose speakers just because Bose is such a reputable company and ELAC is relatively unheard of. My brother has a pair of Bose 301's and they sound terrific so I am assuming the 201's are also very nice. However, the B5's won the 2015 Absolute Sound Product of the Year and they are designed by famous speaker designer, Andrew Jones.

Hopefully we can make a final decision soon and purchase our speakers, putting us a step further in our project.

Detailed Timeline Established

One of the primary concerns of this free design project is the amount of time (or lack thereof between the myriad of other time responsibilities) that will be available to commit to the various tasks required for its completion. Therefore, as the group's leader, I find that one of my most critical job is making sure that each of us individually and together as a group are able to stay on schedule.

Thus, the first step in fulfilling this responsibility is actually creating a detailed timeline in the first place. A vague version of this was necessary for the Design Proposal submitted earlier in the week, so the detailed plan of action established during our lab period is an elaboration on this thinking, including detailed tasks and exact dates that these tasks will need to be accomplished.

The schedule was created using the collaborative software offered by TeamUp, giving each group member the ability to access and modify the calendar as he so chooses. This will be critical in making sure we as a group are on the same page and keeping this project's timeline in mind amidst the other deadlines that we have in our individual class/personal schedules.

A link to this timeline is posted below:

https://teamup.com/ks1aa8a05a1e2354ab

Decision Matrix

Roles and Responsibilities

Click on the link if you would like to view the member's team roles and responsibilities.

Plan of Action

     This problem will be addressed in several steps. The first, research, will consist of gaining a physical understanding of sound waves and isolation stands as well as previous designs of stands. This will be followed up with securing a high-fidelity speaker for testing. Afterwards, several deigns will be brainstormed, analyzed, and the best design will be selected. At this point, a prototype of the stand will be made and then tested. After this, a report on the process and results of the project will be made.

Problem Statement

Speaker stands preserve the quality of sound a speaker produces. However, quality speaker stands are quite expensive.Speaker stands function by isolating the speaker to reduce the dissipation of the speaker's vibrations, increasing the quality of sound replication. As such, the objective of this project is to design and fabricate an inexpensive quality speaker stand that features an isolating element.