Found a new side hobby (sadly), build thread up soon.

Off-topic Chatter
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I hope it is ok to post this here :slight_smile: … if you don’t like to read, skip to the bottom for summary, this is quite a long post

These past couple months for me have been some kind of “flashlight hiatus”, partly because I’m saving funds for a big project to participate in the 4th annual build competition, but also because there simply hasn’t been a lot of new stuff going on in the hobby. The few interesting lights that were released recently (S41/E14 & L6) are already more or less factory modded and not much can be improved over stock.

So one day in my free time while doing regular youtube exploring, you know, just like one of those times when you start looking for a movie trailer and end up watching 3 hours worth of tutorials on how to fabricate a samurai sword with ancient Japanese techniques. No, the new hobby is not samurai sword fabrication but portable speakers building. I’ve always been an audio enthusiast even before I started with flashlights, not the type of guy who has two 100lb tower speakers in his living room but I have been through a healthy collection of headphones, portable speakers and alike. I have probably spent more on audio than on flashlights, but never got into speaker building or modding, until now…

So after countless hours of forum time, spec sheet analysis and of course reviews readings, I decided to start a series of portable speaker projects, each to shine in a specific area. There is no such thing as a perfect do-it-all flashlights and same goes with speakers. I’m not talking about disassembling a pre-built computer speaker and putting them in a another box like many of the youtube videos shows, instead I will build them from scratch, choosing specific drivers, amps and components for each build and using only one pre-fabricated item which will be the enclosure, because I live in a apartment, have zero woodworking skills and of course zero woodworking equipment.

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These are the projects I’m working on, all of them are Bluetooth and have internal battery:

1. Ammo box speaker: there are a ton on youtube but this one will be absolute overkill compared to those, the mission here is to achieve highest power and most sophisticated build of them all. Enclosure will be a 50-cal fat ammo can aka “Saw box”. I’m also making a simpler version for a friend which will be focused solely on loudness and battery life.

2. Compact bar-style speaker: here I’ll try to make an sleek looking compact speaker with best possible balance between sound quality, volume and battery life, built into an black powder coated 10” x 3” aluminium enclosure. This will be a challenge to me, trying to fit all those components in a tiny space.

3. Compact waterproof outdoor speaker: “low cost version”, I want this to have the highest possible volume and decent battery life for outdoor use while keeping it water resistant. Lower costs components will be used, so I don’t expect the best sound quality. Enclosure will be a compact Chinese replica pelican case.

4. The ultimate pelican case speaker: this is my favorite project, mission here is to achieve the best possible balance between sound quality, volume and battery life on a medium size waterproof case. Most time have been invested in this project than all the above combined. It will be a DemerBox killer. Enclosure will be either a S3 T5000 or a Pelican 1200.

Extra: The ultimate “portable” boombox: a beast of a speaker weighting about 40 pounds, designed for both indoor and outdoor use. Because of the cost and complexity, this is a long term project. I will also have to pay someone to have the enclosure made, so meticulous design will be required. When it’s done, it will be one of the craziest DIY boombox ever made.

Soon I’ll start the build and will be updating each project separately below. I might not post all the technical details of the build so feel free to ask me anything.

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Reserved

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Reserved for project #1

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Reserved for project #2

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Reserved for project #3

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Reserved for project #4

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Aluminum enclosure… Perhaps speakers are different than IEMs (in ear monitors) but over at the audiophile forums, people talk about stainless steel, brass, copper and titanium quite a bit, but aluminum hardly comes up as enclosure material for IEMs. Interested to see where this goes, nonetheless.

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In the ammo box project, you said your focus is on Loudness and Battery Life.

So for pure loudness, a 6 or 8” transducer will yield the highest sound pressure level, being more sensitive as it goes bigger in diameter, and will require the least wattage for the same volume level attained, thereby longer battery life.

Sound quality is another matter altogether though.

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Sounds good i use to build speakers when i was younger.

years ago in Australia we had a massive speaker phase where our cars where full of speakers.

I even had a 12inch sub in my house.

Electrics wont be hard it will be harder to make the speakers sound the way you want them to.

Wood is probably the best way to go for sound quality.

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That’s one giant slippery slope you are getting on! It can get as expensive as collecting old cars, motorcycles, or guns.
This was my first one. I built it in my last year in college (during an intern-ship) and costed me the best part of a month.

It was big fun, but I had to add a subsonic filter to my amplifier because the KEF B139 woofer I used caused things to fall down from tables and walls four rooms down the hall.

Later on, having my first job, I started to meet people who spend small fortunes building their own speakers. And more.
They even (re)build their house for having an optimal listening room. (hmm… flashaholics: think of an integrating room). Thats were and when I drew a line and got rid off all stuff, except for one pair of spreakers I still have. 40” high and weighing over 100lb.

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Interesting projects! I was deep in hifi DIY for many years. Primarily (SEDHT) tube amps, but I built some speakers too…

How do you plan to get the crossovers straight? That’s a really tricky and VERY sophisticated field! Needs much knowledge, equipment and experience to get good sounding results.
I skipped the crossover problem (after many many unsuccessful attempts) and built full ranges in horn enclosures for myself. But that’s really expensive too :wink:
(if you use AER mkIb’s like I did)

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Sounds like a fun project. I’m curious what you come up with. I have some extra ammo boxes that would make a nice camping speaker.

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Thanks everyone for your comments, I already see there are a good amount of audio connoisseurs in this forum. I’m very familiar with portable/bluetooth audio, quite familiar with car audio but know next to nothing about home speakers, let alone high-end transmission line systems as shown above! :open_mouth: I started reading and learning about a month ago, but realized this hobby is massive compared to flashlights, things to be learn seem to be infinite as there is no a specific answer for any question, and data from 1996 can be as useful as data from 2016.

What I’m trying to achieve with these projects is not ultra high-fi sound, but to create something capable of competing with off the shelf bluetooth speakers, and also with those DIY projects in youtube. “Wow effect” is one of my goals, a lot like how cheap, modded lights can outperform expensive stock lights. The market dominated by Bose, JBL & Beats is so saturated with average sounding, overpriced speakers with crap runtimes. I have modded a couple somewhat expensive bluetooth speakers in the past, here & here, but this time I will make something that can compete with them.

Tomorrow I’ll have a bunch of orders coming from parts-express, will update the projects very soon!

Only the one of the speaker will be using a crossover, (assembled, 2-way 3000khz, 2nd order 12db/octave) because it will use 2 mid-woofers and 2 tweeters. The other speakers will be using full ranges drivers with decent frequency response. For the larger boombox I plan to tri-amp and setup a 2x4 minidsp, but that’s a lot of money to put inside a portable system. I’m still not into DIY crossovers, barely starting to learn about box volume tuning and other simpler stuff.

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Cool Project!

What type of amplifier are you planning on using?

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Subscribed! I am interested with your The ultimate “portable” boombox and Compact waterproof outdoor speaker. I am more of a passive speakers HI-FI lover.

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I’m an old audiophile. Still using tubed amplifiers for both speakers and headphones

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In 1967 while at college in Boston I built the “worlds first” boom box.
The dorms rules were no plug in HiFi equipment, but portable battery operated stuff was OK
At Thanksgiving break I went home and built a portable radio that had 2 8” Utah full range coaxial speakers. Turned out to have the same shape as the boom boxes that came out years later. Ran on 2 6V lantern batteries. Of course once it was turned on, it was banned.
I did organize a group and got the school to allow HiFi equipment with headphones. NOBODY had headphones in those days, at least not teenagers. I had a set of Koss Pro 4A’s

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Only two hundred-pound speakers in your living room? That’s weak…

I had (at one time) four full size boxes in my living room, with a 3 ft^3 dedicated subwoofer behind my couch. The entire setup contained 6x 15” subwoofers, along with the mids and tweeters. I did the math one time and found that my system had over 1000 square inches of speakers. The sound (quality, not just quantity) would beat any of the movie theaters I knew of, short of driving 100+ miles into Dallas.

Watching T2 one evening; I was trying to trace down an annoying buzzing. Turns out, it was my couch…

All of this was hooked up to my circa 2001 27” CRT TV. The picture wasn’t great, but it sounded good…

Unfortunately, I’ve got something else in mind for my next hobby. Once I get settled into my “new” home here, I want to get setup for some basic hydro-dipping. I don’t really have anything to dip, but I’m sure I can find something…

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Yes Will34,
Thiele-Small parameters and resonator types are your new lumens, lux and candela!

:slight_smile:

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Once upon my past I played ‘roadie’ for a small sound studio. The owner handed me the drawings for an AL7 and said “build me a pair” so I did. Skilsaw, jigsaw, and cordless drill was all I had but knowing how to use them well made them good enough for the job. They were our main stage speakers and though my memory is hazy I think it took 400w each to drive them well. Huge beasts they were and huge bass but not as low ranged as many designs give today. I’ve played around with speakers and wood I’ve had laying around, and about 10% of my guesswork turned out well, 10% OK, and the rest sucked.

Rigidity of the enclosure matters a lot which tends to rule out lightweight materials as enclosures for high energy speakers. Phasing of ports is critical for a clean sound. Choose your drivers with matching dB power slopes if you’ re going to play soft and loud, or one end or the other will suffer. Don’t scrimp on crossovers. You’re wallet is going to take a beating but it’s worth it when people ask about the speakers which sound so good and you tell them “Made ’em myself” :smiley:

Phil