Guus is an Amsterdam based interdisciplinary designer with a particular interest in art, science and the relationship between humans and technology. He is both an independent designer as open to co-creation on interesting projects.
His latest project is called: ‘Dino Eggs, 3D Printed HiFi’. The prototype for this project is being developed with two 3D printers. The outer shells of the speakers were printed with the DeltaWASP 3MT and the inner tubes with both the LulzBot TAZ 6.
Formfutura’s ReForm™ upcycled PLA pellets were used for the outer shells and ABS for the tubes.
We asked Guus a few questions about the project and this is what he had to say:
Why did you decide to design speakers like this?
Every day, I walked across the hallway at Makerversity where that DeltaWASP 3MT lured at me. The guys at 3DPrinting.com were printing chairs, skateboards and other cool stuff, which got me intrigued by the possibilities of printing large things. I started generating a bunch of ideas and got most enthusiastic about HiFi speakers.
All of a sudden I was drowning myself in an ocean of information about the art of making speakers. This can be described as a science to some extent, complemented with a touch of fine arts. Exactly the combination that is close to my heart.
So your speakers are like Dinosaur eggs.. could you explain?
I have always been fascinated by dinosaurs but that’s not the real reason. Since soundwaves travel through air in spheres, I figured that pressure waves inside of the speakers would preferably be guided by this shape. The design also required thick walls so no unwanted vibrations could occur within the system. After a lot of diagrams, calculations and shape considerations, this resulted in 3 surprisingly aesthetic objects that together will form a single speaker. People started calling them all sorts of things, from hairdryers to hats. Strange. Naturally, I became very fond of the more suitable name: Dino Eggs.
How do people react and do they sound good?
During the first test run, I was amazed by the clarity of it as well as my co-workers at Makerversity. Instantly we were playing many of our favourite tracks. A day later, there was a showcase of my first prototype. It felt good getting only positive reactions to my creation. Everybody liked the sound and a lot of people wanted to touch it. If I said they may, they tend to stroke it very gently.
What are your plans for the future?
The design is nearly complete. Priority lies in producing the first set of speakers, which are still in need of ports and suspension. You can follow the hatching process here: https://www.facebook.com/3DHIFI/
Any ideas, suggestions or comments? Please contact him on folkeldesign@gmail.com or visit the Dino Eggs page.
