How to make a soundsystem
From San Jose Bike Party Wiki
You too can make a bike soundsystem!
Here are some ideas to get you started. Others should keep adding to this page, it's very introductory right now.
Contents |
[edit] Basic components
- Battery - you can use a 12V car battery (sealed lead-acid or deep cycle are nice, but not required...motorcycle batteries paired up might get you a smaller package)
- Speakers
- Trailer - you can buy a nice expensive cargo trailer, you can mount everything on panniers, or you can go the easy way and get an old two-child trailer and rip off the parts you don't need.
- Amp - you could use the on-board amp of a car stereo head unit, but it probably won't be enough
- Sound source - ipod/mp3 player with a long cable to mount on your handlebars, or perhaps a stereo head unit with a radio receiver, CD player, etc.
[edit] Ideas
- In general, if you stick to car audio components for your amp/stereo, you don't need an inverter and can use ordinary 12V DC batteries.
- Focus on getting good-quality speakers to push a lot of power...subwoofers sound amazing but take a lot more power, and on the other side too small speakers will burn out trying to push too much sound.
- The Dayton DTA-1 Class T Digital Amplifier (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-380) puts out a healthy amount of power and can run on 8 AA batteries! Pair this up with a reasonably efficient set of speakers and a music source and you can get mobile system that doesn't cost or weigh too much.
[edit] Networked Bike Sound
The most powerful sound idea we have is the lowest-power version of them all: if we can get a local radio station to play a Bike Party-tailored radio show, we can ALL build or bring our sound systems or boom boxes and spread the same sound throughout the ride! Let's work on this...
