The Bose beater boom box

[Danger dad]

Yes It's another portable boom box! This is my take on the I-pod based music player. I have been holding onto these old speakers for a few years now waiting for the right project. Then I found out about the Lepai 2020 and knew just what to do with them. My goal is to have a system that will play full range music with rich beep bass and crisp highs at volume levels loud enough to disturb the neighbors. The star of the show will be a leftover Focal 4ohm 6.5'' speaker from my car audio comp days...The other got blowd up! The tweeters for this came from an old home theater system. I was happy to see after getting them out of there crappy plastic housing they are 3'' 8ohm 75w. Having no idea what the recommended box and porting demintions was the hard part. The focal is an open baffle mid-bass speaker and the other two??? After cross referencing similar speakers on PE I came up with a .42'' ported box for the 6.5'' with two 2''x6'' ports tuned @ 70Hz. For the tweeters two .o5" boxes with 1''x 2'' ports tuned to about 103hz. then I added in the space that the battery and amp would take up and that leaves me with 20''x10.25''x9.75'' boom box. I held onto an old 17Ah 12v battery from a junk jump starter box that should give me about 4 days of run time.



MG]



The Lepai amp was panel mounted along with a USB charging port and a 3.5mm input jack. a blue tooth receiver was installed inside. on the back is a 12v charging port and two 12v output/input ports.

[Danger dad]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

After a test run I must say wow! It's not something your going to take back packing but the sound Q is very good! The Focal does a great job with the lows allowing me to turn the bass down on the amp a lot. I did staple some polly behind the 6.5'' driver and some inside for the tweeter to reduce unwanted resonance. Also I installed a pot (far right knob) so that I can fade between the mid-bass and tweeters to fine tune the sound. The handle on top was saved from my old BBQ...Waste not want not right?! I have placed an order for some rubber feet and a LCD volt display. The battery has been running now for 5 days on one charge in my shop and I will say I prefer the SQ of this little boom box over my shop system! Im going to miss it when it comes time to sand and paint. For that I plan to use black spray on bed liner. For the charger/110v power I will solder a type M dc power plug to a 0.5-1.5amp battery maintenance/tender. a slight hum can be herd when charging through the USB port so I will install a ground loop isolator. This project is going to be on hold for a few day because my wife and I just had a baby girl yesterday and I need some sleep! more to come!

[Tin_Ears]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

It can't be compared to Bose unless it's made of plastic and has a curvy wave guide thingy.

[Danger dad]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

It can't be compared to Bose unless it's made of plastic and has a curvy wave guide thingy.

You forgot to mention the $200 price tag! Because I'm a hoarder this build was only about 45$.

[Tin_Ears]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

Probably closer to $400. Oh, and In like the build.

[Danger dad]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

Thanks I'm just getting into the hole Hi-Fi thing. I'm just over the hole SPL car audio thing...here are a few more pictures on how I had to do the face and amp rack. Any tips or pointers???

Tweeters and grills

the tweeters were back mounted

The stock grill fit snug inside ABS pipe that was glued into the face plate

grills off

my panel mounted amp and other goodies

Focal cross over...I may not use it...

Charger

Inside the back. Its a mess right now. The Lepai is fused with a 5amp fuse and the USB port is ran off the amps power switch with a 3amp fuse

[Tin_Ears]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

I'm the wrong person to ask for advice. I'm sure other more able folks will chime in soon.

[Wolf]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

One question-
The Lepai is a stereo amp with only 2 channels. You have 3 drivers.

How did you wire your 3 drivers to the 2 channels?
Later,
Wolf

[Danger dad]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

The two 3'' speakers are 8ohm and run off on channel @ 4ohm the 6.5'' Focal runs off the other channel. The input signal to the amp is mono. I felt that on a boom box the stereo effect would be lost anyway. Should I have done it differently?

[Danger dad]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

What would be the best way to get a good finish on this. I was going to spray it with black bed liner after I sand and fill the holes and gaps. should I seal the wood before I fill and patch with bondo or does it even matter. I also discovered that at volumes above 50% the battery door latches rattles so I will secure the door with strong magnets. This thing can crank, however I might need to mod this amp to get the most out of this system. I see lots of thread on that but might be a little out of my DIY comfort zone. I can make a good enclosure but that's about all I know!

[Danger dad]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

Got some time to work on my box. I used some west systems epoxy to seal the wood. This will really make it durable and weather proof. Then I sanded down the high spots and filled the nail holes with bondo. After that I sprayed some bed liner down and hope to do a final assembly Tomorrow.

[bkeane1259]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

Cool project and congrats on the baby!! I prefer to maintain the stereo separation even in the small boom-box-style builds I have done but of course that could require an additional amp in your case. If you’re happy with the sound then good for you. It looks like it’s going to be a bullet-proof cabinet too.

Just out of curiosity, did you build the subwoofer section with the Focal driver to any sort of specification? EDIT- I see what you did in the original post.

Also, is that a 3-tap kegerator in your shop?

[Danger dad]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

Cool project and congrats on the baby!! I prefer to maintain the stereo separation even in the small boom-box-style builds I have done but of course that could require an additional amp in your case. If you’re happy with the sound then good for you. It looks like it’s going to be a bullet-proof cabinet too.

Just out of curiosity, did you build the subwoofer section with the Focal driver to any sort of specification? EDIT- I see what you did in the original post.

Also, is that a 3-tap kegerator in your shop?

Yah only three taps for now. I home brew...I need to get another tap though...maybe fathers day! Its a 4 keg setup! How would I keep a stereo setup with my box? I could run the 6.5 on one channel and the two 3'' on the other??? any way its done!!! I'm real happy with how it came out. and sounds great! it look like I need to get a new battery... it was at full charge till I unplugged it now its only at 10.6v...

[Brian Steele]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

Nice work!

Yah only three taps for now. I home brew...I need to get another tap though...maybe fathers day! Its a 4 keg setup! How would I keep a stereo setup with my box? I could run the 6.5 on one channel and the two 3'' on the other???

Is that Lepai amplifier bridgeable?

If it wasn't, if I was in your shoes I'd be looking for a cheap or 2nd class D car audio sub amp to run the bass driver. Looks like you have enough space in the box to mount one too.

Great work!

[Danger dad]

Re: The Bose beater boom box

Thanks! I've herd that amp is not bridgeable, I just run a mono output from the player. I do have lots of room in the box to mount a small amp down the road. I will be using this for camping and in my shop till I get a new system. It is also a nice sound bar for the bedroom tv. The tone and volume is way more than I need. I can tell that the amp is starving for power with that old battery so I will find a replacement for that next. I do have one question though the box that the lepai came in says 2-8ohm and 9-14.4v. If that's the case then I could run two 2cell lipos batterys to run this.