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Cheap DIY boombox?

post #1 of 11
1/5/10 at 11:31pm
Thread Starter 
Hey all,
I was looking for help in building a cheap boombox, preferably under $100. I've looked around at other threads on how to do it, but most of what was said made little to no sense to me. This would be my first audio DIY project, and any help would be welcome. I would be using the boombox primarily outside. Bass, and loudness are priorities, but not at the expense of sound quality. Thanks a lot for your input.


Wiseman500
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post #2 of 11
1/5/10 at 11:38pm
ipod, pair of powered speakers, and a car battery
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post #3 of 11
1/5/10 at 11:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiBurning View Post
ipod, pair of powered speakers, and a car battery
"Why stop at car batteries when you can get a genny that runs on gas", says Uncle Erik

That said, I believe you can buy some raw speakers at RadioShack, wiring, battery pack, line-in jack.
What's your source? Or will you have a CD player built-in? If that's the case you'll need protoboarding, even stripboarding. Also controller chips and such.
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post #4 of 11
1/5/10 at 11:59pm
I've tossed around the idea of using a 12V battery, car deck and car speakers to make a boombox or at least a portable mini-system. Everything runs at 12V, fairly simple and safe to wire and there's no reason why it shouldn't sound great.
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post #5 of 11
1/6/10 at 12:05am
Buy 5 pairs of KSC75's arrange them all together and put them in parallel. throw in a portable amp and ipod.. youre good to go
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post #6 of 11
1/6/10 at 12:12am
with boombok you mean these things that people take to festivals and make a rave with in front of your tent at 5 am in the morning and afterwards throw into the lake when the battery ran out?

therefore to make it authentic i suggest a hicut at 200Hz
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post #7 of 11
1/6/10 at 4:02am
Well, uhm, read this if you wanna do it right: ftw.
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post #8 of 11
1/6/10 at 5:11am
While not a guide, the Big Orange Boombox was fellow's recent attempt at something similar.

For under $100 you'll be hard pressed to do much with new parts, I think. Even with new parts, I'm not sure you're going to get terribly great fidelity out of it. Ignoring that though, some side-of-the-road speakers torn apart and their drivers shoved into a box of your making, a cheap TA2020 amp that can be had for $22 shipped on eBay, a surplus battery for hopefully relatively cheap *probably* could be done all under $100 with wood and the little nuts and bolts you'll probably need.

I'd worry most about the charger, at least if you want to keep it cheap. Solar would be great, but would probably bust your budget. You could leave a car running and run a long wire from the cigarette lighter into your amp if you were desperate, but otherwise charge it the night before? I think that's the best I got. The Boominator thread mattcalf referenced is a very good one with regards to resources for solar panels (amongst other things).
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post #9 of 11
1/6/10 at 7:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiBurning View Post
ipod, pair of powered speakers, and a car battery
Lol if all else fails this will be my back up plan.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 3602
That said, I believe you can buy some raw speakers at RadioShack, wiring, battery pack, line-in jack.
What's your source?
By raw speakers do you mean the drivers? wouldnt it be cheaper to get them online at a place like parts-express?. My source would probably be an ipod.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pdupiano
Buy 5 pairs of KSC75's arrange them all together and put them in parallel.
Arn't KSC75's headphones? ...


Thanks a lot for the links Jezz, I think i might go with a similar design to the boominator, and do something like the Big Orange boombox. Solar panels would probably blow my budget, but going over 100 a little wouldn't be too hard, and I never thought about charging XP.
Thanks for all your help =]
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post #10 of 11
1/6/10 at 8:25pm
Cheapest T-amp board I now for your boombox:
MKll Tripath TA2024 fully finished&tested pcb 2x15watt - eBay (item 260524457062 end time Jan-14-10 21:35:39 PST)
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post #11 of 11
1/6/10 at 8:32pm
PE sells a rather nice little Tripath kit for $20. It includes the volume pot, which is a savings in itself.
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