Something horrifying happened on my way home from work.
I place my boominator in the trunk, close the door and start driving, get red light in a crossing and drive off with a little more power then you normally use.
The trunk OPENS! The stereo falls out from maybe 50 cm up and in 30km/h!
I get out of my car to throw the stereo back in again. Get home and notices theres only some tiny scratches on the edges of the box, start it up and it plays like nothing happened! Oh my ******* Science!
I can personally reassure anyone who wants to build this ******* beast that its freaking robust! **** that gave me some rushing blood damn it!
**** like this doesn't happen!
I place my boominator in the trunk, close the door and start driving, get red light in a crossing and drive off with a little more power then you normally use.
The trunk OPENS! The stereo falls out from maybe 50 cm up and in 30km/h!
I get out of my car to throw the stereo back in again. Get home and notices theres only some tiny scratches on the edges of the box, start it up and it plays like nothing happened! Oh my ******* Science!
I can personally reassure anyone who wants to build this ******* beast that its freaking robust! **** that gave me some rushing blood damn it!
**** like this doesn't happen!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! xD Long live the boominator. Thank god for the indestructible design.
Darkwithin, I noticed last year on roskilde that one of my friends had an iPod Nano 1st generation. When the volume got cranked up there was distortion as well. I unplugged it and tried another iPod (different generation) - no problems. I guess that some mp3-players are better than others. Maybe this will help you.
Darkwithin, I noticed last year on roskilde that one of my friends had an iPod Nano 1st generation. When the volume got cranked up there was distortion as well. I unplugged it and tried another iPod (different generation) - no problems. I guess that some mp3-players are better than others. Maybe this will help you.
If you can use the line output from the dock connector, that's a little better, as they do tend to distort a bit when turned up beyond 3/4. Better iPod battery life, too. I got a little better sound using the arjenhelder tube buffer, especially better bass. It's cheap, and a good fit to these boomboxes, as it uses a single 12v supply and doesn't draw a lot of current.
I'm in the process of ripping all my CDs to WAV files and using a WDTV media server, outboard dac and a small monitor to make a portable source with a terabyte worth of albums, should be 2,000 or so. MUCH better sound than any iPod. Next boombox might have all that built in.
--Buckapound
I'm in the process of ripping all my CDs to WAV files and using a WDTV media server, outboard dac and a small monitor to make a portable source with a terabyte worth of albums, should be 2,000 or so. MUCH better sound than any iPod. Next boombox might have all that built in.
--Buckapound
Well, maybe in theory it's too much, but I've been using one with my boombox and I am not noticing a huge drain on my 6.6AH battery. Seems well worth the juice to me. You can always bypass it if you're at Roskilde and need to run the box for a whole week.
It's hard to find a buffer/preamp that runs on 12 v and doesn't need dual supplies, so this little tube thing suits me just fine.
--Buckapound
It's hard to find a buffer/preamp that runs on 12 v and doesn't need dual supplies, so this little tube thing suits me just fine.
--Buckapound
Something similar actually happened to me. I was working on a scaff holding crew at the time and had my boombox with me. By accident it fell off the scaff holding maybe 4-5 meters up and landed with a big THUD! I vinced as you can imageíne but one from the crew just picked it up and as the most natural thing in the world plugged his mp3 into it, and it played like nothing had happened.
The freaking thing is a BEAST. It's practically indestructable.
The freaking thing is a BEAST. It's practically indestructable.
I guess the whole top of the boominator is covered by the 12v 12w solar panel from 24volt.eu when you look at the dimensions: 24 volt
... which means the hole on the top board is going to be covered by the panel as well - so if you choose this panel you are depending on holes on the front/back to get to the battery/amp/mp3-player
... which means the hole on the top board is going to be covered by the panel as well - so if you choose this panel you are depending on holes on the front/back to get to the battery/amp/mp3-player
Darkwithin, you actually got me thinking about the music source that is going to be connected to the boombox.
As I said, we had different experiences with different kinds of music players last year. First of all we discovered (this is based on last years testing only) that the 1st generation of iPod nano had very bad sound quality compared to later generations. Also, newer generations of iPod nano had lower output and couldn't play just as loud as certain other players. I myself, had an iPod shuffle (not sure which generation) with 1 Gb space, which played kinda loud but still not as loud as my iPod touch, which I didn't bring to the festival. The sound quality from the iPod touch is also quite good, but a little risky to bring a music player with that value in case of gypsy theft.
Lastly there was a guy from my camp who had a Sansa mediaplayer (don't know which model, but the same design as the iPod nano). This little bastard played just as loud as the iPod touch, though I don't remember how good the sound quality was.
My question is: Does anybody recommend a music player which can play loud and still with decent sound quality?
I know that there on an iPod nano under settings is a menu where you can turn up the maximum volume. In our case this was already done on the not-as-loud iPods we where using.
I have heard of some european law, which apparently has the effect of making the manufacturers turn down the volume to comprehend a potential hearing damage on people. Would this possibly mean that you could buy a music player from outside europe and get more boost here? Anybody knows the answer to whether this law is a rumour or not?
Phew... wall of text
As I said, we had different experiences with different kinds of music players last year. First of all we discovered (this is based on last years testing only) that the 1st generation of iPod nano had very bad sound quality compared to later generations. Also, newer generations of iPod nano had lower output and couldn't play just as loud as certain other players. I myself, had an iPod shuffle (not sure which generation) with 1 Gb space, which played kinda loud but still not as loud as my iPod touch, which I didn't bring to the festival. The sound quality from the iPod touch is also quite good, but a little risky to bring a music player with that value in case of gypsy theft.
Lastly there was a guy from my camp who had a Sansa mediaplayer (don't know which model, but the same design as the iPod nano). This little bastard played just as loud as the iPod touch, though I don't remember how good the sound quality was.
My question is: Does anybody recommend a music player which can play loud and still with decent sound quality?
I know that there on an iPod nano under settings is a menu where you can turn up the maximum volume. In our case this was already done on the not-as-loud iPods we where using.
I have heard of some european law, which apparently has the effect of making the manufacturers turn down the volume to comprehend a potential hearing damage on people. Would this possibly mean that you could buy a music player from outside europe and get more boost here? Anybody knows the answer to whether this law is a rumour or not?
Phew... wall of text
I've heard of some players that you can simply go around the volume limit by putting in another region at start-up. Don't know witch players enables this tough.
I want to have this one Tonium Pacemaker Pocket DJ 120GB - MP3-spelare - Hitta lägsta pris, omdömen och information
but this one has gotten some great comments on battery life and sound quality: Cowon iAudio 7 8GB - MP3-spelare - Hitta lägsta pris, omdömen och information seams to be quite hard to find though.
this one seams good too: Cowon S9 8GB - MP3-spelare - Hitta lägsta pris, omdömen och information
I would personally never buy an "I"-something but i guess its a "lifestyle" to pay for ovrprised stuff
I want to have this one
Tonium Pacemaker Pocket DJ 120GB - MP3-spelare - Hitta lägsta pris, omdömen och informationbut this one has gotten some great comments on battery life and sound quality: Cowon iAudio 7 8GB - MP3-spelare - Hitta lägsta pris, omdömen och information seams to be quite hard to find though.
this one seams good too: Cowon S9 8GB - MP3-spelare - Hitta lägsta pris, omdömen och information
I would personally never buy an "I"-something but i guess its a "lifestyle" to pay for ovrprised stuff
I would rather take two 10w solar panels instead, takes less space on the top of your boominator.
would be cool to have a wind-turbine, 600w would be enough to bring my projector allong and have a cinema session on nights at the camp haha!
http://24volt.eu/osc2/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2&products_id=224
yeah, I've heard their output is very good but what I'm most impressed with is the battery life, 55 hours apparently.I have an iaudio x5l, and I dont know what theyve changed in sound quality while migrating to 7/9 series, but the x5l is very, very good. Make sure to use the headphone out on the x5 though, it is less distorting than the line out (some smd caps and coils in the signal path
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Okay that definately gave me som inspiration. I know that apple's reputation is of the expensive kind, but I still like their media players (most of them).
I've been looking at some Sony players as well, mostly because of the battery life on an estimated 50 hours music. That's pretty good compared to other players in this price range. The gamble is the sound quality and maximum output of this player may not be as loud. I don't know anyone who owns this.
Here's the link http://www.elgiganten.dk/product/tv-radio/ipods-mp3-ipod-docks/ipods-mp3/NWZE453B/sony-walkman-4gb-mp4-afspiller-sort
I've been looking at some Sony players as well, mostly because of the battery life on an estimated 50 hours music. That's pretty good compared to other players in this price range. The gamble is the sound quality and maximum output of this player may not be as loud. I don't know anyone who owns this.
Here's the link http://www.elgiganten.dk/product/tv-radio/ipods-mp3-ipod-docks/ipods-mp3/NWZE453B/sony-walkman-4gb-mp4-afspiller-sort
My question is: Does anybody recommend a music player which can play loud and still with decent sound quality?
How about something like this? Playing WAV files, it is CD-quality or better, and holds 2,000 albums. The WDTV, monitor and DAC all run on 12v.
Or, a little more portable, I recommend the QLS QA 350 SD card player. Very nice sound, much better than any iPod, and only about three times as big. Then, everybody can bring their music on SD cards and share.
--Buckapound
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I don't think great sound quality is the problem here - rather not having bad sound quality. The main issue when at a festival is to play loud. So the player must have a rather high output
Both those devices put out a pretty good signal. The HiFiDIY pcm1793 DAC has a LM4562 (My swap--it's socketed) output stage. QA350 uses a MAX9722A chip as the headphone amp driver, puts out 130mw. Line level's good, too.
I don't know how you can say that great sound quality doesn't matter! Lossless/uncompressed through a decent DAC beats the pants off any iPod. Very noticeable difference.
--Buckapound.
I don't know how you can say that great sound quality doesn't matter! Lossless/uncompressed through a decent DAC beats the pants off any iPod. Very noticeable difference.
--Buckapound.
To go even further offtopic: their battery life is quite impressive, but not as impressive as that of an x5l with an solid state disk (compactflash to ide adapter
)and, as a rule of thumb, always install rockbox. Its so much better than the standard firmware.