Bamboo Loudspeakers

In the summer of 2015, I decided I needed a pair of affordable, good looking, and good sounding speakers. Naturally, buying something fully assembled wasn't an option. My brother, who has built several sets of speakers and has bought countless more, suggested that I check out the frugal-horn. They are a simple design, utilizing full range drivers and a clever rear-loaded horn that delivers impressive frequency response.

After researching them, I decided to give it a go. The design appealed to me aesthetically and reviews from people in the audio community convinced me that the speakers were going to perform to my standards.

Unfortunately, since I built these before I had a website or a decent camera, I don't have too many progress pictures.

So why bamboo? Well, there were a few reasons. First, it looks spectacular. Second, I didn't have any experience with edge-banding or face-framing and was not confident enough in my skills to pull off a bunch of compound miters. Finally, it is highly renewable, which I like to support if I can.

After researching, I couldn't find bamboo plywood anywhere locally. Luckily, my parents were headed to Portland and kindly agreed to pick up a sheet for me.

Apparently, the experience of purchasing the bamboo could have been out of a Portlandia episode. There was a large open space housing a small independent coffee shop as well as an artisan bamboo dealer. As you can see, business was booming. After asking for the sheet of plywood, my parents were told a story about the history of the bamboo forest this particular sheet came from. Apparently, McIlhenny Co (the makers of Tabasco) has a large bamboo forest on their property in Louisiana, and the source of this sheet was a transplant of that location. Interesting.

Anyway, got the bamboo, cut it up, glued it together, finished it, installed some drivers, and I had a set of speakers.