Sound Deficient

cowgirl · Post by **cowgirl** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:03 pm

I need something simple, short and sweet. And have found out that it costs A LOT of money...

Looking for someone who is either not going this year and has some equipment to rent, or knows of a resource...

Needs... something like a MACKI 450 - self powered, built in amp, 500 watt thingy.

This is not for a sound camp, or DJ thing... its so I can play music for dancers.

Thank you very much...

*any leads are appreciated, this sound thing is new territory for me!*

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:32 pm

How do you plan on powering those 500w thingies (they can be sensitive to the quality of power)? They typically need XLR (balanced) cables, which at most means 1/4" outputs on your sound device if you have special cables (or 1/8" or 1/16" or RCA with special cables and the proper adapters). Who will be hooking up the cables and do they know what they are doing (so that the speakers won't be damaged)? Where would they be located on the Playa, and what are your plans in case of wind storm or rain? How are you going to prevent them from being stolen (and can you replace them if they do)? Where do you live, or would you want them brought to the Playa? And what kind of Dancers? Any websites? And who are you?

These are all things that a prospective loaner would want to know...after all, they do cost A LOT.

RegRad · Post by **RegRad** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 9:15 am

Also, as mentioned in a previous post..... 450 Mackie speakers will over heat in the desert, I know this because I have a pair of these at my work
and they do heat up just sitting inside a room. dragonfly Jafe is right aboubt the dust too.... That mackie would not last long on the playa!

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 10:25 pm

[quote="cowgirl"]I need something simple, short and sweet. And have found out that it costs A LOT of money...quote]

you might check out something I found today at a Kragen...a complete stereo speaker box with two 10" woofers and two tweeters (meant to go into the trunk/backseat of a "Boom Car") for only 40 clams! El cheapo but solid unit about 40"x15"x15", handles up to 700 watts input, and if it lasts just one burn you won't cry replacing someone's 1200 smacker Mackies. Get a thrift store stereo receiver/amp, some lengths of lamp cord for speaker wires and wala a budget easy dance music system.

cowgirl · Post by **cowgirl** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 9:13 am

*what kinda of dancers: Samba, Brazilian - dance classes and dance sessions as the sun goes down

*where - not sure, not in a theme camp

*in case of bad weather - i am bringing an rv and will keep it inside in case of foul weather

*the rest i need to think of as its monday morning and i just read all you replies.

***as for the boom box, do you think i'll get decent sound from that?

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 9:58 am

cowgirl wrote: ***as for the boom box, do you think i'll get decent sound from that?

~
We just finished hooking the picnic boom box to a much larger system. Sounds good to me. Sure you a better box but it's worth a try. Maybe a test run or two before heading for the playa.

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:34 pm

cowgirl wrote:***as for the boom box, do you think i'll get decent sound from that?

<clarification> The thing is a stereo "speaker box", no amps inside, just some spring terminals on the back to hook wires up to from an amp/receiver. Its like two 10" 2-way speakers layed end-to-end with the woofers in the middle, tweeters on the ends. Just fired it up here at home, sounds great! Better bass than my bookshelf Infinity's, not quite as rich as my 12" AR audiophile stuff, but decent oh yes and it cranks out VOLUME nicely. There's even a handle on top to help in carting the 40 lb thing around. Lean on earth-shattering bass but it might be better than I think as its late here and I can't really test it TOO loudly or the housemates will come with wirecutters heheh. Quiet orchestral/piano sounds realistic on it which says a lot...dollars per pound a good deal.

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:54 pm

Since it is meant for car use, it is probably 4 ohm already (2x 8ohm speakers in paralell), which means that they should work real well with a car stereo or amp (which is nice because they run off 12v without an invertor).

Take the speakers mentioned, add either a "quality" boombox (one with at least 20w power hopefully) or better yet make your own with a car stereo and a 12v deep cycle battery for power, and you should be good for several hours depending on how loud you play (you can add more batteries for more time). If you already have a music source (say an MP3 player), just get a car amp instead of a full stereo. This will be your cheapest solution (unless you can borrow a full system from someone...) and should sound decent. And as mentioned, you won't be trashing an expensive system or getting it stolen.

cowgirl · Post by **cowgirl** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:58 am

you guys are wonderful!

i'm going to make a trip to kragen to check this out... since i have an mp3 player/ cd player, it'll make things easier, no?

so - in layman's terms... the speakers and car amp are the same? and they can just be plugged into the mp3?

*honestly i don't mean to sound so inexperienced on this topic, but its true...**

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 11:10 am

dragonfly Jafe wrote:Since it is meant for car use, it is probably 4 ohm already ...

Correct! Tis indeed 4 ohm. Once unpacked its about 36"x12"x12" and yes I weighed it out of curiosity and its right about 40 pounds. Aurgh! Cheapy paper cone speakers of course with pretty chromed plastic accents : )

So Cowgirl, like dragonfly Jafe says, you can power a speaker box with either a boom box that has speaker output connectors or a car stereo (off a battery) or a home receiver (off 120AC or 12v with an inverter) as long as whatever you use has an aux. input to plug your MP3 or cd player headphone output into. You can't power the speakerbox directly out of a headphone jack though (yeah this seems obvious but people have tried), it needs that stereo/radio/whatever in-between the headphone outputs of the MP3 and the speakers.

In fact...I'm tempted to mount a car stereo receiver/amp inside the top of mine...hmmm lots of room looks like...have to think about this...

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:10 am

Go to "radio shazz" or some other electronics parts store and get an adapter and a stereo RCA cable (if you don't already). The RCA cable is one of those cables that hooks all the stereo stuff together, with 2 connectors on each end (one of which is always black, the other red or white). The adapter you need is is the "headphone > stereo RCA" (either 1/16" submini or 1/8" mini depending on your headphone jack. bring your player to be sure) ... this costs about $3 and is about an inch long. This will plug into your mp3 player, then allow you to hook the RCA cabls into the adapter (if your mp3 or CD player has RCA output plugs, ignore this step and use those instead).

Your car stereo or amp should have RCA inputs (usually marked "aux.input") - this is where the other end of the RCA cable goes. Now hook up the speakers to the amp.

When you first try it, turn on the MP3 player first, then the amp (sometimes a turn-on "click" in the player will cause a loud "thump" which can damage your speakers). When you first start playing music, turn the volume all the way down. Then slowly turn it up until you can hear the music, and adjust accordingly. If you cannot get the music loud enough (assuming you have at least 20watts of amp power), you may need a pre-amp to boost the headphone signal. If the signal is too loud at any setting, you can get an "attenuation" cable that plugs into the headphone jack, then the headphone>RCA adaptor goes into that (it drops the signal 10dB).

If you are looking for spine-tingling highs and heart-stopping bass for a crowd of 500, you probably won't get it with this system (but that would take at least $1000 to get). But if you just want to play music at decent levels for a small performance, then this should work fine (and probably for less than $100 total cost, and it runs off a quiet 12v car battery).

cowgirl · Post by **cowgirl** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:12 am

i'm going to the store this weekend to check out all this stuff...

am i on my way to becoming an audio geek?

just kidding, i don't think so...

AbsolutJeenyus · Post by **AbsolutJeenyus** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:22 pm

[quote]Needs... something like a MACKI 450 - self powered, built in amp, 500 watt thingy. [/quote]
Now dont take this the wrong way or anything but.... "Thingy"? If youi dont know what your dealing with, I cant see someone renting it to you. Maybe a sound store that does rentals is a better bet.

[quote]This is not for a sound camp, or DJ thing... its so I can play music for dancers. [/quote]
Correct me if Im wrong but doesnt a sound camp play music for dancers? And ummmmm maybe Im trppi but dont DJs play music for daners.

Sorry Im just a dick...

AbsolutJeenyus · Post by **AbsolutJeenyus** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:24 pm

[quote="RegRad"]Also, as mentioned in a previous post..... 450 Mackie speakers will over heat in the desert, I know this because I have a pair of these at my work
and they do heat up just sitting inside a room. dragonfly Jafe is right aboubt the dust too.... That mackie would not last long on the playa! :([/quote]

Use reflective sheets and padding over the speakers. Takes away like half the heat. :wink:

Ats what we used for our desert parties.

shitmouse · Post by **shitmouse** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 6:09 pm

hey CG,

did you find your sound answers, and or equipment??

i recently bought a gemini xtr-400 set up. it packs into itself (strap the speakers on top of the sub cab). it's all powered, so you get to ditch the expense of the amp.

if you look in the right places (http://www.sixstardj.com/gemxtr400sys.html) you can get the stands for free.
it's a bit heavy and to tell you the truth the sub cabinet was much larger than i thought it would be, and might be too large for your needs, but i thought i'd offer up the suggestion just the same.

-- you can get a small Berringer mixer for $49. bucks through www.partsexpress, and "speak-on" cables at any of the sound houses.

not a bad price for the system really. PM or email me if you need any further help, or we can always meet up at the rio for audio/beers)
-b

cowgirl · Post by **cowgirl** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:19 am

hey shitm....

i'll be vacating the hood aug. 7 ... so drinks at the rio are in order! and conveniently kragen is just next door...

all this sound geek talk is making my visually minded brain implode.

shitmouse · Post by **shitmouse** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:43 pm

good to hear about the move, (email me deets)
you know we're doing the same.

if you would want to stop by some night i can show you the rig. (super simple)

would love to get some music refs from you as well. (rio yes)
cheers,
-b

cowgirl · Post by **cowgirl** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 9:40 am

to all who helped me out on this forum....

so i have now a kragen 700 watt (although i'm not going to go up to 700 watts!) speaker....

going to plug it into a mackie amp and mixer and then a portable cd player.

and hoping the damned thing works!

thanks again for the tips and tricks.

zorro sings · Post by **zorro sings** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 4:13 pm

I am happy Cowgirl got her speakers and is pleased. I am a bit. surprised though at the lack of any defense for the Mackie 450s.They are desert warriors!!!Just need to run a fan behind them for cooling and no worries.This will be the 4th year for same pair of Mackies at our camp and won't be switching anytime soon.

Sound Deficient

Sound Deficient

Re: Sound Deficient

thats allotta info.. thank you..

Re: thats allotta info.. thank you..

Re: thats allotta info.. thank you..

wow...

thanks guys!

yeah!

update