Volumio (budget) Boombox

Made entirely from no longer used parts that i’ve had around for one reason or another. (did only buy some drawer handles at IKEA)

disclaimer: I do enjoy good music quality, but im not in anyway experienced in making or configuring anything hifi. i do know electronics, and physics… but how to apply them is new ground :slight_smile:

Parts used:
Pi3
Pifi DAC+
2x 6inch coax Speakers
aluminum case, 24L
3.7W (@3Ohm) Amp from adafruit (dont judge me, it was originaly intended for a mini arcade)
big power bank with 8*18650 inside.
some nuts and bolts

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What i did learn so far:
onboard wifi works perfectly well through the thin aluminum sheets.
those roughly 2*3Watt are enough for most uses; more than enough for indoor.
the case dimension works very well, it is also sturdy enough for reasonable performance… right until everything starts to rattle when you turn it up to party volume. some hot glue, and a solid (non folding) handle helped somewhat.
the bass response is quite nice, especially for something this lightweight. (Earth - Earth 2: Special Low Frequency version gives me goosebumps in the good way)
the upper mids are terrible. espicially in the higher guitar registers (distorted guitar even worse). playing heaven shall burn was unbearable. in flames sounded quite ok though. i suspect the amp is at fault here. will update when i get a different amp that can work with these speakers.

Update as promised, but no longer a budget build:

first an hifiberry amp+ that got rid of the distortions in the upper mids.
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but the old damaged case more or less shook apart. so i decided on a peli case clone. and on a downsize with smaller speakers.
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also added a rotary encoder for volume control.