Table Top Player

[Dukk]

I have been meaning to build a table or desk top Bluetooth music player for some time. I looked at what I had in the cabinet I found a pair of TCP115-4 and a pair of ND16FA-6 so I figured I could emulate Duane Brown's Dayton4 with a twist of Tom Zarbo's ND65 Mini Radio for inspiration. Amplifier is PE's 320-641 on a 20v laptop power supply.

The cabinet is 1/2" MDF, finished in black vinyl. The baffle is 3/4" MDF painted yellow and the base houses all the electronics and is finished in black rocker guard for a textured appearance.

It performs great! The bass is decent and well balanced with the highs (thanks to Duane Brown's crossover) and it gets plenty loud.

[djg]

Really nice work.

[Jake]

That turned out great. Nice build.

[3rutu5]

Cool, looks funky

[tomzarbo]

That's pretty neat. I like the yellow with the black for a twist. Nice touch going with the built in power supply and pull out a.c. plug too. Extra mile stuff!
how do you like the amp?
TomZ

[Dukk]

That's pretty neat. I like the yellow with the black for a twist. Nice touch going with the built in power supply and pull out a.c. plug too. Extra mile stuff!
how do you like the amp?
TomZ

When I first fired it up I was completely underwhelmed! I was confused because you gave it such high praise. Then I found the volume of my phone was at half... With that fixed, it is a rocker

It gets loud enough that normal conversation within 10 feet is impossible. It does cut out at about 80% volume which I am positive is a limitation of the current output of the power supply but I am completely happy with the output up to that point so it is a minor issue for me. I might at some point add a largish polarized capacitor to the power input of the amp to help but only if I am super bored one day.

My only real beef is the arrangement of the USB/3.5mm port on the front face (I would rather have them off the back and run extensions to where I want them) and the IR receiver location - needing to be extended and the shield thing on it makes mounting it weird. These are minor beefs though. I'll buy it again I am sure

[3rutu5]

Here is another BT/amp you could try as well, using this one in my phantom clone and haven't had that pesky cut out I did on a few others, think it was about 7usd

downside is there is no headphone jack

[ceiol]

looks great -- I like how you put the power transformer into the case

[tomzarbo]

When I first fired it up I was completely underwhelmed! I was confused because you gave it such high praise. Then I found the volume of my phone was at half... With that fixed, it is a rocker

It gets loud enough that normal conversation within 10 feet is impossible. It does cut out at about 80% volume which I am positive is a limitation of the current output of the power supply but I am completely happy with the output up to that point so it is a minor issue for me. I might at some point add a largish polarized capacitor to the power input of the amp to help but only if I am super bored one day.

My only real beef is the arrangement of the USB/3.5mm port on the front face (I would rather have them off the back and run extensions to where I want them) and the IR receiver location - needing to be extended and the shield thing on it makes mounting it weird. These are minor beefs though. I'll buy it again I am sure

I agree, the placement of the input, USB jack and volume/IR receiver all in one location makes it difficult to mount the thing with all those 'openings' in one central location. Cool if you want to shove this thing in a Tic-Tac box, difficult otherwise.

The first radio I made, I tried to 'thin out' the HDF to get the amp to mount right into the wall of the radio -- it worked, but it was a lot of work and it's kind of fragile. Second time, I used a piece of PE's black textured plastic and just mounted the plastic to the enclosure -- a bit safer I think, and easier to wire up, then install.

It offers a lot of features for the money, like you said. I sweated moving the IR receiver, but it was fairly easy to do and seems to work fine working remotely. I used a quick-disconnect plug to connect it since it had to be hot glued in-place. I'm trying to use those more and more when possible. I try to make these things like 'kits' where they disassemble and reassemble easily, but it's not possible with some things. At least you have a little bit of room in there to work with. It was wise to have the fiddly bits in the base, I like that idea, easy to see where things are located.

You know, there are dozens of ways one could wire up these things, it's enjoyable for me to see how others do it, I always learn something.

Have you noticed the 70 Hz bass roll-off indicated in the documentation? I haven't really heard the bass drop off, even with a 7" subwoofer, so I'm wondering how others perceive it.

If you do decide to add a cap to the input, I'd love to see how you handle that.

Really nice work, it's beautiful!

TomZ

[Dukk]

Here is another BT/amp you could try as well, using this one in my phantom clone and haven't had that pesky cut out I did on a few others, think it was about 7usd

downside is there is no headphone jack

That is a nice looking option! I really doubt I will use the 3.5mm or USB jacks but they came with the board so it seemed like a cop-out to not incorporate them. It only took about an hour to make the mounting board for it all. Still, I will keep the one you show in mind for sure.

[Dukk]

I agree, the placement of the input, USB jack and volume/IR receiver all in one location makes it difficult to mount the thing with all those 'openings' in one central location. Cool if you want to shove this thing in a Tic-Tac box, difficult otherwise.

The first radio I made, I tried to 'thin out' the HDF to get the amp to mount right into the wall of the radio -- it worked, but it was a lot of work and it's kind of fragile. Second time, I used a piece of PE's black textured plastic and just mounted the plastic to the enclosure -- a bit safer I think, and easier to wire up, then install.

It offers a lot of features for the money, like you said. I sweated moving the IR receiver, but it was fairly easy to do and seems to work fine working remotely. I used a quick-disconnect plug to connect it since it had to be hot glued in-place. I'm trying to use those more and more when possible. I try to make these things like 'kits' where they disassemble and reassemble easily, but it's not possible with some things. At least you have a little bit of room in there to work with. It was wise to have the fiddly bits in the base, I like that idea, easy to see where things are located.

You know, there are dozens of ways one could wire up these things, it's enjoyable for me to see how others do it, I always learn something.

Have you noticed the 70 Hz bass roll-off indicated in the documentation? I haven't really heard the bass drop off, even with a 7" subwoofer, so I'm wondering how others perceive it.

If you do decide to add a cap to the input, I'd love to see how you handle that.

Really nice work, it's beautiful!

TomZ

Yes, I went straight to the 1/8" ABS plastic to mount the amp board too. I wanted recessed controls anyway and that made it all easier. I have a decent selection of ABS and starboard in various thicknesses for fab work thanks to a past building custom RC cars and continuing interest in custom car audio.

I really considered a disconnect on the IR extension wires. I used an RC servo lead extension which is perfect as it is 3wire and also has a male connector on one end and female on the other. They are cheap as well. Ultimately, I figured that if I ever repurpose the amp, it will be with the board it is mounted on so I decided to save the connections.

I don't really notice a lot of bass rolloff but maybe I am being forgiving because I know they're only 4" drivers. I have not tried to measure it (which would be simple iPhone RTA app) or put it head to head with the Lithiums I recently completed but I have played a bunch of my go-to songs with decent bass content and I like it. I will have to do some comparison listening and see.

It was a design goal to keep everything in the base. This way I can change the amplifier, crossover, whatever, easily. Your comments on modularity had me thinking this way. Aside from the actual crossover components, this same base can accommodate many other speaker setups. I would like to potentially add a battery setup to it as well which will be tight but with a more compact crossover layout it should fit with some creativity.

I didn't realize when building it that the volume knob was not also a power knob so I added a simple rocker switch to interrupt the hot (black) wire of the AC input. Works just fine and now I can leave it plugged in. Bottom right in this pic.

[3rutu5]

That is a nice looking option! I really doubt I will use the 3.5mm or USB jacks but they came with the board so it seemed like a cop-out to not incorporate them. It only took about an hour to make the mounting board for it all. Still, I will keep the one you show in mind for sure.

I've been taking my time with trying to finish my knock off but I'll post a video when it is all done and you guys can hear / see it in action and make your own assessment to hard to read up as people have different tastes etc