AV Logistics: very small, mains powered, audio output plus amplified speakers
Hello.
I installed a sound sculpture earlier this year, all went well and it was up for about two months. Now it’s going to be put up for five days in a different place and there are completely different constraints e.g. it’s a listed billing so no drilling.
Before I had laptop running max, three stereo amps and six speakers mounted with bits of wood and stuff. Now I’ve got zero space and I think I need to remove the laptop, find something like a file based sound player, and use very small speakers with built in amps so it can all balance within the 8 or so inches of beam cavity already existing in the space.
Can anyone recommend:
- very small mains powered audio playback
- very small and powered speakers
- a completely different solution
For a sound installation (still running outdoor since june 2009), I used 36 of those amplifiers:
and 18 sansa clip mp3 players:
http://www.sandisk.com/products/sansa-music-and-video-players/sandisk-sansa-clipplus-mp3-player
with 5V power suppplies:
http://be.farnell.com/xp-power/ecl10us05-t/psu-mini-open-frame-10w-5v/dp/1289139?Ntt=1289139
(in some cases, I rather use this:http://www.realitysys.com/pages/pjbox.html)
Not really a plug&play solution, not sure it’s worth all the work for 5 days!
p
This shop might have some solutions for you:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/arjenhelder_electronic/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
I haven’t used the amps long term, but I have some of the 15 watt amps, and they are pretty good.
I find it’s sometimes more compact to have a little stack of amplifiers and small passive speakers, though it might not be what you’re looking for aesthetically. Nevertheless, for small amplifiers, have a look at "T amps" (amplifiers based on a particular amplifier chipped manufactured by Tripath): < http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=t+amp&_sacat=See-All-Categories>. They are super cheap, small and sound amazing (rival amplifiers 10x the price).
Speakers are a much more diverse world that I don’t know a lot about. We use KEF satellite speakers and considered some from JBL, but I haven’t researched this domain in awhile.
Massive thanks for the responses, I will investigate.
@morgan – that ebay shop I pointed to are all Tripath-chip based. Good quality, hackable, and cheap. The sure electronics ones are pretty good, but the one I had was clearly not as good a mfg. quality as the ones I got from Arjenhelder. I used one of the sure electronics outdoors for a couple years, but it got fried somehow, either due to weather or overcharging from the solar charger. It was great while it lasted :)