Just finished building my "portable" boombox. It's powered by a battery but still not very portable because of how heavy it is 
. Just for feedback, is this a respectable response? I just finished taking measurements today. It sounds alright to me though, considering I can carry it around if I really wanted to. Spent a total of $500 in parts including wood, drivers, everything, just was wondering if I did okay considering the cost, I don't have many friends who are into sound lol.
. Just for feedback, is this a respectable response? I just finished taking measurements today. It sounds alright to me though, considering I can carry it around if I really wanted to. Spent a total of $500 in parts including wood, drivers, everything, just was wondering if I did okay considering the cost, I don't have many friends who are into sound lol.
FR looks pretty decent - maybe a little hot past 4 kHz or so, and possibly a tad peaky in the bass? The measurement mic may not have been exactly on axis, or there may be another reason for the very steep HF drop. Bass extension should be very usable, you don't generally need a great deal more for music.
It doesn't say anything about off-axis response, of course, or distortion / level handling, for that matter. Hard to tell how well you did without any indication of those.
It doesn't say anything about off-axis response, of course, or distortion / level handling, for that matter. Hard to tell how well you did without any indication of those.
Thanks for the feedback, yes I need to better familiarize myself with REW, I'm very new to measuring stuff. I actually did make sure the mic was on axis this time, and the right position, so I'm not sure why there's a hf drop off, but it seems I get decent response to about 17khz, is this not normal?
The roll off you're seeing in the high end could be your microphone.
My little "beater" mic that I use in my toolbox dies below about 80hz and above about 6khz which is not uncommon. REW has the ability to use a compensatory curve for the mic, but it would probably be cheaper to buy a new mic than to have it tested.
For the hot treble ... If you are using a two way design, woofer+tweeter, you might consider putting about a 2 or 3 ohm resistor in series with the tweeter.
It's a portable sound system, of course.
Surely not capable of the picky high fidelity that audiophiles demand.
Actually, I used a UMIK-1 with a calibration file, and I think those are supposed to cover 20-20,000 hz right? I did try to fix the hot treble, it is a two way design but whenever I tried to bring that 4k-6k range down, it brought the 2-3k range down as well, and I thought it sounded worse in that way. I think it might measure worse than it sounds though, because I don't find the vocals harsh or overdone. If I set the scale to go in increments of 2 db, it actually looks like it measures within +- 2 db, however jagged it is.
Yes I just wanted a decent sounding portable system, I think this does that for me, even though it won't compete with audiophile equipment.
It sounds better than most of the stuff I have in my house anyways, I don't have any high end systems. Whether I made the most out of my budget though, I'm not so sure, that's why I asked on here, I wanted to make sure I'm not just throwing money around and ending up with a crappy system for how much I spent, lol.If you are happy with the outcome, your money is not wasted.
Don't worry about high end systems ... Comparisons always disappoint somebody.
Most of it is just a load of hype anyway. Anyone who thinks price gets quality is nuts. Beyond a certain point you're paying for the badge on the case and not better electronics. What most here would likely call "mid-fi" or "consumer" equipment is probably as good as that $200,000 system across the road... it just didn't cost $200,000 to build.
I like Andrew Robinson's close for this one: "Remember, the only person who has to enjoy the sound of your system, is you."
YouTube
Last edited:
True enough, a series resistor will drop the level of everything above the crossover point. There are other, more complex ways to fix it but they can very rapidly get quite expensive for minimal results. In the old days, we did it with tone controls and everyone was happy...
Yes, I might not pay attention to 17kHz but I'd want to fix the 4k and up issue.
Following the impedance curve perhaps. Two options, RC across the driver to drop the impedance at the higher frequencies so the resistor has the greater effect there.
The other, and worth considering I think is an inductor to drop from 4k and up, and bypass it with a resistor to prevent taking out the highest frequencies.
Very good post, Douglas.
It's been done to death about Diminishing Returns, so I won't even go there.
And that youtube video from Andrew Robinson is right on the money too.
The guy's sensible, and honest.
In our world, there are of course millions of people, and millions of opinions, along with millions of particular tastes.
And all that is just dandy, and is as it should be.
But nevertheless, there's also bias, and various "sicknesses" adding color to the masses.
Sicknesses, for lack of a better word, in the form of obsessions, beliefs, and motivational issues, among others.
For instance, I, a basically content person, am devoid of having to constantly "upgrade" my audio/video stuff.
It's good stuff, chosen not from hyped advertising or somebody elses insistance, but simply from experience and a little personal investigating.
45 years of sales and working in a service shop gave me an edge on what was worth my money and what was crap
Lord knows, I don't need some McIntosh stuff to please me or to show off to others.
My Technics stuff sounds as good as that Mc, without the dollar figures.
Hell, that vintage 1963 RCA Victor console in the dining room sounds wonderful too, to me, and let me state, to others that have stopped by, including those who own McIntosh equipment.
I see people discussing audio topics online, and they pick apart an enormous range of things - they dig so deep into trivial nuances that it annoys me to even read the crap that they spew.
It's almost like viewing something from a Twilight Zone episode.
To them, I say, enjoy your world, but thanks anyway, I'll stay in mine.
Last edited:
I realise this is kind of off topic... but...
The honest part remains to be seen... he seems to only go from approving to gushing in his equipment reviews, leaving one to wonder how much he's paid to like everything. Me, when I write a review, I'm not afraid to call a piece of crap a piece of crap... But then I'm not trying to make a living from it.
That's true in everything that's not pure science.
Same here ... I buy based on investigation, when I can't hear it myself. Then I tend to tinker a little, get it as I want it, then use it till it dies. I've never been one to get all starry eyed over fancy panels or big cases... I like the more sensible designs.
My current listening setup is a tpa3116 mini-amp and a pair of tweaked Dayton T652 speakers (I put in a proper crossover and binding posts on the back) and I am content with that. But also, I get complements on it from friends and even other so called audiophiles. After they look at it and go "Meh" down their long noses, it's really kind of fun to see the look on their faces when I fire it up for them...
Yep ... I'm happy ... and nobody can tell me not to be.
The honest part remains to be seen... he seems to only go from approving to gushing in his equipment reviews, leaving one to wonder how much he's paid to like everything. Me, when I write a review, I'm not afraid to call a piece of crap a piece of crap... But then I'm not trying to make a living from it.
That's true in everything that's not pure science.
Same here ... I buy based on investigation, when I can't hear it myself. Then I tend to tinker a little, get it as I want it, then use it till it dies. I've never been one to get all starry eyed over fancy panels or big cases... I like the more sensible designs.
My current listening setup is a tpa3116 mini-amp and a pair of tweaked Dayton T652 speakers (I put in a proper crossover and binding posts on the back) and I am content with that. But also, I get complements on it from friends and even other so called audiophiles. After they look at it and go "Meh" down their long noses, it's really kind of fun to see the look on their faces when I fire it up for them...
Yep ... I'm happy ... and nobody can tell me not to be.
Last edited:
I like your sensible mostly basic set up, I feel the same way. I listen to music mostly at my pc, so I have a pair of Definitive Technology Inclines that I bought at half off right before they were discontinued. It doesn't have much deep bass and it's not the most detailed thing I've heard, but it's good enough for me.
My desktop setup gets everyone's knickers in a knot ... It's an old Muse T-AMP, about 5 years old, with a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7 speakers that are pushing half a century old.
Last edited:
Sure! I would be happy to help. My system is technically portable but it is large, but that's the way I wanted it. I'm using two Dayton audio RS225-4 woofers and two dayton audio rst28f-4 tweeters.
here's a picture of it so you can get a better idea of what it looks like. I'm using a minidsp now for my crossovers and I built a 5s 18650 battery pack for powering it. For the woofers I'm using this cheap 100w+100w chip amp I found on amazon for about $15, I'm not exactly sure the name but I don't think it would be too hard to find. For the tweeters I'm using this I believe: WONDOM AA-AB32178 2x50W 4 Ohm Class D Audio Amplifier Board - TPA3116 I made the cabinets out of birch plywood I found at home depot, and they are tuned to 40 hz and stuffed with polyfil. I have the crossovers on the woofer set at 48db/octave at 1700 hz and the tweeters are set at 48db/octave at 1800 hz.
I love it! Unfortunately as I'm a teenager, I never lived through that era where everyone was carrying those around, but I really love the way those things look and they seem to sound much better than the small full range drivers + passive radiators portable mess built today.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.