I have been contemplating building a portable bluetooth speaker for a few years now, but between cost, complexity and parts availability, I had never pulled the trigger.... until just recently.
I had used the Dayton PS95-8 drivers in a couple micro bookshelf speakers for friends over the years and had great success. They have (in my mind) a good cost to quality ratio... they sound quite decent, are very forgiving with cabinet choices and need nothing but a notch filter to tame the spike between ~10-15k to be a solid performer. These were the foundation for this project.
I didn't want to just rely on a couple 3.5" full ranger's for this build so I started digging into my options for some bass duty. I found this when digging around and it looked perfect for the job... so I ordered a TB W5-1138SMF (the ferrite version, not the neo), and 2x Dayton ND140PR.
Next, I needed a power source and and an amplifier. I wanted as much power on hand as possible so I ordered the Dayton LBB-5 battery board to hold 5x 26650 batteries. For amplification I settled on this little guy as it seemed like a simple all-in-one solution. I also ordered the Dayton Lbb-5EB so I could have charging in and out available in a convenient location... plus, who doesn't want the ability to charge their phone from their speaker???
I used Google SketchUp to see how I could squeeze all these components into the smallest space I could here... Once I had the details all worked out I needed wood. A gorgeous piece of paduk caught my eye, and I already had some black bamboo from a previous project kicking around that would work nicely as a front baffle.
After some woodworking, I tested to see if the passive radiators would fit with the ferrite magnet version of the TB 1138... boy, my sketchup model was bang on; only a couple mm per side of clearance!
With the successful test of driver clearances, it was time to do some more woodworking and start to test fit the battery board, extension board and amp board, as well as some LED's and n' whatnot. This is went surprisingly well given how tight everything has to be to fit.
Sadly, i forgot to take a photo of the tidy finished version of the electronics section, so all i have is this really rough looking V1.0 to ensure fitment of everything.
Finally, fully assembled and ready for testing - sitting beside my MTM build from a couple winters ago.
Okay, the important part: sound. First though, a note. I am attempting to compare apples to apples here; does it sound like $10k super speakers? nope, not even close. Does it sound incredible for a portable bluetooth speaker? Absolutely. They have very clean mid range, detailed highs and WOW bass. In my 16x26 main room, they pump out thick, room-filling bass, even at decently loud volumes. I haven't yet pulled out any measuring tools, but I would estimate an f3 of ~45hz (though much lower is very much present) with the slightly flatter tune on the PR's I have done. Integration with the PS95's is good, and the 2.1 amp board has enough control to blend things nicely. Battery power has been amazing so far too; I have had it running at moderately high volumes for over 5 hrs and gone through roughly 25-35% power. My only complaint is that the LBB-5EB (expansion board) LED never turns off. My plan is to incorporate a toggle inline with the wiring harness so I can manually disable it when it's not in use.
All-in-all I am very happy with the final product. It just needs a carry handle of some sort and I can drag this behemoth (it's not light) around!
PS: This isn't an attempt to get praise for building something; there just seems to be a lot of interest on the internet for projects like this but not a ton of good info, so I figured (despite some reluctance) to make a post. I am happy to answer any questions if someone is interested in a similar project.
I had used the Dayton PS95-8 drivers in a couple micro bookshelf speakers for friends over the years and had great success. They have (in my mind) a good cost to quality ratio... they sound quite decent, are very forgiving with cabinet choices and need nothing but a notch filter to tame the spike between ~10-15k to be a solid performer. These were the foundation for this project.
I didn't want to just rely on a couple 3.5" full ranger's for this build so I started digging into my options for some bass duty. I found this when digging around and it looked perfect for the job... so I ordered a TB W5-1138SMF (the ferrite version, not the neo), and 2x Dayton ND140PR.
Next, I needed a power source and and an amplifier. I wanted as much power on hand as possible so I ordered the Dayton LBB-5 battery board to hold 5x 26650 batteries. For amplification I settled on this little guy as it seemed like a simple all-in-one solution. I also ordered the Dayton Lbb-5EB so I could have charging in and out available in a convenient location... plus, who doesn't want the ability to charge their phone from their speaker???
I used Google SketchUp to see how I could squeeze all these components into the smallest space I could here... Once I had the details all worked out I needed wood. A gorgeous piece of paduk caught my eye, and I already had some black bamboo from a previous project kicking around that would work nicely as a front baffle.
After some woodworking, I tested to see if the passive radiators would fit with the ferrite magnet version of the TB 1138... boy, my sketchup model was bang on; only a couple mm per side of clearance!
With the successful test of driver clearances, it was time to do some more woodworking and start to test fit the battery board, extension board and amp board, as well as some LED's and n' whatnot. This is went surprisingly well given how tight everything has to be to fit.
Sadly, i forgot to take a photo of the tidy finished version of the electronics section, so all i have is this really rough looking V1.0 to ensure fitment of everything.
Finally, fully assembled and ready for testing - sitting beside my MTM build from a couple winters ago.
Okay, the important part: sound. First though, a note. I am attempting to compare apples to apples here; does it sound like $10k super speakers? nope, not even close. Does it sound incredible for a portable bluetooth speaker? Absolutely. They have very clean mid range, detailed highs and WOW bass. In my 16x26 main room, they pump out thick, room-filling bass, even at decently loud volumes. I haven't yet pulled out any measuring tools, but I would estimate an f3 of ~45hz (though much lower is very much present) with the slightly flatter tune on the PR's I have done. Integration with the PS95's is good, and the 2.1 amp board has enough control to blend things nicely. Battery power has been amazing so far too; I have had it running at moderately high volumes for over 5 hrs and gone through roughly 25-35% power. My only complaint is that the LBB-5EB (expansion board) LED never turns off. My plan is to incorporate a toggle inline with the wiring harness so I can manually disable it when it's not in use.
All-in-all I am very happy with the final product. It just needs a carry handle of some sort and I can drag this behemoth (it's not light) around!
PS: This isn't an attempt to get praise for building something; there just seems to be a lot of interest on the internet for projects like this but not a ton of good info, so I figured (despite some reluctance) to make a post. I am happy to answer any questions if someone is interested in a similar project.
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