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Easy Boombox

Put the ghetto back into the blaster with household items!

  • By Matthew T Miller
  • Category: Home, Music
  • Time Required: A few minutes
  • Difficulty: Easy
Easy Boombox

Many earbuds can play at high volume without distortion. Use them to drive paper cups, and the sound is surprisingly good. I first put this together when I really needed to listen to some jams at work. Put the ghetto back into the blaster!

  • pocketknife

Steps

Step #1: Prepare the cups.

NextEasy Boombox
  • Cut small Xs in the bottoms of 2 paper cups.

Step #2: Insert the earbuds.

NextEasy Boombox
  • Carefully insert the earbuds into the Xs. They should fit snugly.

Step #3: Turn on the jams and rock out.

Easy Boombox
  • See how much amplification you can get out of paper cups!
  • My earbuds do play at very high volumes without distortion … so the sound from my ghetto blaster is actually really good. This is a cheap, easy trick and will save you serious money.

Conclusion

This project first appeared in MAKE Volume 19, page 139.

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