# Help building a portable bluetooth box



## Kyleag89 (8 mo ago)

Let me start off by saying I'm far from an expert but I'm spending as much time as I can learning. I have extra parts left from various projects I've completed and decided to make a large bluetooth speaker box. Ideally I want to have 6.5" speakers(Already have several pairs 4 and 8ohm), 2 tweeters, and 1 6.5" subwoofer. I work remodeling kitchens and bathrooms so building a box isn't the issue but finding and deciding how to amp these speakers is. I would like to utilize a 7 band EQ with a bluetooth receiver as its source. The EQ has 2 rca inputs so I could add a female aux port as the second input and mount the port next to EQ in the box. That leaves me with 3 pairs of rca outputs front, rear, and a 120hz lpf subwoofer output. From there my two ideas are as follows:

1- Use a 65w rms x4 car amplifier I have extra with speakers/tweeters on ch.1 & ch. 2 and subwoofer on 3&4 bridged. I think the power supply will be the hard part and both items are rather large/heavy for the application. 

2- Use one or 2 class d amp boards from ebay or Banggood. The upside to these would be space/weight savings and I can also easily run them from a lithium battery pack. 

I would like to hear your input on whether this idea sounds crazy ot is feasible? I would also like some suggestions on which amp boards to use? Ive been looking at these:








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## khlae (Dec 31, 2016)

You should also take a look into plate amplifiers. You can get a 2.1 channel plate amp with EQ relatively easily from like parts express (no guarantee if the cheap ones are any good since I haven't used those).

Bare amplifier boards that you don't have any published real world measured specs for are a bit hit or miss and there's a lot of possible options.


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## Grinder (Dec 18, 2016)

Here are some more class d amp board options (if you're not familiar with them, Parts Express is great):





Home


Pre-assembled amplifier boards and modules are a great alternative to starting from scratch. Available now at Parts Express




www.parts-express.com





Several years ago I built a car-audio-based boombox (two 6.5" coax, one 8" sub, 400w class d 4-channel car amp, 700 watt PC power supply, MDF cabinet). It's got impressive output, even outdoors, but it's a fairly big and heavy beast (currently semi-permanently mounted to a hand truck), and requires AC power.

It works fine for my purposes, but for greater portability I'd trade a bit of output for greater efficiency of amp boards, vented 2-way instead of coaxes + sub, and lighter plywood construction.


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## Kyleag89 (8 mo ago)

I built a 20"x8"x9" sealed 3/4 MDF box with 2 6.5" pioneer 3 way coaxials for my garage. It is very heavy and wouldn't be very portable after adding more speakers and gear! Lol What type and thickness plywood would you recommend for this project? 

I have ordered from parts express once before when I made some RCA cables for my truck. Ill take a look at their amps but if I remember they were pretty expensive. I have a tb21 2.1ch 50w x2 with 100w sub amplifier from ebay and have been impressed with that. Williston audio labs on youtube has a few videos reviewing some ebay amps and thats how I came across the 2 listed in my OP. The downside is the lack of information out there as khlae said in his post. The higher prices from parts express might be worth it for instructions alone! Lol 

The gear I planned on using in this build is 2 6.5" Skar mid bass woofers, 2 Timpano TPT-ST4 super tweeters, and either a 6.5" or 8" subwoofer i haven't purchased yet. I also would like to use a Skar 7 band EQ but if the amp has eq built in I wont.


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## SHAGGS (Apr 24, 2011)

Here's a recent build that might help with ideas and parts list.









DIY Bluetooth speaker for daughter


Haven’t done a diy audio project since the BMW M3 of a number of years ago. This mini project is going to be daughters first stereo. She’s coming up on 9 and is into playing piano / keyboard and dancing ballet and hip hop. I want to build a semi portable Bluetooth speaker with enough power to...




www.diymobileaudio.com





Also there's a ton of Youtube tutorials on building them. (I've been sucked down that rabbit hole)


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## Grinder (Dec 18, 2016)

Kyleag89 said:


> I built a 20"x8"x9" sealed 3/4 MDF box with 2 6.5" pioneer 3 way coaxials for my garage. It is very heavy and wouldn't be very portable after adding more speakers and gear! Lol What type and thickness plywood would you recommend for this project?
> 
> I have ordered from parts express once before when I made some RCA cables for my truck. Ill take a look at their amps but if I remember they were pretty expensive. I have a tb21 2.1ch 50w x2 with 100w sub amplifier from ebay and have been impressed with that. Williston audio labs on youtube has a few videos reviewing some ebay amps and thats how I came across the 2 listed in my OP. The downside is the lack of information out there as khlae said in his post. The higher prices from parts express might be worth it for instructions alone! Lol
> 
> The gear I planned on using in this build is 2 6.5" Skar mid bass woofers, 2 Timpano TPT-ST4 super tweeters, and either a 6.5" or 8" subwoofer i haven't purchased yet. I also would like to use a Skar 7 band EQ but if the amp has eq built in I wont.


I would use 1/2" plywood with bracing as needed.
I think bullet tweeters would be painful overkill.

Here's my boombox project. My car audio boombox project
Recently upgraded from Skar IX-8 to awesome Dayton HF: Home

Here's some additional inspiration:





Portable | Parts Express Project Gallery







projectgallery.parts-express.com









Bookshelf | Parts Express Project Gallery







projectgallery.parts-express.com









Home


Build your own speaker or subwoofer! Whether you're an experienced hobbyist, customization pro, or DIY electronics fan, these kit bundles are a great buy.




www.parts-express.com


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## Kyleag89 (8 mo ago)

Thank you Grinder, you have given me a lot to look at and have convinced me into changing my mind. I was second guessing the super tweeters already and only considered using them since I have an extra pair.


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## mdnky (Feb 5, 2009)

Grinder said:


> Here are some more class d amp board options (if you're not familiar with them, Parts Express is great):
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'll second this. The KAB boards from Dayton are exactly the kind of product to use in this application and much better for this purpose than an automotive style amp. Added benefit of DSP on some of their boards is a nice touch and may be useful. PE also sells the the IcePower boards, which are also excellent and used in/by more than a few higer-end products/manufacturers (B&O, PS Audio, Rotel, Emotive, Alpine, Yamaha, etc.).


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