Parade Audio System

[Impious 1,476]

We'll with only one week until the parade my sister has asked me to figure out a way for them to play music for their float In the parade. My main problem is the truck towing the float isn't mine, so I can't take apart, change or modify anything on the vehicle. Second problem is this needs to be done for as close to free as possible.

First thought is a power inverter to power one of their boom boxes and just bungy cord it all to the bed of the truck. Issue here is the power inverters with enough current aren't cheap, hard to source locally and I'm not a big fan of having to directly wire it to the truck's battery. I do have two old Kinetik HC1800s in my garage.....they would crap out in cold weather but we're otherwise fine. I thought about charging them up, wiring them in parallel and seeing if they held enough of a charge to power the inverter for the length of the parade. Radio shack has a 400w inverter which "might" be enough, and I "might" be able to return it after the parade so it wouldn't end up costing anything.

Also thought about using one of my spare amps to power the speakers from the boom boxes and using my sisters phone as the source.....but I'm not sure how much volume I would get with the weak preamp voltage of the phone. It would however be much cheaper.

Any other ideas? I've never actually done a temp stereo for a parade before, and it would be much easier to do to my own vehicle rather than some else's that I can't fuck with

[///M5 2,833]

Most phones kick out around .5v at full bore with a sine wave.  Some up to a volt.

 

If it were my float I'd build up some PA combo's and just run a car amp.

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

WELLLLL being from New Orleans area.  I'm sure there is a party rental or something of that fashion that will rent out some type of small DJ set up.  Or you could be generous and lend them your home stereo sytem.  Rent a small generator and they're all set up.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Quentin Jarrell

[Impious 1,476]

Most phones kick out around .5v at full bore with a sine wave.  Some up to a volt.

 

If it were my float I'd build up some PA combo's and just run a car amp.

That's a lot more voltage than I expected. Might not work too bad. I really didn't want to have to hard wire anything to this guy's truck, but I don't think there's any way around it. Although temporarily hooking an amp to the electrical wouldn't be terrible although still a pain in the ass considering I have limited access to it and it's a GM so it probably has side posts on the battery...I had thought about using a long set of jumper cables to power the amp so that I wouldn't have to change battery terminals but a little worried they would rattle loose.

  

WELLLLL being from New Orleans area.  I'm sure there is a party rental or something of that fashion that will rent out some type of small DJ set up.  Or you could be generous and lend them your home stereo sytem.  Rent a small generator and they're all set up.

Good thought, but would be way too much money to rent anything.....and I don't have a home stereo

[Julian 641]

Harbor Freight sells some hefty inverters.. You could always "rent" one if you're into that kind of thing (aka use it and return it) per their return policy.

But I do second M5's idea of just some PA speakers and a car amp.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Julian

[///M5 2,833]

Not sure what you have lying around Brad.  What can go wrong will, so if you jumper cable only it'll bite you in the ass.  Of course if the drivers you are using have enough efficiency you can use a rather dinky amp and then may get around the hardwire need...but personally I'd feel better being attached straight to the battery.  I've done this before, but have always had a tow vehicle with a system in it so it was rather easy to just unplug speaker wires and connect them to something else. 

 

I'd actually feel better running a small 12v amp from a cigarette lighter than an inverter and an AC amp. 

[nem 2,019]

We used an inverter from harbor frieght, 1200 watt max for I think $60.00 a couple years. Off of that I powered a yahama 797, fog machine, rolling eyes, and lots of leds. So maybe for your needs something smaller should work if you are running a smaller system. Some of the smaller inverters come with wires that you can connect to the battery terminals very easily.

 

If you were closer I would fix you up.

[Impious 1,476]

Thanks for the tips on harbor freight. Didn't even think to look there. Had a sale on power inverters, 750w continuous for $40. Only problem now is the cables are 2 foot long.....need them to be about 8'. So next job is to lengthen them.

Thought about a small class T from PE to power some speakers from a phone or media player like you had sort of suggested Sean but needed to keep this as dummy proof as possible so I don't have to do it every year.

[TreyE 0]

two PA speakers with a cheap ass $25 amp powered by phone will play very loud. I made a stereo cooler with 2 JBL MS6200 speakers on a crappy 25x2 SSL amp playing off head unit and it was loud enough. Just build a makeshift box from a $20 piece of wood, buy shitty PYLE amp or something and hook it up to battery of truck using $5 8ga call it a day.

[Christopher Flint 0]

how are they?