The building your own portable soundsystem thread

[sim667]

yeah, screws worked for me. On that box though the walls might be too thin, so use glue.

No more nails should do it

 

[fractionMan]

I could however possibly fit 2 speakers on the other side, and have a double sided one, there's only four channels for the speakers on the back of the amp though, which would only power 2 no? Unless ive got that completely wrong, I'm working of my basic knowledge of home amps though

You need to wire them up in parallel. See the first few posts of this thread

However it might sound a bit crap if the box isn't big enough. The internal volume affects the sound quite a lot. From experimenting you get a decent bottom end using a box 12"x12"x6" for two speakers. Meaning you'd need about a 12x12x12 box for four. How deep is that record box?

 

[sim667]

You need to wire them up in parallel. See the first few posts of this thread

However it might sound a bit crap if the box isn't big enough. The internal volume affects the sound quite a lot. From experimenting you get a decent bottom end using a box 12"x12"x6" for two speakers. Meaning you'd need about a 12x12x12 box for four. How deep is that record box?

I have no idea, I'm picking it up over the weekend. I imagine it will just be a little bit bigger than a vinyl in a sleeve

 

[fractionMan]

I have no idea, I'm picking it up over the weekend. I imagine it will just be a little bit bigger than a vinyl in a sleeve

that's width. So yeah, it'll be about 12x12 on the front, but it'd have to be a cube if you want four speakers on there and it to have a decent sound.

 

[sim667]

Ah I'll just stick with the 2. Can't wait for everything to turn up though

 

[fractionMan]

I'll be interested to see how it goes. I've got a flight case just waiting for conversion here.

 

[sim667]

Cool, well the speakers are out of stock, so i can see delivery is going to take ages

 

[fractionMan]

There are more places to buy the same ones, but blue aran says 91 in stock

 

[sim667]

There are more places to buy the same ones, but blue aran says 91 in stock

Oh it said none yesterday.....

We'll see what happens.

 

[sim667]

Me amp arrived today.

The power lead fits the back of the amp, but has no plug at all on the other end...... I'm not exactly sure what plug type I'll have to fit to it until I get the battery

 

[fractionMan]

Me amp arrived today.

The power lead fits the back of the amp, but has no plug at all on the other end...... I'm not exactly sure what plug type I'll have to fit to it until I get the battery

The li-ions come with a plug that'll connect the battery to the amp. With the lead acids, that's where the spades/crocs come in

Check out some of the transformers you're bound to have lying around the house. If you can find a 12v one, try it and see. It'll need to be rated 1 amp or over (ideally 3 amp). All the info will be printed on the transformer. Then you can try it out.

Or you can get AA battery cages from maplins. 8AA batteries will power it.

 

[sim667]

The li-ions come with a plug that'll connect the battery to the amp. With the lead acids, that's where the spades/crocs come in

Ah awesome.....

Ill what til it gets here, then pop down to the electronics shop for spades/crocs.

 

[fractionMan]

You won't need the crocs as you'll have the li-ion and it's all in the box with it

 

[sim667]

You won't need the crocs as you'll have the li-ion and it's all in the box with it

Oh i see....

Wicked.

Im gonna get the whole thing fired up and working before I put it all in the box..... Might take some photos and write the whole thing up on my blog i never post on

 

[sim667]

.

 

[sim667]

Just got home and everything is wired up and working, but the case I've got is to small to fit the speakers side by side. The only way they'll fit is on opposite sides of the case, which iirc is bad.

It is pretty much a cube tho, maybe a little bit thinner than a full on cube. There be 10ish cm between the back of each speaker between the 2. The box is 12x12x9

 

[sim667]

Right, decided just to go for it, decided to offset the speakers from each other, just gotta wire up the inside and so how much noise it makes..... I need to charge te battery fully too that will make a difference

Also, does anyone here know about building actual speakers, i.e. stacks?

E2a: built it today, I'm just waiting to get some speaker covers cus I know I'll smash them at some point, especially as they're both sides.


Anyway dead chuffed, it's a lot lot louder than I expected, and I've managed to fit an old Bluetooth dongle so I can send music via AirPlay, and it works with djay on the iPad, so can have little wireless mixes at parties etc. Awesome stuff.

I can't post the video I made for some reason, I'll do it when I'm on a proper computer

 

[chemn]

A couple of my mates have reccomended minirigs.... I'm quite tempted. http://www.minirigs.co.uk/

 

[sim667]

Finally youtube link of it all running

 

[fractionMan]

Cool, I'll watch that at lunchtime!

 

[fractionMan]

A couple of my mates have reccomended minirigs.... I'm quite tempted. http://www.minirigs.co.uk/

He was on the 12v speakerplans forums earlier in the year refining the design. I'm surprised he can sell em for 85 quid given they're all hand built and the components aren't exactly cheap.

 

[sim667]

Been searching for a new build already..... got a bit of a bug.

I've heard about the legendary boominator
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/104402-boominator-another-stab-ultimate-party-machine.html

Tempted to build a one sided version of it, so it would have 2 tweeters and 2 woofers instead of 4 of each...... Do you think that will still be pretty loud?

Im finding all the technical stuff a little bit difficult to get my head round though, he's using 2 batteries, so how would you connect that to 1 amp? Or am I getting confused and he's using 2 amps, 1 to power each side and one battery to power each amp??

 

[fractionMan]

There's a boominator facebook group out there. They're bloody good, but well expensive to put together. The drivers used are excellent but expensive when compared to the bargain basement stuff I've been using (and hard to source too). Saturnus really knows what he's doing and tuned the box perfectly and squeezed every last dB out by all accounts.

If I was going to build one I'd either go doublesided or not at all. You can scale it down and stick in 4 full range 6.5" drivers or 4 bass drivers+4peizos. That's a good start and about 200 quid cheaper

It's the double sided nature and associated box dimensions that makes it as loud as it is btw. If you made it single sided all the tuning calcs would be out and you lose the benefit of dipole(?) mounting the speakers. What you're proposing would still be loud mind you

 

[sim667]

Yeah I did some additions last night, it's gonna be too pricey, but I do wanna do something a bit bigger and louder. The problem is that the ta2050 amp needs a 24v battery and that's where I'm getting stuck.

I did noticed lepai make a mini amp with a woofer channel on it. So maybe I could consider something with that

 

[FunkyUK]

Sim - how do you get the sound to the amp wirelessley?

 

[sim667]

Sim - how do you get the sound to the amp wirelessley?

Just used a jabra bt3030 bluetooth dog tag I had lying around. It's just stops anyone robbing my phone if I'm passed out next to it in a field.

 

[fractionMan]

Yeah I did some additions last night, it's gonna be too pricey, but I do wanna do something a bit bigger and louder. The problem is that the ta2050 amp needs a 24v battery and that's where I'm getting stuck.

I did noticed lepai make a mini amp with a woofer channel on it. So maybe I could consider something with that

I've got one of those. It's not a tripath t-amp and it's nowhere near as nice sounding. In fact it distorts madly if you turn it up past half volume.

To get 24v you just need two 12v lead acid batteries btw, although that will obv be heavier and bulkier. They can be charged with either a 24v charger or by wiring them up differently and using a 12v charger. Bit of a pain that though.

 

[sim667]

I've got one of those. It's not a tripath t-amp and it's nowhere near as nice sounding. In fact it distorts madly if you turn it up past half volume.

To get 24v you just need two 12v lead acid batteries btw, although that will obv be heavier and bulkier. They can be charged with either a 24v charger or by wiring them up differently and using a 12v charger. Bit of a pain that though.

Oh so I could just use 2 of the batteries I've got?? That sounds bit more promising than saving up for a gel battery. I'll look up the wiring process up.

I'd read that about those amps. Shame really

 

[pesh]

can anyone recommend a decent battery to use to run one of these?

http://www.technologyinthehome.com/...upunkt-Velocity-2GO-6-Subwoofer.html#LargePic

it runs off 8AAs at about 1/3 of the power available when you run it off the AC adapter... the adapter is supplying 13v at 4.6A, so i'm thinking with the right battery i can run it a lot longer and at higher power...

maybe a motorbike battery or something similar? would it need some sort of power regulator to keep it from blowing it up, i'm thinking car and bike batteries run at about 13.8v?

 

[Crispy]

Car and bike batteries run at 12V, which will be fine. No need for a limiter - it will draw as much current as it needs.
Something like: http://www.batterytrader.com/delphen-7000-sealed-lead-acid-batteries-p-24233.html
Coupled something on this list: http://www.google.co.uk/search?clie...gc.r_pw.&fp=4a57707260bc0b1c&biw=1254&bih=760 (choose one that can supply at least 1000mA, so that you can charge and playback at the same time)