DIY Bluetooth Speaker?

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gnfb

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#142700 21-Mar-2014 10:21

Some years ago when I was young and bendy! I built a couple of really nice floor standing speakers that had a great sound.
Fast forward today and I was looking at picking up a Bluetooth speaker until I saw the prices. And I'm thinking its a Bluetooth connection in ab box with speakers??

Has anyone built there own Bluetooth speaker? got some plans? components?

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1010463 21-Mar-2014 10:51

You can get bluetooth audio adapters pretty cheaply, but I'm not sure on the audio quality.

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You will find anything you want at MightyApe (affiliate link).

Niel

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#1010765 21-Mar-2014 18:40

To DIY, I'd look at second hand low cost but reasonable quality BT speakers and transplant the electronics plus my own amp into new speakers (or powered speakers). Buying an audio module, you never really know what you get. The BT quality is standardised through the BT Sig, but not the analogue section or (digital) noise filters. Then again, most people will not hear the difference as most people have hearing damage.

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Jaxson

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#1010786 21-Mar-2014 19:27

Niel: most people will not hear the difference as most people have hearing damage.

lol I too am amused when people are so passionate about what they are hearing in a stereo yet they have not had their own hearing checked.
Also another reason why you should take other peoples recommendations as a guide.

I know I'm down a bit on my right ear (which is the one I use on the phone) in the range of electrical motor / grinding noise etc.

oxnsox

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#1010940 22-Mar-2014 08:18

Is it that "most people have hearing damage" or that most people have different hearing palettes?
Eyes and ears simply ain't all the same.

gnfb

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#1010973 22-Mar-2014 11:06

Niel: To DIY, I'd look at second hand low cost but reasonable quality BT speakers and transplant the electronics plus my own amp into new speakers (or powered speakers). Buying an audio module, you never really know what you get. The BT quality is standardised through the BT Sig, but not the analogue section or (digital) noise filters. Then again, most people will not hear the difference as most people have hearing damage.

That makes sense

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Klipspringer

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#1010974 22-Mar-2014 11:06

oxnsox: Is it that "most people have hearing damage" or that most people have different hearing palettes?
Eyes and ears simply ain't all the same.

Agreed its not about having hearing difficulties. Its about being able to listen to and identify different frequency ranges. I know a "deaf" girl who can hear low frequencies, the base from music for example. She can even dance to the rhythm of music! But she struggles to hear anything else.

Audiophiles will argue about the quality of sounds. Ie digital vs analogue. I'm sure its not any different to bluetooth vs a CD. I for instance can clearly hear and differentiate the difference between a CD and music being played (mp3's 320kbps ripped myself from CD) via bluetooth in my car. Most people probably wont but the difference is there.

IMO If you are a serious audiophile you would not be listening to music over bluetooth. And most audiophiles I know are so paranoid that even the quality of a CD is not good enough. I actually don't care, as long as its listenable, and not bad quality.

gnfb

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#1010980 22-Mar-2014 11:21

So I came across this site
DIY Bluetooth Speaker
looks fairly straight forward
they use a supplier called Parts Express Is there a NZ equivalent to them? They do sell internationally

What do the techs think of this?

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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richms

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#1010981 22-Mar-2014 11:25

Bluetooth audio has a multitude of codecs and parameters for those codecs available.

Most cheap gear uses a bad quality version of the sbc codec because it has the lowest latency. It's also the worst sounding.

Look for something that supports aptx codec and hope your playback device does. That doesn't help with the nasty analog side of most cheap Bluetooth audio solutions with hiss and digital noise bleeding thru from the other parts of the circuit as well as lots of high frequency crap which ruins the sound quality when it goes into your amp.

Richard rich.ms

Niel

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#1011049 22-Mar-2014 14:19

I've bought from Parts Express many, many years ago, when they still offered cheap standard air mail. Then they changed to courier only. I still get their mailers as there are interesting speaker projects. Don't know of anything equivalent locally, the market is far too small. Maybe look towards UK, there people know the world extends beyond their borders, and it takes only 5 days for delivery.

Agree with Richms regarding cheap gear, which is why I've suggested stripping used brand name gear (and always check out reviews to help sifting through the rubbish).

Hearing damage is painless. It can be painful, but that is only for sudden damage. I get my hearing screen checked at work because I sometimes enter a worshop area, although I'm not exposed to noise, but I actually do it because I am an amateur sound engineer and want to know what happens to my hearing. Everyone has some reduced sensitivity around 6kHz due to the structure of the ear canal, and it varies from person to person (frequency and magnitude). Hearing loss typically occurs from the mid vocal range and up, and reduced high frequency cut-off, but can also be in the low frequencies. I can hear up to 20kHz, my wife can sense above that to the point of getting migraines. We (wife and I work together) are testing servo motors at work with a shaft sideways load, she can't stand the noise from the bearings which no one else can hear. And don't even mention the ultrasonic welder on the factory floor where almost no one uses hearing protection.

An interesting fact is that distorted sound is perceived to be twice as loud as it actually is, so to overcome rattles from your car you need play the car radio at more than double the volume of the rattles, risking hearing damage. And double volume is perceived when it is actually 5dB louder, not 3dB, so the onset of hearing damage is much quicker when you think you turned the volume up only a bit.

And if you ever use ear plugs on strings, don't ever pull them out by the strings. A young guy at work popped his ear drums doing that and he did not pull hard, now he is completely deaf in one ear and very limited hearing in the other.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Fred99

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#1011134 22-Mar-2014 20:08

I've got a cheap Dick Smith Bluetooth audio adapter - IIRC it cost about $80.
It needs USB power (no internal battery). I bought it because the audio card in my Transformer tablet was broken - and we use the tablet to play music via the sound system in out boat over Xmas. It worked fine for that - I've since fixed the tablet audio I/o card, with a part purchased on Ebay.
Used on the home hifi system (not really a normal hifi system) playing 320 Mb/s MP3 or FLAC, it sounds fine.
My home hifi system at the moment is a small active tri-amped PA system running through a mixer. I don't have much time for - nor respect for - "boutique" hifi gear these days. Technology has left it behind.

gnfb

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#1012448 25-Mar-2014 13:36

Fred99: I've got a cheap Dick Smith Bluetooth audio adapter - IIRC it cost about $80.
It needs USB power (no internal battery). I bought it because the audio card in my Transformer tablet was broken - and we use the tablet to play music via the sound system in out boat over Xmas. It worked fine for that - I've since fixed the tablet audio I/o card, with a part purchased on Ebay.
Used on the home hifi system (not really a normal hifi system) playing 320 Mb/s MP3 or FLAC, it sounds fine.
My home hifi system at the moment is a small active tri-amped PA system running through a mixer. I don't have much time for - nor respect for - "boutique" hifi gear these days. Technology has left it behind.

"Great minds think alike"

I rembered that a few months ago i had bought a cheap adaptor of trademe my daughter bough me a solar charger for USB things and I have the surround sound speaker system on the tv

And

Voila problem solved my Ipad mini connects no problem brings up google play and off we go

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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gnfb

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#1012452 25-Mar-2014 13:38

richms: Bluetooth audio has a multitude of codecs and parameters for those codecs available.

Most cheap gear uses a bad quality version of the sbc codec because it has the lowest latency. It's also the worst sounding.

Look for something that supports aptx codec and hope your playback device does. That doesn't help with the nasty analog side of most cheap Bluetooth audio solutions with hiss and digital noise bleeding thru from the other parts of the circuit as well as lots of high frequency crap which ruins the sound quality when it goes into your amp.

To be quite honest my hearing aint that good and I have a decent pair of Beyerdynamic HP for real music listening with a Fiio

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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