Portable speaker box/chuchero

[Ben1407]

Hey sorry if I’m asking dumb questions I’m relatively new to car audio and I’ve tried to do my research but I just can’t find what I’m looking for, I’m trying to build a box that has 2/0 quick disconnect connectors and rca cable connections on the outside so that I can remove the box from the car with ease and I was going to put the amplifier and a spare deep cell battery on an isolator in the box with a Bluetooth receiver so that I can use it as a portable Bluetooth speaker or an in car speaker box if I want my only issue is finding a power source capable of holding enough charge to power the box for awhile after I remove it from the car I want to put 4 skar sk8m marine 8 inch speakers, and 4 audio legion 1 inch high compression drivers, connected to a skar 1000 watt 4 channel marine amplifier, the skar speakers draw 250 watts each and I was going to put 2 speakers on one output in parallel and the high compression drivers draw 150 watts and I was going to do 2 per output as well, so in total I’d draw about 800 rms, so in an ideal world I’d draw 66 amps, not accounting for parasitic draw ofcoarse, the highest amp hour deep cycle I could find is 400 amp hours and it’s absolutely massive and weighs a ton and cost even more, and in an ideal world not accounting for the fact that you can’t really draw a deep cycle to a complete drain I’d get 6 hours of playtime. The speaker box is going to be on wheels but I still have to get it in and out of the car so I’d like to keep it lighter then that, so I started looking into how portable speakers like the soundboks manage to have such large run times on much smaller and lighter batteries and I realized that all their speakers are drawing a lot less wattage but still putting out crazy loud noise, so I guess what I’m asking is how exactly these portable speaker box’s such as the soundboks manage to make such loud noise with such low power speakers and how I could replicate and ideally outdo a box like that.

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[SlugButter]

I make my own Bluetooth speakers. Sold a few to family and friends, but making it portable only works up to a certain power level and still be considered portable. Largest power ive done on batteries is 100 watts rms, which has around an 8 hour run time. I used five 18650 lithium batteries at 21 volts to run the amplifier module. I’m working on doing one closer to 200 watts rms now, but I haven’t ordered all the parts yet. Built in charging without removing the batteries is one of the biggest challenges. I could simply hook 10 18650 lithium’s to do it, but I don’t want to need an external charger and remove the batteries all the time. Power is always the challenge with audio of all types.

 

[SlugButter]

This one is my portable shop radio. 100 rms. 50 watts to the sub and 25 watts to each satellite speaker.

 

[SlugButter]

This one is only 60 watts rms total.

 

[Ben1407]

This one is only 60 watts rms total.
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I really appreciate your help I was just curious how loud those speakers are at that low of a power level and if there’s anything that you do to make them sound louder without having to draw more power, I know power isn’t the only aspect that makes a speaker loud but it’s just very hard to get loud without drawing a lot of power ideally I’d want a box that I could bring out to the beach with all my friends and we could hear it from football fields away but obviously like you said power is the big issue i did a lot more research today though and I decided on a new plan of action I’d love to run it by you for your opinion if you don’t mind oh and another question is why did you decide to put a subwoofer in your box I’m just curious if it’s worth it to have a sub considering my speaker box is generally going to be outdoors so I though the sub would only really be noticeable when I have it in an enclosed space like my car am I wrong in thinking that?

 

[SlugButter]

I really appreciate your help I was just curious how loud those speakers are at that low of a power level and if there’s anything that you do to make them sound louder without having to draw more power, I know power isn’t the only aspect that makes a speaker loud but it’s just very hard to get loud without drawing a lot of power ideally I’d want a box that I could bring out to the beach with all my friends and we could hear it from football fields away but obviously like you said power is the big issue i did a lot more research today though and I decided on a new plan of action I’d love to run it by you for your opinion if you don’t mind oh and another question is why did you decide to put a subwoofer in your box I’m just curious if it’s worth it to have a sub considering my speaker box is generally going to be outdoors so I though the sub would only really be noticeable when I have it in an enclosed space like my car am I wrong in thinking that?

I can turn it on in my shop and hear it around my whole yard while I work outside. It’s pretty damn loud. Probably can’t hear it football fields away, but it’s audible from a few hundred feet away. It would get a lot louder if I went with all 100 watts into just the speakers without the subwoofer, but it would not have a full sound. Speakers with a high sensitivity rating will get louder on lower power, so look for sensitivity ratings in the 90+ dB range for sure. Car speakers work very well for this. If you want it super loud without much bass, you could do just speakers without a subwoofer. Running a subwoofer is power hungry.

 

[SlugButter]

The first one I posted has some cheap Pyle 4 inch speakers that have a high sensitivity and actually get very loud. Too loud for the sub actually, so I have them turned down to match the subwoofers output. This bigger one that I have isn’t portable because it just sits in my workout room so I didn’t put in batteries, but it has a pair of visaton speakers with a lower sensitivity. They sound much better, but aren’t quite as loud. All of these are pretty damn loud. I’ve never actually turned them up to their max volume.

 

[Ben1407]

The first one I posted has some cheap Pyle 4 inch speakers that have a high sensitivity and actually get very loud. Too loud for the sub actually, so I have them turned down to match the subwoofers output. This bigger one that I have isn’t portable because it just sits in my workout room so I didn’t put in batteries, but it has a pair of visaton speakers with a lower sensitivity. They sound much better, but aren’t quite as loud. All of these are pretty damn loud. I’ve never actually turned them up to their max volume.
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Again I appreciate the advice, since I’m putting my speaker box on wheels I don’t mind having it heavier I just need it to be light enough to get in an out of my car so I think I’m still going to go with a more powerful set up but definitely not nearly as much as I originally planned I think I’m going to have 2 cerwin Vega 200 watt rms 10 inch midwoofers paired with 2 audio legion high compression drivers that will run at 150 watts rms for a total output of 350 watts rms I’m hoping the compression drivers will give me that loud distance sound and the 10 inch cerwin Vegas will give me nice sound with hopefully a little bit of bass but I think I’m still going to go with a deep cycle 12v battery just so I don’t have issues connecting it to my car if I want to, as long as I only need the one deep cycle I don’t think it should be too heavy to get in and out of my car, I heard that lithium batteries are very finicky and that you have to use a special charger to charge them because if you charge them with say an alternator or something off a car and it goes slightly too high it can damage them and also I heard they don’t do well in heat so I’m not sure ab them what do you think obviously you have a lot more experience then me with them

 

[SlugButter]

Again I appreciate the advice, since I’m putting my speaker box on wheels I don’t mind having it heavier I just need it to be light enough to get in an out of my car so I think I’m still going to go with a more powerful set up but definitely not nearly as much as I originally planned I think I’m going to have 2 cerwin Vega 200 watt rms 10 inch midwoofers paired with 2 audio legion high compression drivers that will run at 150 watts rms for a total output of 350 watts rms I’m hoping the compression drivers will give me that loud distance sound and the 10 inch cerwin Vegas will give me nice sound with hopefully a little bit of bass but I think I’m still going to go with a deep cycle 12v battery just so I don’t have issues connecting it to my car if I want to, as long as I only need the one deep cycle I don’t think it should be too heavy to get in and out of my car, I heard that lithium batteries are very finicky and that you have to use a special charger to charge them because if you charge them with say an alternator or something off a car and it goes slightly too high it can damage them and also I heard they don’t do well in heat so I’m not sure ab them what do you think obviously you have a lot more experience then me with them

That will work well. The midwoofers should be a little bass and loud outside. You can charge lithium batteries with an alternator. I’ve never actually ran a lithium battery in my car. The ones I used for my Bluetooth builds would not like an alternator charge though. I think a deep cycle will hold a charge longer for what you’re doing. You should get some good hours of play time with a deep cycle battery off the alternator. Problem with a lot of deep cycles is that you need to put distilled water in them periodically and they can spill in your car if tipped over.

 

[Ben1407]

That will work well. The midwoofers should be a little bass and loud outside. You can charge lithium batteries with an alternator. I’ve never actually ran a lithium battery in my car. The ones I used for my Bluetooth builds would not like an alternator charge though. I think a deep cycle will hold a charge longer for what you’re doing. You should get some good hours of play time with a deep cycle battery off the alternator. Problem with a lot of deep cycles is that you need to put distilled water in them periodically and they can spill in your car if tipped over.

Thank you very much I appreciate all the help

 

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

What do you hope to gain by building your own bluetooth radio versus buying one?
I would look into this guy:
https://www.outdoortechnology.com/products/big-turtle-shell-ultra?variant=16059063992391

 

[Ben1407]

What do you hope to gain by building your own bluetooth radio versus buying one?
I would look into this guy:
https://www.outdoortechnology.com/products/big-turtle-shell-ultra?variant=16059063992391

That’s not going to be nearly as loud as my speaker box will be and also I’m making mine to where I can quickly connect and disconnect it from my car so that way I can run it using my radio when I want and use it as my car audio system and then take it on the go when I want to