Zarbo Audio Projects is a channel dedicated to exploring all things relating to D-I-Y Audio. Enclosure design and construction, electronics assembly, and even some troubleshooting are all in play.
Good to see you, I am planning a stupidly detailed all purpose analyzer console that has 4 stereo vu meter kits, 1 for monitoring my mic, 1 for comms audio (discord, game VOIP) 1 for output level and another stereo pair driver but for the older style vu meter that I plan to use for monitoring bass only, a simple 8 or 9 led fast moving spectrum (look for Sony LBT-XB66 for the idea) to use as the main analyzer and a usb meter reading everything like volts, amps and power whenever I charge my phone, all contained in a simple box mimicking the looks of a hifi unit but this one is loaded with real time meters and do not feature bullshit like rgb stuff, just plain good ol' led meters and I hopefully a nice spectrum but everything on either ebay or ali doesn't feature video demonstration of said units working and almost all of them use a mic as the sole input which infuriates me, since I only want to pickup audio signals from my PC and NOT from the air, I was thinking of using this screen and luckily I saw your video before placing an order, thank god for you showing that this particular screen sucks! everything is moving even with an specific frequency, that's not how a spectrum bar should behave, the vacuum one was accurate and the other one is clearly just a bunch of micro vu's mashed together or daisy chained to work like that which totally destroys the purpose of a spectrum bar since you want feedback of one bar group or two depending on the frequency that you're feeding it, not the entire screen moving which does nothing but waste money and energy for something that could have specific and interesting uses, not this shoddy damned cursed thing, great video!
This should answer your questions: techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/speaker-project-gallery/1475926-harmonious-table-radio-subwoofer?p=1476834#post1476834
The video is WRONG. Both examples, the over hung voice coil and the 'under hung' voice coil in the drawings are over hung. An over hung voice coil is longer than the magnetic gap. But an under hung voice coil is SHORTER than the magnetic gap. In both drawings the voice coil was longer than the gap.
Thanks for the comment, I think you're maybe looking a bit too close. The magnetic lines are there to give a rough idea of where the 'bulk' of the magnetic force is located.
@@nobelstone9714 Okay, I won't argue. My drawing isn't perfect, I agree -- but it does demonstrate the basic idea.... and it was taken basically from a known 'Underhung' driver. Thanks for the comment.
This was a nice series tutorial, clear and easy to follow. I have built several sets of speakers, not from kits, but I did upgrade my first home built set with that same tweeter and that was a big improvement. Very clear highs, not too bright or zingy and not too dull. Might send these videos to a friend of mine. Very inspiring.
Nice Tom! I've been using the MLTL's for front left and right along with a sealed version for my center channel in my living room. Probably been using them for 6 years now and I've been very happy with them. They sound good for stereo music and especially for movies. Since doing some updates in the room I haven't hooked the subwoofer back up but haven't noticed much since the MLTL's put out some nice deep bass. Curts website was very helpful when I built them as well
Thanks Jeff for the comment and info. After publishing the videos I connected the speakers to a line in source as opposed to Bluetooth and the extra oomph was nice, the bass was more pronounced. I bet the Trans lines sound real good too. How did I get thus far and not build these yet ? ;) thanks for watching!
Would that amp work with a driver that is 150 rms , and peak 500 watts. And 50 to 200 hz range. Or would it be to much cause it’s starting out at 300 rms ?
I think the crossover is a part intimidating to many. So I really apreciate your effort to show that everyone can do it with a bit of determination and learning!
I agree. Eileen said she needed someone next to her showing her or she would not have been able to complete them. For a lot of people, they may have to find a person who has a touch of experience and tap them for help. Thanks for watching and for the comment!
@@zarboaudioprojects1430 Thank you for the content! I really hope you can continue with what you do and help many of us tackling the joys of building speakers!
Question: First thank you for the video. Q: would this relay delay the cut out? Meaning can it keep the light (as example) to stay On for couple seconds after the switch is Off? Then cut the power off the light?
This won't do that, but check this out from Ali: www.aliexpress.us/item/2261799877292267.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.11.5757eQVLeQVLoz&algo_pvid=b3e813e9-8222-47b7-b461-ddd9a0ca5116&algo_exp_id=b3e813e9-8222-47b7-b461-ddd9a0ca5116-5&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%211.92%211.92%21%21%211.92%211.92%21%402101fb1517215822233534561ec2da%2120000000117340115%21sea%21US%211618196486%21&curPageLogUid=nXSUn7gX7SQ8&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A
This randomly showed up in my recommended feed. I'm a bit confused about the thumbnail. Does a girl somehow build speakers differently to how a guy would? Do they have different sonic preferences?
No, they just smell better. :) No, there are SO few girls building speakers online (Try and find any) that I thought it would be nice to feature a WOMAN putting a kit together to encourage others to join in.
The 5.5" PRs were not out yet when I dreamed this up, but truthfully, they wouldn't dig as low as these larger PRs do, at least not in this small of a box. Thanks for watching and for the comment!
@@zarboaudioprojects1430 makes sense. I have a 5.5” epique in a .35 ft^3 ported box tuned to 43hz in my car and it sounds amazing. I was so impressed with it that I modeled it with the epique passives for a small home theater sub and I wasn’t too happy with its output. I modeled your build and it’s much better with the passives you chose. Very impressive!
Hi! I'm wirelessly extending my old school pull doorbell to upstairs using Zigbee (door switch attached to the pull rod, that will activate a relay connecting the switch pins to ground on this amp board). I haven't been able to decide on a driver yet though. The driver you used is a 8 ohm 20w woofer right? Can it get loud enough for a doorbell? Or would you recommend something else? Thanks in advance!
I used that driver because I had a lot of them, but you could use a 4 four ohm driver for more oomph. A pro sound driver 5 to 8" would be about perfect, they like playing loud. Thanks for watching!
@@zarboaudioprojects1430 I bought some cheapskate drivers off of Ali (only €1 for a pair using a welcome deal). I don't need the best of the best sound quality, they just need to get loud enough to be clearly heard throughout the top two levels of the house. There were two versions: 10W 4R, and 10W 8R. I'm guessing a 10W 8R (the ones I bought) should give more oomph without distorting than a 10W 4R, right? With a pro driver, do you mean something like the Dayton Audio PRO-8? And 5 to 8" would be too big for just a doorbell, no? I found some doorbell teardowns, and they all have tiny drivers in them, probably between 0.5w and 2w, but I want a smidge more than an ugly, crispy, ding-dong sound. The ones I ordered are 2" drivers.
@@Danieldt1391 Generally speaking, a 4 ohm driver will play louder per a given watt than a similar 8 ohm driver, but it does depend on the driver. I suspect the drivers you picked will work fine for what you're wanting to use them for. As long as they are in an enclosure, so the front and back waves don't cancel each other out, I bet it works fine. I only suggested a pro-sound driver because they are sometimes more efficient than home stereo drivers. But since you already have the drivers, I would just go with them. An average doorbell chime will be between 75 and 85 decibels, and your driver should easily be able to do that, so I think you're good.
@@zarboaudioprojects1430 Hmm you're completely right, I didn't think about it like that. I thought that as the resistance would be doubled, I could crank the amp twice as high; but yeah they're both rated at 10W... There's some reviews saying that they can't even drive them that high though, so it could still be that in reality the 8 ohm takes more watts than the 4 ohm version. It should arrive in a few days; I think it should still be good enough, if not I'll continue the search. Thanks for the help!
Thinking of getting something like this. I do like that it can record from the radio to mp3 but 128kbps is a bit low for my tastes. 320kbps is my preferred quality. Can this record from line input to mp3?
@@zarboaudioprojects1430 Can you try recording from line input? Looking for something like this that records from radio and line input as well as play music from SD/USB. Bluetooth I'm not worried about but if it has it then it's ok.
I think I may know what the issue was. You said you tested it in your house with no issues (your house temp controlled), you played it in the afternoon with no issues, and you played it during the day in the "SUN" and after "SOME TIME" it started having issues. It sounds like to me that the head unit was getting hot and maybe a little DC fan would have kept it cool to the point it would have had no issues. Over all cool project!
Good thinking... seems to make sense logically. I was able to duplicate it again afterwards in my basement where it's fairly cool though, so I'm thinking it's just poor build quality... nice deduction though! Thank you for watching and commenting!
nice video! Maybe it did cut off because of the amplifier overheating, especially if there was a bit of sunlight hitting it; that would maybe explain why it worked just fine in the afternoon.
Heat... that's a really good bit of troubleshooting there. It happed later on in my cool basement, so I don't think that could be it in my case, but creative thinking! I missed that one... and Thank you!
Great Video! I think for its purpose this speaker is incredible. I really like the battery solution as you can also just take a couple of them with you and get up and running in seconds again when a battery died.
Thanks. I didn't mention in the video how long the battery life was... it's probably in the neighborhood of 4-6 hours at 2/3 volume. Some day I'll test it out and post it in the comments.
@@roygriend5143 Sure, it would have been cheaper to build a pack... but I would still have to figure out a way to charge it. Since I already had the battery available, it seemed like a good idea to just use what I had... only needed to purchase the battery holder. Time was of the essence. Plus you'd still need a way to charge any DIY setup. This was just too easy I guess! Thanks for the comment and for watching!
I think I want to try 2x 8 per side but for bass. About twice as big, but with some different styles of enclosure mixed into one. Perhaps just one big unit with 16x8" in total
always impressed at the freehand circle cutting, also a cool thing Brian M from PE did was take an LED keychain and replace the LED with red and black leads, it became an instant polarity checker!
I had the same thing happen when i added piezo tweeters to my setup. the amp shut down. These units dont like low impedance loads. I suggest re-wiring the speakers for higher impedance.. I added a series capacitor, and it worked fine. Likely too low impedance load. Shuts the amp down.
The preamp/amp unit should have been fine with 4 ohm loads, and these were safely in the 6 ohm (nominal) area, so I don't *think* that's it. Also, it handled even heavier bass music before and after with no issues, until it came back randomly after the event. I think the unit is just junk. Thank you for watching!
You always come up with such creative ideas! Just to let you know, I have an air conditioner in my office/shop now. When you decided to come do projects in my shop you can at least not die from the heat now. There is also a refrigerator. You can ask Toid, I have a lot of stuff to do projects with. I also have stand-offs for amp boards. And hot glue. Lastly, I have a Lepai 2.1 amp and it would do something similar. When the bass would hit and the volume was loud it seems to cut out briefly. I think it was a power issue. I turned the bass down and the volume down a bit and it worked okay. I wonder if a larger capacitor would help now that I'm thinking about it. That said, another great video!
Thanks Brian, I think having a case of speakers really helped me 'come up with this idea' a bit better. A fridge and AC in the shop sounds glorious! I agree, amps cutting out on heavy bass notes seems like it's starving for amperage, I've had the same issue (I think) with the first amp in this project on the bench, for that I thought it was starved for amps as well. This Hercules battery though should be able to deliver the Beans, and it sure does on the second separate amp/preamp combo setup. I dunno? Like I said in the video, after 30 minutes or so and a prayer, it started working fine. Days later in the shop, it started cutting out again. LESSON LEARNED: Tom, don't use cheap junk on anything I actually want to work. :) Thanks for watching.
Thank you! I thought 100 dB on battery power for hours was kind of cool. They are the Bantam MTM's. There is an old thread here on them: techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/tech-talk-forum/1315697-bantams-mtm-underway Still not finished! Shame on me!
