Battery powered sound system

[dupont]

As an alternative to an all in one solution. Large capacity battery packs (say 250+ watt hours) can be found fairly cheap online. With one of those, I'm able to run a single Yamaha DBR12 for a few hours at a decent volume, and it's likely cheaper than a full minirig setup (cool little speakers, but quite expensive).

Can you send a link to this kind of battery ?

[vurt]

all through lockdown, there were regular, small scale gatherings around here, out the back of someone's car.

they'd get a good few hours of booming bass and still be able to start the car afterwards.

[dupont]

A 2.1 0r 2.2 Minirig setup.
They're pretty much designed to do what you want to do.

interseting indeed but no more stock on minirig site.

[ghettosynth]

all through lockdown, there were regular, small scale gatherings around here, out the back of someone's car.

they'd get a good few hours of booming bass and still be able to start the car afterwards.

Yes, but this is really a bit different as you have a lot of current to work with there. Also, there is some advantage to having the back of the car as something of a bass cabinet.

This gives you 300Wh or so for $300.

https://www.jackery.com/products/explor ... er-station

That's 300 Watts for an hour with the built in battery, but they're almost always a bit overzealous with the ratings. The small honda 2Kw inverter generators are really popular for this sort of thing. I was easily able to power my old system with passive 18s" and 15+horn tops driven by class AB Mackie with a 5Kw portable generator, for some definition of portable. I would probably be ok with a 2Kw for my current smaller system with powered tops and only one smaller sub, with the sub using a class D amp.

https://powerequipment.honda.com/genera ... ls/EU2200i

I drove around burning man with a set of computer speakers with sub mounted on a bicycle with a motorcycle battery mounted in the sub. We'd go all day with that. It was great for riding around, or a sit-around the bike and chill for three to five people. Get 10 feet away and the bass went to shit.

[vurt]

all through lockdown, there were regular, small scale gatherings around here, out the back of someone's car.

they'd get a good few hours of booming bass and still be able to start the car afterwards.

Yes, but this is really a bit different as you have a lot of current to work with there. Also, there is some advantage to having the back of the car as something of a bass cabinet.

well i was thinking, just do it in the car park

[dupont]

This gives you 300Wh or so for $300.

Thanks for the links.
Which battery life expectation with 300Wh for a 800 W RMS speaker ?

[Schmidi]

So if you were truly drawing 800w, it would be 300w (the battery pack) divided by 800w = 0.375, or under 30 minutes.

There are packs that go up to 5,000 watt hours, but they are pricey and very heavy.

You gotta balance the speaker vs the battery, vs the volume level you need for your get together, but it's doable.

[ghettosynth]

So if you were truly drawing 800w, it would be 300w (the battery pack) divided by 800w = 0.375, or under 30 minutes.

There are packs that go up to 5,000 watt hours, but they are pricey and very heavy.

You gotta balance the speaker vs the battery, vs the volume level you need for your get together, but it's doable.

There's no way that a system that is rated at 800W RMS with some horrible distortion will be producing 800W RMS constantly. Moreover, that's power to the speakers, not power draw, which will be greater. That said, most modern systems are class D which is reasonably efficient.

I'm going to make up a rule of thumb based on my own experience, it has a bit of an odor because of where I'm getting it from. Divide the max RMS rating by 5 and that's your power draw.

So figure 160 Watts and you should have some room for a few constant draw devices. Figure that the 300 watts is slightly optimistic and expect between one and two hours depending on actual volume and the nature of the music.

[BONES]

I went through this last year, I wanted to get a small, portable PA for us to use in rehearsal. I listened to a few actual PA systems under US$750 and they all sounded pretty weak in the bottom end and I gave up the idea for a while. Then I saw a JBL BOOMBOX in a shop and tired it out. Holy f**k! Those things are amazing - huge bass and a really good sound, even at high volume. The battery is rated for 24 hours, which means you'd easily get 3 or 4 at high volume. It has BT and a mini-jack, so you can connect directly to it. I bought it immediately and it's been fantastic. You can watch a comparison review of it here, against the party 110s you're thinking of -

What I like about it is how quick and easy it makes setting up. We rehearse in an office so we mostly only have it at around half volume and it's plenty. Outside you can crank it and it will amaze you. The design will also give you a naturally wider sound, which might work better than the Party 110. But you definitely need to check it out.

[Schmidi]

So if you were truly drawing 800w, it would be 300w (the battery pack) divided by 800w = 0.375, or under 30 minutes.

There are packs that go up to 5,000 watt hours, but they are pricey and very heavy.

You gotta balance the speaker vs the battery, vs the volume level you need for your get together, but it's doable.

There's no way that a system that is rated at 800W RMS with some horrible distortion will be producing 800W RMS constantly. Moreover, that's power to the speakers, not power draw, which will be greater. That said, most modern systems are class D which is reasonably efficient.

I'm going to make up a rule of thumb based on my own experience, it has a bit of an odor because of where I'm getting it from. Divide the max RMS rating by 5 and that's your power draw.

So figure 160 Watts and you should have some room for a few constant draw devices. Figure that the 300 watts is slightly optimistic and expect between one and two hours depending on actual volume and the nature of the music.

I agree, that's why I said "if you were truly drawing 800w".

[dupont]

I went through this last year, I wanted to get a small, portable PA for us to use in rehearsal. I listened to a few actual PA systems under US$750 and they all sounded pretty weak in the bottom end and I gave up the idea for a while. Then I saw a JBL BOOMBOX in a shop and tired it out. Holy f**k! Those things are amazing - huge bass and a really good sound, even at high volume. The battery is rated for 24 hours, which means you'd easily get 3 or 4 at high volume. It has BT and a mini-jack, so you can connect directly to it. I bought it immediately and it's been fantastic. You can watch a comparison review of it here, against the party 110s you're thinking of -

What I like about it is how quick and easy it makes setting up. We rehearse in an office so we mostly only have it at around half volume and it's plenty. Outside you can crank it and it will amaze you. The design will also give you a naturally wider sound, which might work better than the Party 110. But you definitely need to check it out.

Hum, I can't get hands on a 310 but my local store has 2 JBLs 110 in stock.
I went there and connected my android device, I agree, full of bass, and quite loud at half volume; I asked to make a test at full volume but the shop owner prefered not because they were several people on the shop, which is fair.
So 3 days left before music day so i have to make a decision (and finished to make audio items in Bitwig !)
One think annoys me with JBL party is that you can't replace the battery and after a couple of years the battery life time will dramatically be reduced, so my 380 € speaker will no more be portable by will only run on AC.

[BONES]

I had that problem with my Onyx Studio and once it needed to be plugged in, I pretty much never used it again.

[dupont]

I had that problem with my Onyx Studio and once it needed to be plugged in, I pretty much never used it again.

well pointed.
I phoned a pro sound system hirer and he told he stopped to hire battery powered speaker because of there power efficiency which quickly decrease until no juce comes out of it .

[BONES]

There are good and bad. I've had an Infinity One for 6 or 7 years now and it's going great. I still get 4 or 5 hours of listening at moderate volume. I love that thing to death - it's an incrediblel piece of industrial design and it sounds amazing. It's nowhere near big enough for your needs but for listening to music while cooking on teh BBQ, it's brilliant.

[dupont]

Finally purchased a JBL party 110.
After some tests, sound is impressive for an average speaker.
Sound can be boomy.
I tried the live set I will play tomorrow during music fest in the street.
I plugged the audio output of my laptop to the audio in of the JBL.
No need to take my audio interface, that's enought to run bitwig. Laptop on Linux.