Fun Speaker Project

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

I decided to embark upon building my own portable speaker. I’m not really fond of Bluetooth, having to pair and deal with lost signals, so I prefer using a wired auxiliary connection.

 

I don’t like much of what’s on the market. Cheap and plasticky, like kids’ toys. I also don’t want to drop the 5000 or so baht on a JBL or Marshall. I then started looking at parts online, and thought I could just put together what I want myself.

 

I first thought about starting from scratch. I like wood, and looked at some wood enclosures. These are meant for car installations and are generally too big. But then something caught my eye, one of those cheap Bluetooth speakers you see at the night markets. Sure it’s fake wood, but looked decent. Only 600 baht. Sure, why not.

 

Of course, it sounded like 600 baht. Terrible. It got loud, but shrill and hollow without any bass. I guess ok for that “ooshoo, ooshoo, ooshoo” dance music the Thais like. Haha. It also had those horribly loud and annoying voice alerts you hear out of these cheap speakers everywhere, “the Bluetooth device is ready to pair”. Ugh. That had to go.

 

First, gotta change out the amplifier unit. Is there space to put something decent? Well you can see it initially had three speakers. I soon discovered the middle one was FAKE! Haha. So there’s my space right there. In it could then go something cheap and simple, with just an auxiliary input. Look on Lazada or Shopee for these little guys using the TDA7297 chip. They’re only about 100 baht. I took out the crappy stock amplifier, and tried this guy with the stock speakers. Wow, what a difference. The case and speakers were really being wasted on the crappy amplifier. 

 

But there still wasn’t enough bass and oomph, as they’re only 2 inch speakers with little magnets. Time to upgrade these too. 3 inch units, with nice hefty magnets. Much better, wow. Now sounding quite capable and expensive. It gets quite loud with bass I can feel, and little distortion.

 

Can’t stop there, I needed a new battery. Stock one was only 3.7 volts. Found a rechargeable 12 volt battery pack as that’s what the new amp requires. Since I’ve got 12 volts, why not make this a power bank too, to charge my phone or run other stuff? So in went a voltmeter with 2 USB ports intended for a car. Then finally, I really needed something I’ve always wanted on a boombox as a kid, a big LED VU meter with flashing lights to go with the music. Found an awesome unit that totally fit the bill.

 

Had to get it shipped in from China. 30 color LEDs, and even comes with a remote control to change the colors and patterns. A feature sorely missing from speakers nowadays. It conveniently fit into a space on the top of the case where a cell phone holder once was. Next to this I added a power switch, then covered the fake speaker hole with a plastic container lid, and the VU meter runs off USB supplied by the voltmeter.

 

The damage:

 

Crappy Fake Wood Night Market Bluetooth Speaker - 600

Colorful Chinese LED VU Meter, search for “utakedual 30” or “ak-db30c” - 624

TDA7297 15 watt x 2 amplifier - 109

Voltmeter with 2 USB ports - 100

3 inch 15 watt full range speakers - 360

12 volt 4000 mah li-ion battery - 495

 

Total - 2288