Nautiloid Speakers
A Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus tribute.
Backstory
The B&W Nautilus speakers are one of the most outlandish product designs out there, and yet I'm hypnotized by them and want a set. But, until I have $60,000 burning a hole in my pocket and a modern home with room to place two 4 foot snail shaped speakers in a place that doesn't disturb the feng shui, I will have to make do with some DIY creations. I also wanted to get some practice with surface modeling in SolidWorks. Ergo, the miniature desktop nautiloid speakers.
Modelling in SolidWorks 2020
The majority of the body was built up with a series of lofted bosses based on a Fibonacci sequence. I then swept a central rib between the lofted sections to form one body. That body was sliced with the Right Plane and shelled to a reasonable wall thickness. The top feature was added as a separate body and merged with some splined surfaces.
Acoustics
As a starting point, I selected the Dayton PS95, as it seemed to be solid full range driver commonly used in DIY speaker builds. This helped form the overall size of the speaker. I tweaked the size and wall thickness to get the internal volume to a place where the driver would be happy. This included the addition of the port in the top. In the B&W speakers, the eyeball-tentacle shaped appendages are housings for mid range and tweeters, but since the Dayton is a full range, no additional drivers are needed. I instead took the design language and made it a functional port.
Fabrication
I plan on splitting the body further in half and 3D printing the parts on a Prusa and gluing them together. To get the classic gloss black look, I will coat them with a high-build primer and sand prior to painting with an automotive enamel and clear coating. The bases will be cast out of concrete. A few more tweaks are needed on the shell/base connection prior to printing.