Printed Emanate 4 bookshelf speakers with walnut filament and orange baffles

Oct 13, 2026 Last reply: 3 hours ago 3 Replies
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The hardest part of any printed speaker is making it read as furniture instead of a printed object, and the maker handled that through material and colour: wood-fill walnut for the cabinets with a matte orange baffle. The aim was a mid-century hi-fi feel, the walnut does much of the styling work, and the orange stops the pair from looking too serious. In my view that combination succeeds.



The build itself is a pair of Emanate 4 bookshelf speakers printed on a Bambu Lab X2D in PLA and assembled as a kit. The wall construction stands out to me. Sides, top, bottom and back are 12 mm thick, close to half an inch, printed with three perimeters, 0.6 mm lines and 30% cubic infill. Each face carries roughly a 1.8 mm solid skin, with about 8 mm of cubic infill between the skins. The baffle reaches around 18 mm at its thickest.



On results: the maker was very surprised by the sound and says the speakers sound fantastic in person. iPhone video reportedly makes them sound bad, and that makes me take the sound claims on faith. The walnut filament turned out somewhat olive, which the maker still likes; I think the olive cast pairs nicely with the orange. The drivers used are not stated, and internal bracing details remain an open question. The maker would build them again and reckons something like an RP 600M could match the quality at the same spend.


The layered wall recipe seems like a smart call to me. Solid skins either side of a 30% cubic infill core must use far less filament than a fully solid 12 mm wall would. The trade-off is that an infill core is not the same as solid material, and I would want to hear the cabinets before copying the settings myself.

Those wall numbers are handy, thanks to whoever shared them. I am curious how the baffle gets to about 18 mm at its thickest. Was it printed in one pass at that depth, or built up in stages with the orange layer added later? Neither point seems to be covered anywhere yet.

If the olive cast of the walnut ever bothers the maker, a different wood-fill blend or a light surface treatment could push the colour back toward a truer brown, and it would still sit well against the orange baffle. On the listening side, recording with a dedicated microphone would show what the iPhone flattens out.

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