- When LG reached out to sponsor a video
about their new generation of XBOOM Bluetooth speakers,
we said, okay, LG, we'll take your money on one condition.
The XBOOM PL7 has to be way better than anything
we at Linus Media Group can build ourselves
for the same price.
This doesn't actually happen that often
with sponsored videos, but LG basically said,
"LOL, come at me, bro."
The fact that you're watching this video
means that we have come at them.
So stay tuned and see how we built our own Bluetooth speaker
using off the shelf components
and a little bit of can do spirit.
Oh, and also how it ended up comparing
to the LG XBOOM PL7.
(bright electronic music)
First, we needed to lay out some ground rules.
Number one is the size.
If we built a speaker, the size of a microwave
and called it a portable Bluetooth speaker killer,
that's kind of a cheap shot.
On the opposite end of the spectrum,
making a smaller speaker,
something closer to the size of LG's XBOOM PL5 or PL2
would have made our lives much more difficult.
And meant a guaranteed compromise
on sound quality on our part.
So our DIY speaker will be roughly
the same size as LG's PL7.
Number two is cost.
We could easily spend thousands of dollars
and hundreds of hours to handcraft
an artisan Bluetooth speaker.
But in the real world,
if you're doing something like this for yourself,
you're usually trying to turn money
you would have already spent into a fun project
or save a buck, and XBOOM PL7 retails for 179.99 at lg.com.
So that gives us a pretty good budget to work with.
If we're targeting mid-tier bang for the buck components.
You'll find everything we use
listed in the video description, by the way.
As for our labor costs,
I asked Matthias to track his time for this project
to find the true cost of the DIY method.
To give ourselves a fighting chance,
we settled on BC's minimum wage,
which converts to $10.73 U.S per hour.
Though to be clear, even at that rate,
we do not expect to beat LG in this regard.
Finally, when it comes to sound quality,
we wanna be on par, if not better than the XBOOM.
Now we didn't crack open an XBOOM,
like a technology omelet to see what secrets lie inside,
but by reading the packaging
and peering through the speaker parts,
we were able to put together a pretty comparable spec sheet.
Getting onto the actual speaker now.
Matthias being a bit of a design nerd,
spent a couple of hours scratching down ideas and doodles
eventually settling on a retro modern
Scandinavian aesthetic.
It's clean and smooth with an arching silhouette.
Now we would have loved to have a beautiful brushed
aluminum exterior to go along with the wood features,
but unfortunately we really couldn't justify the cost.
So we altered the design slightly
to allow for 3D printed features.
For the drivers, we went with a pair of two-inch
eight Ohm full range speakers
and a single one and 1/8 inch tweeter.
We would have preferred to have a tiny two-inch subwoofer
instead of the tweeter.
But unfortunately those were both out of stock
and over budget.
Having a design goal to work towards,
we then set out to model the various components
in Fusion 360.
One of the more important parts of the design
is the speaker housing.
And we opted for a ported design
in hopes that it would improve sound quality.
Using online calculators, we found the total volume of air
and how long of a port we needed to,
at least theoretically, prevent sound buffeting,
which landed in the neighborhood of 428 cubic centimeters
and about 25 centimeters long.
So that required a little bit of tweaking
to the original design.
After the initial housing design was completed,
it was time to do some test prints
to see how everything worked.
It was then updated to accommodate the tweeter,
3D printed, checked for clearance issues,
shrunk, due to the aforementioned clearance issues.
Then finally, 3D printed one last time
and sanded with 220 grit.
Next, the small air gaps
where the wires feed into the drivers
were filled with hardening putty and the tops
and bottoms of the housings were then epoxied together
and left to cure.
It's finally starting to look like a speaker.
We did a similar modeling and printing process
with the external part of the speaker,
except that it was too large to be printed
as one monolithic unit.
So we split the design into three pieces
that could be glued together later.
They're a little rough,
but we're gonna have links to all the parts
in the video description,
if you guys wanna download and play around with them.
Once all the newly adhered components cured,
they were sanded to 400 grit,
then primed with etching primer
to assist in filling in the ridges.
After the paint dried,
some of the larger divots were filled in
before re-sanding to 800 grit this time.
And then it was finally re-primed,
painted matte black and finished
with a satin clear top coat.
Meanwhile, we used our Glowforge to laser cut
all of the wood pieces and then sanded them
through the range of grits, up to 800.
Two coats of butcher block oil
made the wood grain more pronounced.
Then once dried, we gave them three coats
of satin wood varnish.
And after the third coat,
they were lightly re-sanded to 800 grit
to get rid of any grain rise
before spraying them with their fourth and final coat.
The front and back panels were then glued
to their inner counterpart
that slots into the top of the external housing.
And due to a slight oversight,
the screw holes in the housing and on the speaker grills
were drilled and tapped after everything else was finished.
Now, originally we were planning to use
a well-reviewed Chinese amplifier board from DAMGOO
but since it shipped two weeks late,
we had to find an alternative.
Matthias ended up sacrificing
one of his personal cheap Bluetooth speakers
to harvest the board from inside it.
But then at the last possible second,
the DAMGOO board arrived and Matthias hastily installed it
only a few hours before right now.
A few hours ago, before filming.
It's Bluetooth 5.0, it supports up to 40 Watts
of total speaker power.
It requires no soldering to work with.
And while it doesn't have a built-in
battery management system or an aux cable input,
at $8, I think we can forgive some of those deficiencies.
Anyway, it only costs us another $6
for a type-C charging board for our twin banks
of four genuine 18650 cells.
And after some last minute paint repairs
and finishing touches,
the whole project is for better or for worse done.
I'm actually really excited about this.
Like, come on guys, it's not perfect.
There are definitely some warts
and a handful of design changes
that would have been beneficial,
but we've already blown our time budget on this one.
And it's time to judge the result.
Like many Bluetooth speakers,
You pair it by holding down the button on the bottom,
which is actually also the volume knob,
and it automatically shows up in your Bluetooth devices list
and gives a notification tone through the speaker
to tell you that you're connected,
which leaves only the big question.
How does it sound?
I feel like, you know, in my listening room,
you know, I need my glass of wine.
Oh, wait, no, I don't.
lttstore.com water bottle.
Hit me with some jams.
(upbeat electronic music)
This is my jam.
Okay, cut it for now.
I don't know what surprises me more, the deficiencies
or how surprisingly adequate it is.
All things considered.
The bass is a little muddy.
To do it again, I think there's no way we can compromise
and leave out the subwoofer.
Absolutely not.
Although in fairness, you know,
even though this was absolutely a first attempt for us,
you can really tell that the porting in the back
does help enhance it.
It just lacks the clarity that we would get
with a proper bass focused driver.
I feel like the tweeter's not contributing much either.
If anything, the highs are a little harsh
and the bass is a little muddy,
but if I were to compare it to
just like kind of a cheap Bluetooth speaker,
I think we're in really good shape here.
As long as we don't mind, you know,
the weight and some warts.
This is some excellent use of hot glue by the away,
100% 10 out of 10 approved.
You haven't actually listened to a PL7 yet, have you?
- [Matthias] Nope. I have not.
- So Matthias has listened to his own speaker,
but has only evaluated it in a vacuum.
I'm like, I'm really excited.
(upbeat electronic music)
I think we got a little wrecked, son.
That is, it's pretty tight.
Here, turn it down, here, hold on, hold on,
there's a volume button.
Okay.
Matthias, in fairness to you,
your highs are more articulate,
but almost in a way that's like imbalanced
and a little detrimental to the sound.
And you can absolutely tell where the engineering went into.
I mean, that's the popular sound profile, right?
Is that that like, thumpy heavy like, bass heavy sound.
And it's right in the name, right?
XBOOM!
They definitely got us.
And we're not smaller or we're not the same size either.
- [Matthias] Close enough.
Did you just say close enough?
- [Matthias] Yes.
Okay, it's a little bit bigger.
- It's a little bigger.
The LG XBOOM Go PL7 is linked in the video description.
Having the sound tuned, using Meridian Audio technology
results in less distortion at the highest volumes
for a great listening experience.
If you wanna see how Meridian makes their $100,000 speakers,
you can click this video right here.
By using the internal air pressure
to move the external dual passive radiators,
the XBOOM PL lineup can deliver more bass
to give superior full range sound in a compact package.
And it features IPX5 water resistance.
Oh, we didn't even think of that for ours.
And up to 24 hours of battery life.
it's got LED lights that pulse to the beat of your music.
We didn't think of that either.
And you can control your speaker
with the LG XBOOM Bluetooth app.
Okay.
Well, hey, at least we were cheaper sort of.
The total cost of parts before shipping and taxes
came to 139 U.S dollars, which is by no means cheap,
but it's still slightly cheaper than the XBOOM Go PL7
weighing in at 179.99.
Although in fairness, after the battery,
the single most expensive line item on our project
was the time involved to make it.
62 and a half hours, apparently by Matthias' count.
So using our labor calculation of 10.73 times hours,
that comes out to a massive $670.63,
bringing the grand total of our DIY adventure
to a staggering $809.72.
How could we have shaved that down?
Maybe, maybe sand it a little less.
- [Matthias] Yeah, don't be so picky.
- Don't use three different materials.
You know, maybe spend more on having like a subwoofer
and like, spend more on your drivers
and maybe a little less on your Scandinavian design.
Although, you know what, I personally think
it looks wonderful.
Even if, you know, it ended up getting its butt kicked
by an off the shelf solution.
It, hey, it really says, you know, I care,
you know, that's what it says.
So in closing, if you wanna spend the time to design
and build a Bluetooth speaker the way you want it,
while also having a DIY project that can last anywhere
from a few hours to days or even weeks,
then, hearty Matthias recommendation.
Thumbs up, two thumbs up?
- [Matthias] Two thumbs up.
- Two thumbs up.
Especially if you love playing around in CAD software.
As four our original goals.
Well, I mean, you could make an argument
that we did okay as far as size is concerned,
but I really can't recommend following our design
as a cost saving measure,
unless you just really love making things
and ignore the time factor.
And unless you really know what you're doing,
beating the sound quality of a properly balanced
and tuned solution, like the PL7, isn't going to be easy.
Thanks again to LG for sponsoring this video,
check it out on their site
or at the link in the video description.
It's always great when we can use sponsor money
to go on an adventure like this, isn't it?
- [Matthias] It is.
- Yep, that's $800 of LG's money hard at work right there,
thanks LG, I will treasure it always.