1704 Audio LabsPrinciples of sound exploration
Belief

There is no correct sound, only the endless, joyful search for yours.

Recordings are mixed by people, in rooms, to taste. Playback can never be a window onto an original you were never part of, so the goal is not fidelity but finding what you love, for the music and the moment you are in.

PrecisionCharacter
Foundationwhat makes it possible
Technical freedomDSP and affordable class D amps make every speaker reconfigurable. Crossovers, EQ and voicings change in software, so you are never locked in.
Physical paletteBox, open baffle, horn and subwoofer move air in physically different ways. Built as cheap DIY, they form a palette to combine, even in unusual ways. The room is part of the instrument.
Way of workinghow to use it
Measure to understandA calibrated microphone and real data make every experiment deliberate. Compare level-matched, because louder always sounds better.
Taste decidesNo dogma. EQ, presets and voicings for different music or moods are legitimate. Changing your mind is part of the game.
On a budget

Good sound is not a price class.

Every project here starts from parts anyone can buy: one sheet of OSB from the DIY store, a drain pipe, an affordable full-range driver, a class D amp. Cheap enough to build more than one, to cut it open, to try the unusual, and to spend the effort where it decides: on measuring, and on listening.

Every plan, drawing, script and measurement is free to rebuild: documentation under CC BY-SA 4.0, scripts under MIT.

Applied
The finished Le Petit pair in OSB
01 · after Jean Hiraga, 1983

Le Petit

Jean Hiraga's Le Petit from one sheet of OSB with an Aiyima 4″ driver: flat within ±1 dB from 55 to 150 Hz, tuned by measurement, one change at a time.