MythBusters - Homemade Hi-Def Speakers

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Can you really make hi-def speakers from paper plates and foil like the YT videos suggest?
Watch the original KZbin video here:
• How to Create a High-D...
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[@mastermrz8145]

"Hear that? Thats the sound of money being thrown away" Best Line ever! XD

[@skylerbulford8927]

$10 each jack? could you not have just cut up a bunch of headphones or earbuds?

[@Wick3DPimP]

i thought the same thing man. In fact i've seen earbuds that come in quarter machines for 50 cent.

[@sMaShEdToMaToS]

+Wick3DPimP wait. Are they quarter headphones or are they 2 quarters? You need to make more cents

[@Wick3DPimP]

sMaShEdToMaToS har har

[@darrellmount7020]

You can get the ear buds/ear phones jacks wires and all at the $ 1 store any where, so he's either lying or he's just never been to the neighborhood dollar store.I seriously doubt the little cd player ( meant to power tiny ear buds ) could power any speaker much bigger than a quarter, the just isn't there, plug it in to a real stereo and see if that works

[@classalpha]

that jack is made in USA

[@tolsen64]

I knew it wouldn't work the second he taped both positive and negative leads to the penny. Direct short.

[@CameraKid2]

+tolsen64 Yes, that's right. And it looked like he didn't burn the enamel off the wires, either.

[@DanielVidz]

+CameraKid2 Generally mini-jack leads wouldn't have enamel on the conductors but it would be wise to check.

[@jamisonw.327]

I assume the idea was to have a magnet taped on the inside of the plate, maybe that would have worked to some degree, but even so a single penny with no wrappings is about the crappiest electromagnet ever. I doubt it would have worked that way either, but it would have at least had a basis in reality. Speakers work by alternating an electromagnet attached directly to the cone. As the voltage goes positive, it pushes away from a second magnet (a powerful rare earth magnet usually), as the voltage goes negative it attracts the second magnet. These alternations drive the speaker. You also need an enclosure to get anything remotely electrically efficient, otherwise the pressure differential just goes around the speaker cone and equalizes immediately and the sound waves cancel and become weak.

[@tomkocur]

Maybe this was supposed to be a piezoelectric driver, not an electrodynamic one.

[@TheHitmanAgent]

You don't need to be an electrical engineer to figure that out 😂😂😂

[@brokenot]

"We taped two bare conductors to a shiny penny, and created...a dead short". Viewers actually requested that this be tested for verification? Had they already constructed their own versions and were wondering where they'd gone wrong?

[@patrickmclaughlin61]

I've gone through some of the comments on a number of mythbuster videos. It makes me realise that there are a few fans that married their cousins.

[@frankierzucekjr]

@@patrickmclaughlin61 hahahaha

[@HamburgerAmy]

never forget that 67% of people thought airplanes drive on the ground by their wheels and not the propeller.

[@kimkimpa5150]

@@patrickmclaughlin61 Ah, so Mythbusters have a lot of fans in... you know... that region of the world where cousin marriages are both common and encouraged? I mean I can't say it, but we all know EXACTLY what I mean.

[@ssl3546]

@@kimkimpa5150 I don't see what Iraq has to do with any of this

[@AstralDragoon]

I'm with you; the lack of any mechanism to send waves through the foil made me question this myth when the first speaker was assembled.

[@iBaraban]

forgot the magnet dude...

[@jaykoerner]

Na i think the thing it was trying to imitate was a piezo speaker, those dont have magnets

[@cooldude23407]

You can actually make a speaker out of a paper plate, but you need to create some sort of transducer to create the vibrations in order for it to work (like having a magnet on the foil side, and a circular or coiled circuit on the paper size that doesn't short out and has enough power to generate an sufficient EMF).

[@HitemWithTheFlex]

there is no gauss field which you would find in a speaker magnet for the "coil" or the penny to oscillate in.

[@krozareq]

Worked as a correctional officer at a prison. I was amazed by the speakers inmates could make and blast music out onto the rec yard. The commissary-purchased radio only worked with headphones. Wire, tape, and cardboard was all they needed. Wire came from various sources such as from lighting (also a commodity for tat guns). Tape comes from the label on a commissary-purchased stick of deodorant. Cardboard will comes from posterboard or oatmeal box package.

[@augustvanhout2163]

And how would they create an amplifier and speaker from wires, tape, and cardboard?

[@iamjackalope]

If only they where that resourceful out side of prison maybe they could have stayed out of prison to begin with. Yea. Some of the shit they come up with in prison is down right ingenues.

[@thecaptain7411]

@@augustvanhout2163 I think what he is saying, is that they turned earphones into speakers, by adding cardboard trumptes, like the old gramaphones. You can get a lot of volume from just a funnel, no amplifier needed, apart from the headphone amp built into the radio.

[@TheChiefsDude0]

All that work for them to be taken away for misuse of state property.

[@derpderpington1863]

why the heck would he make a bunch of speakers before testing one? -_-

[@TheNoobtuberr]

Because he's Tory.

[@DanimalHype]

Because they knew it wasn't going to work or even show a possibility of working. So instead of making the scene ten seconds, they made it five minutes.

[@RamiGB]

The original video suggests creating a 7.1, plus what hippybullshit wrote.

[@CocoaPuffKids]

+TheNoobtuberr lol

[@redstonedreamer6896]

Robert Devenney twist since real speakers use coils. Just don't give it to much straight up power or the wires will overheat!

[@hasufinheltain1390]

I've made a speaker. It's not that far from the described method - but far enough to be the difference between "working" and "not working". You need a magnet inside the paper plate, and the jack needs to connect to an electromagnet (you can make a crude one by wrapping thin wire around a pen). The foil can be any material; typically of course paper. Making it high quality, though, takes a lot more work to clean up the signal. Also, the speaker I made melted. So be warned!

[@DanielsGameVault]

I find it funny how people obsess over the cost of the jacks, but nobody points out that the wires are shorted across the penny :))

[@ihavecojones]

Daniel's Game Vault dude...it takes an electrician to know that... do you think these people have any knowledge like we do?(electrotechnical engineer here). and yeaaaa it might work IF he had a big enaugh magnet behind the foil...the magnetic field from the penny could be enough given a strong enough statoric field

[@michalpecz9433]

@@ihavecojones i think this could work more like capacitor.

[@BingusFodder]

By the way Grant Thompson un-busted this myth but, they're not very high quality until you use a neodymium magnet instead of cheapie fridge magnets.

[@N94able]

But if you know what neodymium is you can probably aford a nice speaker.

[@NirateGoel]

@@N94able neodymium magnets aren't expensive.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

@@NirateGoel No, he's implying that if you know enough about speakers to know you need rate earth magnets, you're smart enough to get a good job and just buy good speakers! Then again, everybody should understand that there's no such thing as a free lunch

[@arfer]

Even if those paper plate contraptions would work as speakers (which they never would) you would still need a power amp. The signal from a CD player headphone output won't drive shit!

[@theLuigiFan0007Productions]

EXACTLY! Its also missing a magnet, and that pennt would take in excess of 1000W to even move which would blow the wire up and melt the penny. Also, those cables must be like really high quality, I gan get a cheap aluminum wired 1M 3.5mm male to male for $1.25 and cut it in half for a total of $0.75 per cable. NOT $10! The CD player could very well audibaly drive a small speaker to a listenable level, my MP3 player can drive 16ohm Pioneer speakers to a decent level for background music. It just has practically no bass. But you are right in this instance, because it is basically a short they were trying to power in the first place which would require hundreds of amps flowing through the coin.

[@marcodandrea4086]

theLuigiFan0007 chill

[@theLuigiFan0007Productions]

Marco D'Andrea I occasionally comment while in the strongest moment of mental debate. Thinking about every detail over and over again until I have my point. Although I still stand by what I said, I did seem a bit extreme there. XD Sometimes I swear I need to wait 5 mins before I post. Otherwise I make comments with multiple spelling errors and a slightly insane tone like that one. LOL

[@MegaMGstudios]

the sound of silence! i love that song!

[@TheProCactus]

I love a bit of banter.

[@rdoetjes]

And nobody even once though shorting out the de leads on the penny would call bullshit the first time they saw this "myth" Also 10 dollars for a mini-jack?!?!?! What were they made from? Gold/Platinum/Uranium?!

[@kcanded]

Discovery, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE RELEASE ALL THE MYTHBUSTERS VIDEOS. There are so many that are missing: Ultimate Mythbuster, Boarding a Plane, Mythbuster vs Jaws, hitting the fruit stand, and ON and ON. You could make a lot of money off us fans, for pity sake!

[@xxxkeviknaxxx]

LOVE Tory's temper tantrum!

[@AerialCarlian]

In the original video, the cables are twined at the end. I call Re-Visit!!! xP

[@JuggaloJD420]

grant tompson makes a nice spaker from a paper plate,

[@MasterGXD]

he made a real one. householdhavkers was bs. he changed the desription to say it was parody after it was "busted"

[@JeremiahPayne]

"a nice speaker" I mean some vibration is nicer than nothing

[@DrakosLord]

There are literally hundreds of videos just here, youtube, in many different languages, that show you how to make an actual speaker, be it with magnets or piezoelectric materials. Take a look at'em and, if you know a little bit of basic "electronics", you'll notice that the model Mythbusters is trying to replicate and debunk is just ridiculous and design not to fail, but to just never work. Besides, Household hacker was pretty much a troll bak in the day (if I'm not mistaken). So please internet, before you jump and say they did it the wrong way, research a little. I know it is not what your lazy arses are used to but at least try it every once in a while.

[@roncreach753]

That is a good one! Nice job

[@Stringierclown1]

I like his freakout at the end

[@TheCheesyProductions]

wow..... anyone with basic common knowledge should know that this doesn't work you have 2 wires attached to a conductive penny, aka a short...

[@CyberdyneSystemsSkynet]

You paid $10 a pop for audio jacks? Where I used to work we would literally throw hundreds of them in the garbage every summer because companies shipped them to us for free. Those and Extron tweakers...oh god, so many mini screwdrivers.

[@BMACVAGS]

Where are located with those speaker jacks??

[@CyberdyneSystemsSkynet]

BMAC VAGS They're in the dumpster. Company policy says we can't keep them.

[@Thechivo5]

Cyberdyne Systems: Skynet Where is the dumpster of your company?

[@CyberdyneSystemsSkynet]

Chidgear Haha, good luck with that, I worked for a government funded institution so stealing the garbage is felony. The reason the policy is to throw it out is because private citizens may not profit from things purchased with tax revenue. (i.e. if I were to keep them you would be, in a roundabout way, paying for my stereo equipment, which, while you agreed to pay my wages and to pay for the public university, you agreed on the grounds that it was a non-profit public service and if I kept them they would count as me profiting, thus it would no longer be a non-profit.

[@camelazo]

Cyberdyne Systems: Skynet :usa:

[@asmrobo]

I think you should try them right side up! I made some and they work just fine!

[@DebateThis]

the splitter they used splits up the voltage and audio channels so each speaker is getting much less power than than they think they are giving it. Wish they would have metered how much each speaker was getting.

[@BanditLeader]

HHH never said it was suppose to work.

[@afaqmuzaffar6575]

why do they attempt it when it already says in the description of the original video that its a parody video.

[@finalshare1]

the video wasnt released as a parody video... they renamed it parody after it was busted by 10000 poeple on youtube and the mythbusters

[@KDWproductions]

Ive got it. You do it with a normal jack but if you connect speaker wire to this thing and than connect it to an amplefire It works?? Please test it

[@jeremiahsmith6689]

besides those electrical arc speakers dont most speakers require a wire coil of sorts creating an electromagnetic field to react to a permanent magnet to produce the audible frequencies and some inaudible frequencies?

[@flurgy22]

I'm really going to miss the household hacker.

[@lunaleolightning4303]

Now look at The King Of Randoms!!!

[@ayyypizzarolls2331]

yea his works

[@legoman9421]

Luna Lightning, you are so right

[@danielszekely5197]

it works, mythbusters are insane. I tried it at home and it works

[@EmilJohnsenCOD]

It's mythBusters... always go big!

[@Feyangel23]

Pure bullshit from mythbusters -_- Why the fuck would you pay $10 for audio jacks??!!?!?

[@bigcat12354]

this was around 5 years ago and yeah even know auxiliary cables of good quality are around the price if 5-10 dollars

[@Feyangel23]

Sean S dude you can get audio jacks for free -_- just go on kijiji and get a free stereo or something and just hack into it

[@TheAnonymousFTW]

***** Did you just start school 5 years ago? They were expensive as fuck..

[@Feyangel23]

TheAnonymousFTW even still back then you could have easily gotten them for less than $10 a piece #checkyourprivilege

[@stertheder]

***** Especially if you buy them in bulk because you are freaking MythBusters... heck, even radio-shack sells the jacks for less than $10 XD

[@jeffslttn3913]

This pretend speaker reverberates?! These people clearly don't know squat about sound. Reverberation is a rapidly repeating echo - an effect of an acoustic space (or simulated with an effects processor). Speakers alone don't "reverberate." The fact that the producers obviously didn't bother to consult somebody who knows a little about sound and audio seriously affects the credibility of this entire show.

[@MrFlarespeed]

Can't tell if sarcasm or fanaticism.

[@MawoDuffer]

Grant Thompson made one that actually works with a magnet, plate and a little wire, not to mention the audio jack.

[@WCGwkf]

@dragonscape99 what is your point? electrical tape keeps outside currents out. i doesn't give you more current

[@kentlarsen578]

This is electrically super ignorant. The wires are shorted on the penny. To create magnestatic sound you would need a permanent magnetic field close and the AC(sound signal) across the membrane, with a giant resistor in series to solve the dangerously low impedance. A regular (dynamic speaker) uses the same koncept, by making a piston of insolated wire into a magnetic field. 8th or 9th grade physics I believe.

[@TristenE]

Kent Larsen .... concept .. seventh or eighth grade spelling

[@Blaze1024]

The fact that myth busters actually had to debunk this video just proves how technically illiterate most Americans have become.. One look at that circuit would tell anyone with half an ounce of electronics knowledge that it was a joke. Come on people both wires where connected to the same penny so it was nothing more than a short circuit.. Now if he would have wound a coil and taken a magnet and ....... . Anyhow he was obviously having a bit of fun making fools out of the ignorant people who thought this might work.. There's an old saying " you only have to be 10 percent smarter then the equipment you're working with" And who ever posted that video just proved that million of people aren't any smarter than a paper plate.

[@Orumid]

try more than Americans pretty dumb of you to think Americans are the only one to watch this video

[@Zagill]

It says in the original video's description, "*This is a parody video for fun. Hope you enjoy!*"

[@aerialwheel3719]

ok, genius... you know how the wires are different colors when you strip them??? that is insulation. they are fucking insulated!!! it is not a short circuit.

[@Blaze1024]

aerial wheel When you strip the insulation off copper wire and then connect both the stripped ends to a copper penny you create a path with close to the same electrical resistance as the wire itself AKA also known as a short circuit.. A proper circuit is free of shorts circuits. In order to do this the wires in that circuit need to be connected to semiconductors or insulators or some other device which would present a high resistance or high impedance path between the two conductors thereby preventing or slowing down the free flowing electrons between those two conductors. The idea is to use the power between the wires to perform some kind of meaning full work. In this case all the electricity is doing is heating up a bunch or wire and a penny.

[@aerialwheel3719]

no. you don't see what i'm saying. it is insulated wire. it's already twisted together inside the HOUSING (the black part). the insulation is essentially painted on the wires. you can't short them unless you butt the ends together.

[@aurora4218]

you need a coil & a magnet. the jack sends varying electrical current through the coil producing varying magnetic field through the coil's center. that exerts a magnetic force, which varies with field strength, on the magnet, which is adhered to the foil, making the foil vibrate.

[@IbanezAxMan1]

hook the leads up right. positive to penny and negative to the aluminum. it will then work as a piezo speaker or transducer. It last until the wire burns the aluminum.

[@jestes7]

Ahhhh that guy did it wrong!! When you get Kari to see if the new speakers work and they don't, you invite her to see if the speakers in your bedroom work!

[@LukePalmer]

Way to sexualize the female, dude. (Not a compliment)

[@jestes7]

Luke Palmer Oh, but it is a compliment.

[@udntknw001]

Luke Palmer Who cares, we all do it.

[@toxicity4818]

Luke Palmer Way to be a sadistic buzzkill.

[@TheMarried123]

She was pregnant, prolly has a man

[@streetfighterracing1583]

And I thought I was a big MB fan,watch every marathon and still don’t remember this bit

[@whobla15]

"Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing"

[@TheHoaxShow]

2:32 ME everytime the Mythbusters theme comes on

[@HawaiianKong]

You can tell by the dead-eyed expression on Tori's face at the beginning he's like "why the fuck am I doing this? oh because I'm getting paid? fuck it, might as well clock a few hours and waste 150 bucks on some audio cables."

[@billybbob18]

good idea. create a dead electrical short to whatever you hook those "speakers" to.

[@MrCasiopcr20]

mann i cant wait till october

[@siennarut5103]

omg HH this is what i call a great video

[@Torbox1]

@flashchrome yes it will thats like saying that the power from the cd player wont drive head phones

[@markpimpya202]

Watch out we got a badass over hear!

[@flashchrome]

@qwest329. Or, use an amp (as most people use in their stereos to amplify the low level signal to their speakers). Select which method you believe would succeed first :)

[@sally9651]

What is the episode called that has this in it? If you want to watch the full episode of it

[@KhanggiTanka]

so you use a whole role of foil per plate then? and 13 pakages of plates?

[@captaintaco2345]

I was about to try this.

[@illegitimatememes490]

The weight of gravity when the plate was held sideways might have muffles the vibrations?

[@jamisonw.327]

There's no magnet for the (super incredibly weak) electromagnet they've made to react with, nor is there so much as a piece of magnetic metal to attract. Ergo, no vibrations to be muffled.

[@stoffer856]

Yes indeed!

[@amazingbandit16]

This video was published in 2009. Yes audio jacks used to cost that much.

[@0LoneTech]

@DrGand Except of course for those that use electrostatic force instead, i.e. capacitive ones. That would include the common piezoelectric buzzer and condenser microphones. Which you could build with the same materials, but this obviously wasn't it.

[@FloridaManRacer]

1 thing to consider is now that many mobile devices use a 1/8th inch plug or "mini jack" , many people have those at their disposal, in my case, i never throw away old electronics. repurposing good parts can save you a LOT of money

[@darthbane4980]

Is it necessary to throw the items?

[@JackHoward96]

The promise of hi-def speakers for under a dollar when tested, elicits, "That's a hundred and fifty dollars down the tube!"

[@nfaguade]

what headphones are two "wires" connected to two mini speakers.

[@123xmaster]

SLAYED!!!

[@THECODGODZ101]

@Midnighter169 If you buy wire pre cut and everything the enamel will not be there

[@ibrahim199797]

Best APRIL FOOL Prank EVER

[@tron7_]

Look up Grant Thompson's video. He used more items.

[@Steamrick]

a bit late, the Mythbusters are dissolved

[@TheHelo929]

what is name of the mini jack connecters?

[@potterfandf]

@JiveDadson Not only that, but the penny was just a wieght on the tin foil, it had nothing to help it move and make sound.

[@cupojoe789]

He didn't try the speakers horizontally and I think that made a big effect because the penny is suppose to weigh down the foil and create tension

[@luiso768]

the sound of money throne away hahahahahahaaha lol

[@AlexTran]

now this is truly the sound of silence.

[@TheTechFish]

Dude, where do you get your mini jacks from, they are like £0.50 each on amazon!

[@ernestmac13]

There is a company that has designed an extremely thin speaker & there was another one that sold what was basically a sheet of plastic atop a quarter inch of foam, that you could print anything on, so you could have what amounted to a framed poster or painting, that was actually a speaker, you could use two for stereo. It has nothing to do with air & everything w/ vibration

[@Midnighter169]

@THECODGODZ101 actually the enamel is invisible and very thin but it keeps the wires seperated so you shouldnt be so quick to judge

[@RiaRadioFMHD773]

Even with a good connection you are only temporarily shorting out the milliwatt amplifier in the CD player. Normal average speakers work by causing a coil connected to a paper or plastic cone and having that coil to move in a magnetic field vibrating the air near it. There isnt anything to cause the foil/ diaphram to move, therefore no sound.

[@markpimpya202]

Does the penny have to be new/clean?

[@DaBrainFarts]

Tory, I noticed that you taped the wires on the penny different than household hacker did. he put the wires on opposite sides of the penny instead of both on the same side like you did. That may be the reason. If it doesn't work first, try flipping the wire ends.

[@CHRISTIAN6182]

Lmao, I love how everybody calls it 'murica now, maybe one day they'll just give in and change their name

[@KTo288]

The only possible way you could possibly have gotten any sound out of one of these is if you stick a pin into one of the plates and use it as a stylus with a vinyl record you don't mind messing up on your turntable.

[@fccgaming]

Golden sound of silence

[@jarredc99]

the jack is the a head phone cord with the speaker cut off

[@SonOfMeme]

2:38 I have that exact same audio connecty-thing!

[@zzmrpicklezz798]

I love the way they make fun of those " KZbin life Hacks" :D

[@123456789robbie]

@TheJonesnw how should he have done it?

[@Onelas]

kypkay did the same thing but with some modifications

[@chrisgreece52]

@winwinningwon ur right even here in greece a mini jack costs about 1.2 euros!!!

[@letspleigames]

Yea, KipKay made it the way it's supposed to be made. A coil, a magnet, a base and the thingy that vibrates (i don't remember the name of it)

[@nfaguade]

...both come from the same jack, I think it is just an aesthetic difference. I'm guessing the wiring inside the plastic tubes is the same.

[@parazit43v3r]

I was wondering the same thing, Huey.

[@deadontop]

@idumeudin2009 That dont really matter, u stil get connection

[@trailerpark187]

did tory get the varnish off the ends of the wire. the wires are green and red. the colored stuff is varnish so they dont short together inside the headphone cable. use a match or a small flame really quick on the end and youll see it burn off. maybe thats why it didnt work.

[@DrakosLord]

+trailerpark187 Normally, it's not necessary with mini-jacks. Anyway, no matter what you do or don't, that design is just not gonna work anyway. You need magnets for a speaker. No magnets? No speaker.

[@mdjey2]

+DrakosLord Show me where is magnet in piezo speaker!

[@DrakosLord]

mdjey2 Indeed, and for those you need a piezoelectric material, be it ceramics, crystal or anything else that works, just to name the least. And, well, the build they use here wouldn't work for that neither.

[@InnuendOwO]

What a surprise.

[@zachaqsw]

lmao died laughing when i saw him where earphones

[@ZeruS117]

technically there is a way to do it but you need a magnet and a coil because that's what the speaker needs to make it work. because all Tori was doing was sending electrical impulses and energy into the penny and through that into the tin foil where is just no way it would work however if he say had 2 paper plates one to act as a base and one to act as the actual speaker and another one he could use to act as a loose spring mechanism on two sides of the plate and then say hot glue a coil with a magnet inside of it that would probably have to be glued to the top plate then have the electric current run to the coil then speaking from a technical standpoint it could/should work.

[@xxrgxxcasco]

I apologize for my ignorance in advance, but, wouldn´t it have been better to connect the speakers to an amplified source? I mean, a CD player powers up but an earbud...

[@MrCcacla]

The point was to test the video. It wasn't to build a speaker conventionally, it was to test the video posted in the description that doesn't use any coils or magnets to see whether that method works, and it doesn't.