I recently acquired a new bluetooth speaker, the harman kardon onyx studio 2. It is an excellent speaker for the price, it sounds even better than the previous version and the materials used for this one makes it feel more premium.
(Pictures from google)
According to the specs, it uses a rechargeable Li-ion battery with 2,600mAh capacity. I first thought they were referring to 2,600mAh per cell and that it had at least 2 cells, but it actually only uses 1 cell. I can’t understand how they decided it was ok just putting a single 2,600mAh 18650 into this considerably large and powerful speaker. Many people complain about this and some report runtimes as short as 1 hour at high volumes.
The battery room is not shown in this pic but you can see in the after mod picture
The stock 18650 is an LG ABB4 and had a protection circuit with very thick wires.
For this mod I decided to use 3x LG F1 18650 3,350mAh which were taken out of a xiaomi power bank. I measured the capacity of this cell and they were around 3250mAh.
The batteries are in parallel and share the same protection circuit. I used 22awg silicone wire and plenty of hot glue to keep everything in place. The last thing I want is to hear some rattling inside.
There was still some room inside the unit and up to 8 cells can be fitted in there, but for me 3 was enough, this is almost 4 times as much battery capacity vs stock. The speaker draws about 1.8A on the highest volume so I guess it should run for at least 5 hours straight at full blast and maybe a full day in lower volume levels, a huge improvement from stock!
Edit:
I suggest putting/filling the empty cavity with something fibrous (cork, etc.) to dampen vibrations of the plastic casing and make it non-resonant for a more solid and cleaner bass. The cleaner the bass, the better the definition of the mid/highs.
Yes there is! Where I have installed the 18650s you can fit 2x 22650s in line and the same can be done on the other side if you dremel out the stock battery compartment. That should give it a nice runtime.
Nice mod!
AhHarman Kardon, once such good hi fi gear and then they put their name on notebooks, good to read this actually is a quality product (and now even better after your mod!)
nice mod there! i wish i knew how to do this. i have the onyx1, and if i knew that the onyx2 had better sound quality, i would have gotten that one. i thought the only differences were the ports.
i agree, the runtime is very short.
its still one heckava speaker though, love it.
Nice! Speaking of Harman Kardon. I had an old 15 watt per channel tubed stereo receiver they made back in the 1960’s. I wish I still had it. BTW, Harman Kardon was made in my hometown back then. Plainview, Long Island, NY. One of my close friends worked their in the QC department back in the 70’s.
I still have a few 60’s World Band Tube table tops by Telefunken, Blaupunkt and a cool Modern Blonde wood console by Nordmende. NOS Early Stereo converter by Blau and a rare EARLY Stereo Telefunken table top. A few portables too that can be mounted under the dash of a car, 6V or 12V, Pos or Neg Ground. Sound has not been the same since transistors were invented.
Will34 - Excellent post, thanks. I have a few questions, I have the Onyx Studio 3 (havent opened it yet) and I'm thinking about adding in 4 extra batterys, maybe 6 or 8? I'm not sure yet...
Protected 18650 2600mah 3.7v All in parallel - If I understand correctly, this is a simular spec to the battery which comes as default. Would I have a problem if I added batterys with a higher mah rating? The reason behind me adding in a 2600mah one, is because I think charge/discharge levels will be relatively simular throughout all cells so I could just multiply the factory charging time by the amount of added cells.
if I added in a bigger mah cell, I dont know which cell would charge first or if if all cells would be fully charged.
Can you confirm if the picture below is how the connections are made? I am assuming the below is correct but not sure about the white wire and if I plug it in to the wall, i want all batt's to charge, not just the factory one.
Hey guys, i recently bought the Onyx Studio 3, and also wants to add ekstra batteries. I already got at batteri pack, and only need to know, if you can connect the wires as so:
Will this be okay, og is there another solution, that is better?
Thanks, and sorry for the bad english
