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The building your own portable soundsystem thread

Right then. A mate has kindly donated a playstation flightcase of hardboard/metal sandwich construction. Rigid, sturdy, airtight. Time to go shopping for drivers :D
 
Question: My case is lined with 3mm neoprene and has a fold-up fabric-coated-board divider in the lid (for holding PS2 games). Should I strip it all back to the hardboard, or will the sound be ok with all those soft surfaces?
 
Crispy said:
Question: My case is lined with 3mm neoprene and has a fold-up fabric-coated-board divider in the lid (for holding PS2 games). Should I strip it all back to the hardboard, or will the sound be ok with all those soft surfaces?
Click to expand...

I just jigsawed through the lot, fabric and all. Then bolted the drivers on :D

(I was in a hurry!)

How big is it?
 
Not huge. About 500 x 300 x 120 mm. Probably going to go mono and just get the single largest driver that will fit.
 
16 Ohms though. I was aiming for 4 or 8.
Also would be nice to go lower than 60Hz, but I'm getting picky now :p
 
A lot of the companies with shops also list on ebay. It seems that most places have the same or very similar celestion/emminence/electrovoice/visaton range. Blue arran has a selection http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php...oudspeaker_Drivers&subheadnew=_8_Inch_Drivers

In terms of not horrifically expensive 8" bass drivers in portable systems I was recommended the Celestion truvox TF0818 http://professional.celestion.com/pro/pdf/TF0818.pdf for 20-30 quid or so (not inc delivery, which is steep)

For 10" I was recommended the p-audio something or other at about 50 quid, which is apparently the muts nuts at that price range.

Both of those require tweeters.

If you want full range then the visaton BG20 8" come recommended at 25 quid or so http://www.impactaudio.co.uk/product.asp?ref=920&session=3d9b81c0f0261bad1912078676a50387. Or you can get a similar unbranded 8" driver here for a tenner: http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=SKT902376&browsemode=category and I think it's the same driver.

I used the 6.5" version in the red box and it really sounds decent + loud for the money. http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=SKT902373&browsemode=category There's also a 10" http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=SKT902379&browsemode=category
 
Nice! Thanks for the links. How did you go about running the mono cabinet in the end? I presume just using one channel of the amp, but how did you mix the input?

Or maybe I should go stereo...
 
All mine have been stereo. The two smaller boxes had two full range drivers on them, a 4" and a 6.5". The 6.5" is only slightly louder than the smaller speaker and cos they're so close together you don't notice one channel being slightly different to the other. Done this way you get 2x25w rather than 1x25w and it makes a massive difference to the loudness.
 
This looks ace!

Do you reinforce the box at all?

Late and probably not all that helpful (and almost definitley considered by yourself!) I know, but an inch of plywood under the speakers (inside the box) will do wonders for the volume (speaking from my boy racer days when reinforcing the parcel shelf was mandatory for any serious vibe-free volume :) )
 
Will do some scaling off photos and careful measurement, but I think I might be able to get two 10" driver in my case back-to-back, if I offset them. Better coverage when walking around with it :)

b2bdrivers.png

or 8" ones maybe. oh so many options!
 
Crispy said:
Will do some scaling off photos and careful measurement, but I think I might be able to get two 10" driver in my case back-to-back, if I offset them. Better coverage when walking around with it :)

View attachment 14422
Click to expand...

Just make sure you take the cone depth into account. My 10" drivers are deep. Also remember you've got to fit the amp and batteries in, even if they are small.
 
With some drivers you can mount them magnet to magnet (I think it's called bipole or something) which makes them louder. But that's only in custom boxes cos they have to be exactly the right depth.
 
Well I certainly learned a few things about speakers at the weekend which I'm gonna have to address.

Firstly, what sounds loud round a campfire or in the park is not loud when stuck in a crowd of people - the TA2020 just doesn't cut it. I think this thing needs to be 2x100w RMS to be proper loud. With that in mind I'm retrofitting a SURE 2050 amp to the big suitcase.

Secondly, I seriously underestimated the amount of battery power I'd need, mainly cos the amp would start clipping as the voltage dropped. The cctv batteries was made of lies rather than 4.8ah li-ion. It was more like 1.5ah. 8 decent AA would last about an hour before clipping. Jobs now include sticking in a 10xAA battery box to avoid clipping in the smaller boxes (the amp goes up to 15v) and sorting out 2x7ah lead acid batteries for the new 2x100w amp (which is 24v not 12v).

Thirdly, although I knew this in advance but just didn't have the time to sort it, the box needs an external input socket and an external on/off battery isolation switch.
 
I was honoured to meet the suitcase soundsystem in person on saturday and while everything you say is true, it's still an excellent piece of work :)

I am going to the junk/charity shop near work today to see what they've got in the way of sealed rigid boxes with handles...
 
Cheers crispy.

After a 1pm breakfast on sunday I made my way to camden and found a 70's plastic suitcase for 12 quid, with assorted original 70s stickers on it :cool:
 
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