High Powered Speaker Cooler Box Build!!

[Oraclem19]

Unless you plan on making this cooler waterborne, amps outside on the back side of the cooler, lay the battery and deck down in the bottom under plexiglass and silicone, front of the deck sticking out of the bottom, and a charging port for the battery that has a sealable plug. Plastic baffles and silicone all around. Might reccommend all the equipment on the top of the cooler though, 2 8s or 1 8shallow and the 6.5s and tweets, whole thing. Upwards facing will disperse sound better and be easier to use the space in the cooler.

If you plan on it seeing a lot of water, mount all the speakers up top, mount amps on the underside of the lid, add plexiglass all around and silicone, fans going out the top of the box with some foam mesh filters to avoid water getting in from splashes.

 

[Only The Best 10+ year member]

Unless you plan on making this cooler waterborne, amps outside on the back side of the cooler, lay the battery and deck down in the bottom under plexiglass and silicone, front of the deck sticking out of the bottom, and a charging port for the battery that has a sealable plug. Plastic baffles and silicone all around. Might reccommend all the equipment on the top of the cooler though, 2 8s or 1 8shallow and the 6.5s and tweets, whole thing. Upwards facing will disperse sound better and be easier to use the space in the cooler.If you plan on it seeing a lot of water, mount all the speakers up top, mount amps on the underside of the lid, add plexiglass all around and silicone, fans going out the top of the box with some foam mesh filters to avoid water getting in from splashes.

you know I thought about doing that considering the lid would be pretty tight because of the weight... but there is not enough room for ALL of the equipment to go on the top and if you follow the link to the cooler you see what the top of the cooler looks like. I like that idea of having everything on the top but opening the cooler would be difficult from the plexiglass possibly hitting the edges when you open it as well as being difficult to open the cooler to get the drinks while on the river without having to put a lot of muscle into it.... and to "aim" the music in one direction to not **** any of my "neighbors" off" but yes my plan is to make this cooler waterproof... no im not planning on submerging this cooler underwater but I want this to be as waterproof as possible for worst case scenarios. everything I listed is what I bought and have in my possession so there will be no change in equipment.... possibly adding to the equipment if the idea is good. my concern for the amp is that it is not a marine amplifier so I want it to be completely sealed from all possible water or moisture...

 

[Only The Best 10+ year member]

Would it not be easier to make a baffle for the subwoofer out of a plastic, possibly filled with polyfil if extra space is needed for the woofer requirements, do push contact terminals on the outside of the plastic, after the cables are connected fill the connecting hole with hot glue, then figure the amp wiring and such.Would also make an entirely separate compartment for the amps, it will likely get humid in there though. Might be better to attach those to the top of the box in an airtight chamber. Else, Silica packets, lots of them.

the only reason I didn't do plastic baffle for the sub was because I was led to believe that it could possibly rattle and foam would more or less absorb the hit... but the polyfil would work good.. my only question is that "would the polyfil go into the mechanics of the sub or somehow go in behind the cone and mess something up"? but the silica packets is a great idea and will be used for sure reguardless... on the humid part im wondering if I can insulate it somehow... but the more I think about doing that the more I worry about overheating the amplifier.

 

[Oraclem19]

Plastic baffle enclosure, emphasis on enclosure. Will keep all the sound in, the water out.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

I'm sorry, but there's no way that cooler is going to be large enough. You may have placed all of the equipment in, and it may fit, but have you thought about what kind of airspace you're going to need for the sub and speakers? You can't just put a baffle right behind the magnet and call it good. Even with a 100+ qt cooler, you'd be pushing it to fit everything inside with the proper space and still have room for drinks. And that's before you even consider the task of actually constructing the thing and sealing all of your little chambers up so that absolutely no moisture can get to the electronics. Granted, there are marine amps out there as well that you could use to make it a little safer, but that's an awful lot of money to risk for a bit of cool factor.

My advice, just get something like THIS. They make old-school looking boomboxes too. That way you can just plug in your phone or an ipod, you don't have to go through all the hassle and the worry, and you have more room for beer.

 

[Oraclem19]

Else I have a set of 6.5 subs that need .15-.25 cu ft that might fit your needs and I'm not deadset on holding onto.

 

[Only The Best 10+ year member]

I'm sorry, but there's no way that cooler is going to be large enough. You may have placed all of the equipment in, and it may fit, but have you thought about what kind of airspace you're going to need for the sub and speakers? You can't just put a baffle right behind the magnet and call it good. Even with a 100+ qt cooler, you'd be pushing it to fit everything inside with the proper space and still have room for drinks. And that's before you even consider the task of actually constructing the thing and sealing all of your little chambers up so that absolutely no moisture can get to the electronics. Granted, there are marine amps out there as well that you could use to make it a little safer, but that's an awful lot of money to risk for a bit of cool factor.
My advice, just get something like THIS. They make old-school looking boomboxes too. That way you can just plug in your phone or an ipod, you don't have to go through all the hassle and the worry, and you have more room for beer.

well reguardless if you think its a lot of money to waste or not... its not your money... so don't worry about it. the speakers don't need airspace behind them but the sub needs .66 cu ft of airspace which I will give it. im more or less looking for help on how to make it work... not to tell me that it wont. im going to build it. help me or get off the thread im sorry.

 

---------- Post added at 04:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:13 AM ----------

 

Else I have a set of 6.5 subs that need .15-.25 cu ft that might fit your needs and I'm not deadset on holding onto.

what are they? and send me some pics/ price/ specs

 

[Oraclem19]

time constraining on this.? may do it all up in sketchup on some spared time.

 

[Lexicon740iL 10+ year member]

I was going to build one of these for tubing back in the day and a friend asked me to put together one as well recently.

After considering. cooler size, Water proofing, heat generated by equiptment in proximity beer trying to be cooled. Weigh of battery required to run amp/HU.

I decided to scrap the idea after deciding there are many other options to get good waterproof sounds on the river without designing them yourself and hope the seals hold or you don't lose your investment to water damage.



Like this one above... Water proof buttons for adjusting tracks, Completely submersible....

You could use a pair of these and daisy chain them together. Mount one to both sides of the cooler so you can remove them for more flexibility for other adventures. Get a 1/8" headphone splitter and hook it into you MP3 player.Phone and get a couple of waterproof grommets and jump the audio feed into the other unit.

The video says 4 C batteries, that's 6V so I would use a 6V 14ah sealed lead acid battery

It's light and will provide 14,000 MaH of capacity to the units. A whole lot more than a set of C's

I would put it in a separate sealed compartment mounted to one of the shorter sides of the cooler.

Then wire leads from the battery to the terminal points in the battery compartment of the players. Personally I would use alligator clips to make it modular/Flexable for disassembly/standalone use.

The water proof buttons especially stand out to me for your application because

If your hands are wet and you adjust a standard even marine headunit you could short that bad boy right out.

In the end the biggest contributing factor in deciding to go with a standalone waterproof audio option was.. I have more room for beer in the cooler //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Best of luck on your endeavor which ever way you go.

 

[Only The Best 10+ year member]

yeah I want it to be where the only thing I ever have to do is pull a plug out and plug it into the wall to charge it. I don't want to have to disassemble it to turn it off and / or charge it.... would a small kinetic battery hold a charge longer than a small lawnmower battery would?

I know that the audio batterys charge better but idk if they hold the charge longer... I need to figure out what battery im going to stick with....

and on another note.. I;ve hooked up the tweeter and it gets pretty piercing at the high frequencies and I was wondering what I need to hook up to it to keep it from hitting those high frequencies to stop the piercing noise

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

You're a jumpy little **** aren't you? Regardless of what you may think, going through the logistics IS helping you. All I was saying is that you need to think through every aspect of this if you're going to try to build it. 70 qts is only 2.34 cubic feet. One case of beer is going to knock 1 cuft off of that on its own (and that's without ice), leaving only 1.34 cubes left for all of your equipment. You're going to have to choose your equipment very carefully, and I would definitely go with all marine-oriented stuff. Find something that does well on low power and get an amplifier small enough that you can mount it vertically in the cooler to minimize the space it takes up. And all speakers need some amount of airspace to work properly, even if it's only .25 cuft for the pair.

IF you're going to try this, these are things you NEED to think about. I would, at the very least, use a 100+qt cooler because the extra space will give you more flexibility.

well reguardless if you think its a lot of money to waste or not... its not your money... so don't worry about it. the speakers don't need airspace behind them but the sub needs .66 cu ft of airspace which I will give it. im more or less looking for help on how to make it work... not to tell me that it wont. im going to build it. help me or get off the thread im sorry.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

For example, something like the Memphis 16-MM5.480 would be a good amp for this project. It's a 4-channel amp, so 2 can power the speakers, and you can bridge the other 2 to give about 250w to an S4 or D2 sub. It is a marine amp, so it has water resistant circuit boards, and the footprint is only 10 x 7 x 2", so you could mount it vertically.

There are plenty of companies that make speakers and subs for marine use. I would also recommend a sealed marine battery like an Optima (those are pretty expensive, but something similar).

 

[RangerDangerV2 5,000+ posts]

this is a really dumb idea. buy a jobsite radio and call it a day. will be cheaper and better.

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

How to Build an Ice Chest Radio: Ice Chest Radio

 

[Only The Best 10+ year member]

For example, something like the Memphis 16-MM5.480 would be a good amp for this project. It's a 4-channel amp, so 2 can power the speakers, and you can bridge the other 2 to give about 250w to an S4 or D2 sub. It is a marine amp, so it has water resistant circuit boards, and the footprint is only 10 x 7 x 2", so you could mount it vertically.
There are plenty of companies that make speakers and subs for marine use. I would also recommend a sealed marine battery like an Optima (those are pretty expensive, but something similar).

everything I am going to use for the build is listed on my first post and half of the equipment I already have so that's why I was using that. I have the marine polk audio 6.5" and 10" sub... im not caring about the airspace for the sub I just want the bass that I can get out of it. yes I know im going to choke the sub but its what im going to do. I know its a dumb idea and a waste of money but I am going to waste my money reguardless... so for all who think that im just wasting my money... help me waste it in the best fashion //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif and I looked into the battery thing and went to o'reilly and they recommended a agm marine battery that ended up to be 155$... looking for something possibly under 50$... I was thinking possibly for something used if I can find it...