Hi everyone I am a dj and some times if I can I do gigs but the problem that had came to me is that some cafes or plases that I dj dont have any type of speakers. Now the problem is that i dont have my pa and where i live there is not a lot plases where I can rent pa system so I was thinking that I could build a pa system out of them until i dont have enough money to buy some better speakers. So what do you think is it a good idea or not and i will anyway build a box for that speakers so i dont have noting to lose.
So, you're considering building "PA" speaker enclosures suitable for small venues by incorporating old car speaker drivers.
When I started out on my DJ journey in the early 1970s, I stuck any old drivers I could find into any old enclosures I could find, including a large, wooden CRT TV cabinet. So, in that respect, anything is possible! However, I soon graduated to proper PA drivers that I housed in purpose built cabinets.
The question is, what car speaker drivers are at your disposal? A couple of 12" automobile woofers per cabinet might move enough air to fill a small, intimate venue with sound. Alternatively, multiple 8" drivers per enclosure could do the trick.
And I agree, you don't have anything to lose by experimenting, so go ahead and have fun until such times as you can afford the proper kit.
P.S. It's important that you wire multiple drivers together in such a way that the combination presents a load of 4 or 8 ohms to your amplifier.
When I started out on my DJ journey in the early 1970s, I stuck any old drivers I could find into any old enclosures I could find, including a large, wooden CRT TV cabinet. So, in that respect, anything is possible! However, I soon graduated to proper PA drivers that I housed in purpose built cabinets.
The question is, what car speaker drivers are at your disposal? A couple of 12" automobile woofers per cabinet might move enough air to fill a small, intimate venue with sound. Alternatively, multiple 8" drivers per enclosure could do the trick.
And I agree, you don't have anything to lose by experimenting, so go ahead and have fun until such times as you can afford the proper kit.
P.S. It's important that you wire multiple drivers together in such a way that the combination presents a load of 4 or 8 ohms to your amplifier.
If your getting the car speakers free or extra cheap there's no harm in trying, as Galu said be careful the impedance presented to the amplifiers if running multiple speakers per channel.
Another problem you may find is that most full range car speakers are designed for infinite baffle(ie a leaky car door or parcel shelf)so will need quite large boxes to sound their best. An advantage is often they are high sensitivity and dont need a lot of watts to get loud.
Another problem you may find is that most full range car speakers are designed for infinite baffle(ie a leaky car door or parcel shelf)so will need quite large boxes to sound their best. An advantage is often they are high sensitivity and dont need a lot of watts to get loud.
So I think that they are 8inch drivers and I have 4 of them so 2 per box and they are 4ohms eachs.
So what is a best design for a box i was thinking to put like internal crossover at like 40-60hz so that u dont stress them that much.
I would put each pair of drivers into a rectangular sealed enclosure with a volume of around 30 litres.
Fill the enclosure loosely with a sound absorbent such as BAF wadding or wool.
Regarding a 40-60 Hz high pass filter, you could experiment with a series, bipolar (NP) electrolytic capacitor of value 470 uF.
As for an amplifier, choose a dedicated PA amplifier that is specifically designed to run reliably for long periods at high volumes.
Something like this: https://www.thomann.co.uk/behringer_a800.htm
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What amp can you get, that will take the pounding? With the money you have of course. Back in the day (70’s, early 80’s) the answer was the one you could MAKE with the $15 surplus 500 VA transformer they had at Poly-Paks. Or get that dead Phase Linear you can grab for $100 running. In those days, ALL DJ’s had their own PA, as the cost or rental was more than they were going to get for the gig. Even bottom feeders would cobble together what was needed to rock a high school gym, and the GOOD ones owned rigs big enough to do an outdoor music festival.
It does however give one a valid excuse to build very large very loud speakers, as well as places to use them without getting arrested.
It does however give one a valid excuse to build very large very loud speakers, as well as places to use them without getting arrested.
Hmm why 30litars? And maybe a tamp e400 or e800 would be better hat do you think?
Edit: will a ported box maybe be better?
Hmm, I wonder what volume of enclosure you had in mind?
My loudspeaker book recommends that each 8" speaker sees a volume of around 17 litres when in a sealed enclosure.
So I recommend in the region of 30 to 35 litres for a sealed twin 8" cabinet.
Too large a sealed box can produce a weak bass response and reduce the power handling capability of the drivers.
The twin fan cooled, t.amp E-800 looks the better choice out of the three mentioned.
Please note that I have no user experience with either of these amps. I was only giving an example of what you might use.
If it’s just a run of the mill cheap car woofer/subwoofer one cubic foot (28 liters net, round it to 30 and call it good) is about as good as anything else. There usually isn’t enough motor force for proper damping (or a lot of sensitivity) so you won’t get a pretty response regardless of what you did with it.
For budget DJ use, money is better spent on SPEAKERS than amplification. Cheap speakers can’t do much without DSP, and even then have pretty hard SPL limits. One can take good 98dB/W cabs and run a gig with 50 watts per channel, and get a better amp later. When the speaker is the limit a $3000 amplifier won’t help much.
For budget DJ use, money is better spent on SPEAKERS than amplification. Cheap speakers can’t do much without DSP, and even then have pretty hard SPL limits. One can take good 98dB/W cabs and run a gig with 50 watts per channel, and get a better amp later. When the speaker is the limit a $3000 amplifier won’t help much.
What 8" drivers? Are they subs or fullrange drivers.. possibly coaxial with a central tweeter?
If they are fullrange then mount them in a conviently sized box and look for some subs to use, these won't get particularly loud outdoors or in a large room and won't produce any low bass... you'll need subs for that. The reason the box size doesn't matter is because these are infinite baffle speakers that would require a really large box to produce even moderate fullrange sound, they still won't produce any low bass so there really is no point to building huge boxes... you're gonna need subs anyway.
If these are subwoofers then don't waste you time building any boxes that aren't a horn of some type, a horn is the only way to get meaningful output from these, in a small sealed box you won't even be able to tell they are on outside or in any room larger than the interior volume of a car.
And these things won't produce any mids or highs so you will need some oither speakers for that.
I'd second Warren's suggestion to start searching for any PA type speaker to use instead of these, you won't be the fist DJ to attempt to use car speakers but it always ends up the same, you will quickly learn that these low sensitivity speakers are not suitable for this type of thing.
I know man but the problem is where I live used market is very ban I can find worst speakers that this ones that I have and I have to build a box for them one way or anader becose blowing them up is not a potion and a market for pa deivers is bad also or out of my budget for now.
The other contributors speak perfect sense of course.
I did not want to discourage you, as the best way to learn is by doing.
You are obviously going to put these car speakers into enclosures anyway, and there is no better way to discover their limitations.
I did not want to discourage you, as the best way to learn is by doing.
You are obviously going to put these car speakers into enclosures anyway, and there is no better way to discover their limitations.
Im enjoying the positive reinforcement that everyone has offered so far.
just helping to do the best with what yah got.
Much of the advice is solid so far.
I cant tell if those are 8" or 6.5" speakers. Definitely door speakers for car.
As mentioned likely to be high Qts for large volume leaky doors.
Your best bet is just a med to large sealed box no ports.
Likely offer the best cone control before distortion. Fs is average to high.
Trying to port would just make distortion happen quicker. Go easy on pushing bass EQ
If all 4 are 3 ways as shown. Seems mounting them close together tweeter to tweeter for least possibly cancelation
just helping to do the best with what yah got.
Much of the advice is solid so far.
I cant tell if those are 8" or 6.5" speakers. Definitely door speakers for car.
As mentioned likely to be high Qts for large volume leaky doors.
Your best bet is just a med to large sealed box no ports.
Likely offer the best cone control before distortion. Fs is average to high.
Trying to port would just make distortion happen quicker. Go easy on pushing bass EQ
If all 4 are 3 ways as shown. Seems mounting them close together tweeter to tweeter for least possibly cancelation