Good quality but inexpensive 12 volt amp/receiver & speakers?

robmorin

Mr. Legacy
Hello all...

Sorry if this is not in the correct forum...

I was wondering if anyone knows of plans to build a compact 12 volt amp/receiver and speakers? I recently bought some land in northern Quebec, and there will not be any hydro/AC power there for 2 years, so i have some solar panels & car batteries running stuff for now. So i was interested in building something to play some mp3's mostly and possibly pickup a local fm station there...

it needs to be kind of compact... so i was thinking of maybe a car radio of sorts and then building some custom small bookshelf size speakers...

So any ideas?

Thanks to all
 
Hello all...

Sorry if this is not in the correct forum...

I was wondering if anyone knows of plans to build a compact 12 volt amp/receiver and speakers? I recently bought some land in northern Quebec, and there will not be any hydro/AC power there for 2 years, so i have some solar panels & car batteries running stuff for now. So i was interested in building something to play some mp3's mostly and possibly pickup a local fm station there...

it needs to be kind of compact... so i was thinking of maybe a car radio of sorts and then building some custom small bookshelf size speakers...

So any ideas?

Thanks to all

Don't think I have a complete answer to your question but if you have Solar in place, don't you have an inverter?

http://www.wholesalesolar.com/inverters.html

You could then not worry about coming up with temporary audio solutions but use something off the shelf.
 
Check out Tripath 12 V amps. These sound amazing and you can get a good amp that puts out 25W stereo.

NEW 2012 Indeed Class T Amp Tripath TA2021 25WX2 Stereo Amplifier + 12V5A Power

I dont' think you need the 5 AMPs either.

Some good speakers will rock at the 25W
 
The voltage issue wouldn't have anything to do with the speakers, which would have to only match well with the output of the amp.

In most solid state components, isn't the first stage of the power supply designed to get the voltage way down from house current to one or more lower voltages of DC? Perhaps some excellent vintage or newer amps actually run on 12VDC, if you only bypass their AC-input power supply stage. I don't know which ones, but there have to be AKers who know some of the schematics inside out who could tell you.
 
Check out the "TPA3116 vs. the Tripaths" thread, in this forum. It's all about the TPA3116 chip amp from Texas Instruments. It will happily run on 12V, and put out about 25W/channel at that voltage. Or there's a lower powered amp, based on the TPA3110 that puts out about 12W/channel. Both amps are highly efficient, and sound extraordinarily good. Pair them with 92dB efficient or better speakers, and you'll be in paradise! Musically, that is. :D

Did I mention they're stupidly cheap? :thmbsp:
 
inverters are very inefficient. Something that runs natively on 12vdc would be better. A tripath or a T-amp would probably be the winner for efficiency. If you need/want a tuner and a CD player though, a car stereo would be a very easy way to get that done in a convenient package.
 
I would go with a decent car radio and some efficient speakers. Your local Best Buy, even Wal-Mart should be able to provide a Pioneer, Kenwood or Alpine unit below about $150. If you've ever hooked up a car radio to home speakers, not in a car, you will be surprised how much volume you can generate. Now pair this with some efficient speakers like the DCM KX series or Cerwin Vega. Car radios are designed for 4 ohm loads, so if you can find two pairs of the same speakers, connect them in parallel for even more volume.

Lee.
 
Hello all...

Sorry if this is not in the correct forum...

I was wondering if anyone knows of plans to build a compact 12 volt amp/receiver and speakers? I recently bought some land in northern Quebec, and there will not be any hydro/AC power there for 2 years, so i have some solar panels & car batteries running stuff for now. So i was interested in building something to play some mp3's mostly and possibly pickup a local fm station there...

it needs to be kind of compact... so i was thinking of maybe a car radio of sorts and then building some custom small bookshelf size speakers...

So any ideas?

Thanks to all
Consider also these little Japanese wonders;

Scythe SDAR-2100-BK Kama Bay AMP 2000 Rev.B
+
Scythe SCBKS-1100 Kro Craft Speaker Rev. B


Kama-Bay-AMP-2000-Rev_B-EXTRA2-main_01.jpg


for about $150+ you are ready to go and hardly can go wrong!

Cheaper (lower Q. versions) with radio, on Aliexp. like this one; Audio Amplifier Radio MP3 Stereo
 
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Wow, thanks for all the quick replies!

Inverters are very inefficient and wastes much of the source of the 12 volts in the down conversion for sure!

12 volts from a car battery or most any battery is very pure on its own with no noise or spikes and very reliable...

I will research those T or tripaths. Let me tell you having some good sounding tunes in the middle of nowhere is a very nice feeling!

I was however thinking about building my own mini speakers, as i have built a dozen or so speakers in the past, but never mini ones...

Thanks for all your suggestions and comments, please keep them coming to help me choose the most cost effective way of forcing Classic Rock and Jazz on the animals in the woods!

:)
 
Add one for the car stereo. Look into one with a class d or t amp in it. Very efficient, powerful ,good sound.
As well as USB jack for iPod,etc, charges your phone too. The little rubber duckie antennas work pretty well on them. As a side note there are plenty of 12v USB chargers out there now.
 
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+1 on the car stereo here as well, add an outboard mobile amp if you need more power. Then you can run whatever speakers you want.

For a media server, should you want, I'm assuming that there has to be a DC-DC power supply available, or many "big screen" HUs can just read files right off a USB flash drive. I have a standard DIN unit in my Jeep that can do that as well, but the menu is such a PITA compared to the factory unit in my BMW for example.
 
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