Home/Car Speaker Opinions

[jokers]

Good day I have decided to turn a little cabinet that I purchased into a stand alone "entertainment center" / speaker I am thinking of putting a web controlled radio (Rune Audio) and an AUX input into it.
I need your opinions on speakers, amplifiers and maybe power supplies. I would like this to sound like a million dollars but cost significantly less then that. I would not be adverse to putting car stereo speakers in. If someone knows of some good speakers planar, cone, exciter or something else please let me know if the cost if higher but your get a lot more quality for that cost I would like to know. If I have to tear apart something for the speaker I am interested in that as well.
In a similar fashion if you know of a good amplifier DC, AC or other, that puts out a lot of power and good sound for the money I would like to know about it. If the amplifier is DC power if you happen to know of a good DC power supply let me know as well. If you have thoughts on this I would love to hear them. While I love the sound of tube amps I am not sure I want to tear this apart more then once every 2 years and would like to leave it powered on so tubes might be out. Granted it will not be moving much so tubes still might be in just not sure.
While the image does not look like it the cabinet is a decent height apx 3 foot tall and I would say the hole could fit a 6 x 9 speaker if it was put straight into it. I am thinking of having speaker fabric over it and having the speakers at an angle.

[Daltech]

Put the biggest Bose speaker that fits in it. Bluetooth and aux inputs. Best you’re gonna get. Don’t waste your time building anything. You’re not gonna master the art of physics and master level carpentry at this point. Tube amplifier will catch on fire. You’re not going to be able to put car speakers or any speakers for that matter that will sound better than a Bose dock. Just pony up the $500 Bose dock and cry one instead of crying every time the speakers stop working.

[FredMnkyDad10]

I am not a fan of Bose. I have heard lots of them that when you get them home, they do not sound that great. This is including in my parents home.

I am fan of Polk, Klipsch and Infiniti. Infiniti for both home and car.

[maggot]

Totally agree, they're all marketing

[Daltech]

Just get this and thank me later.

[maggot]

I think the challenge you might run into with this project is with rattling/vibration. Will need some foam "feet" for it and to make sure everything is nice and tight (nothing just sitting on top of it).

[Daltech]

Yeah, Bose sound horrible compared to a $7,000 planar speaker with a $5,000 preamplifier and a $2,400 DAC. But compared to Klipsch/pshhhhit and Polks are decent, infinity is cool. JL and Alpine used to be tops. Honestly if you ask 10 random if they could tell the difference, they couldn’t.

[jokers]

I know I could just hide a speaker inside this box and it would be done in a day but I enjoy a little bit of a challenge and think this could be one. I am not expecting it to put out more sound then the Bose speaker or sound better since I will not be using a wave guide or tuning the speakers short of putting dampening material behind them or building the speaker a sealed or ported box.
I know that Bose put a lot of research into tuning their sound signature to be pleasing to the vast majority of people and they do sound good so I am not expecting to beat them just use them as a goal.

I do think Daltech makes a great point however, so I think I will set a cap of $300 dollars on this since a ready solution is available a little above that price point.

In regards to maggot's concern I may just have to build the interior and then line it with a "dynamat" like something to keep the sound vibrations down since this is old wood and you can only tighten screws so much before they strip.

What about Dalton Planar tweeter/ mids there are some from parts express for cheap and I am thinking they might be cheap for a reason. I have used their exciter speakers before and they worked okay they were not the greatest speaker ever made but it worked for another project I was working on.

I will check out Infinity, Polk and Klipsch and see if I cant find something broken that I can salvage the speakers from or a good deal on one of them.

Any thoughts on amplifiers? I know I kind of need to pick speakers since if i choose a 180 watt speaker I will need to power it vs a 35 watt speaker will not need as large of amp.

As far as audio I am thinking of getting a Raspberry pi or similar and loading Rune Audio on it, I would then have a wifi speaker and if I go with a 4 or something along those lines it could have bluetooth as well.

I will also start digging in my parts bins i know i used to have a couple of car amps and could swear I had a pair of 6.5 speakers that were Focal knockoffs that I got at a garage sale or something like that. I will be testing them before I decide to use them so I do not waste to much time with them.

Thank you so much for all the thoughts, concerns and suggestions I really appreciate them.

[djeclypse]

Come over to AudioKarma.org. I'd just as soon ask someone there to tune an autococker as I would ask someone here to custom build an audio cabinet.

[Tarsun2]

ok, if you want a challenge, want it to sound "decent", and want to keep cost down; just get a JBL blue tooth speaker as a base. take it all apart and mount everything individually inside your case/stand. They have tons of options and sizes to choose from, will still require some fabrication, will be portable, and everything is already there. (speakers, b-tooth controller, battery, amp....)

honestly, none of the above comments matter if youre like me and still listen to MP3's and compressed music... lol
if youre on the fringe level of audiophile, that setup is doomed from the start and will never sound great.

ill see if can find the link from a guy who tried to build the best speakers he could starting from scratch. he went into the amps, speakers, and all the components...

[BrickHaus]

I have a similar project in que. I have a grundig record console i want to mount a new turn table, Amp, and speakers in the case for my wife. For now, I got nothing for ya, but I'm posting to see where this goes.

[Daltech]

jokers I see what your doing here, and I like the idea of salvaging from garage sale/Craigslist parts. Perhaps building an insert that fits directly into the cavity made out of MDF, that way you could punch a circle in it for speakers and have them recessed to fit and also contain the media server and amplifier. It would also allow you to run wiring and make it serviceable if you made an interior frame, maybe just a framing, but I feel a closed MDF box would deliver best results. Dang, you really got my curiosity going. I’ve seen items such as these at flea markets. They look sweet. Perfect for a nice looking room.

[Daltech]

It’d basically be a mini car stereo system in a box with an AC-DC converter so you could plug it into the wall.

[The Inflicted]

For my wife's Christmas present this year I bought, refinished, and re-fitted this old mid-century RCA record cabinet.
I know next to nothing about audio gear, so my build was very simple. The factory 9x6 speakers were poor, there were only two, both 2-way units with woofers and mids. I replaced them with Infinty Reference 3-way car speakers of the same size. The factory amp and record changer were still mostly working but didn't do what I needed, so I disconnected the amp and left it in place and replaced the record player with an Orbit U-Turn, mostly because I had limited space to work with and needed all the controls to be upward-facing.

The guts of the unit are an Arylic A50+, which is bluetooth and wifi capable. Using a phone app it does all the usual streaming tricks. It has its own remote but I used a cheap IR-extender gizmo glued to the bottom so that the unit can stay hidden deep inside.

Wife was thrilled and I'm overall pleased with how all this stuff works together. Speakers sound great but there's a quiet but noticeable hiss from the amp if there's no other sound. I've tried multiple speakers and wiring solutions but nothing has totally made it go away. There's always enough noise in the living room between the fan, A/C, and toddler that it's I usually can't notice it, and no one else but me seems to even be aware the hiss is there.

The other neat thing about the Arylic stuff is that I bought another, cheaper Arylic (no amp, just audio out) which I've used to rig up the outdoor sound system that came with our house. Now I can listen to a vinyl record and have it play either indoors, outdoors, or both.

[BrickHaus]

I have a Grundig unit much like this. Though, I wanted to replace th le Amp as well as the speakers. Mine doesn't seen to power up at all.

[Tarsun2]

found the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEspOD1NHr0