# Questions about speakers



## ccasey (Jun 24, 2014)

Hello all, been reading some of the awesome posts and am hoping maybe you all might be able to help with a question. We have an event set up each year that draws large numbers of people each night. We recently purchased a perfect storm lightning and thunder machine. My question is what is the best way ( with a tight budget) to get good thunder sounds from a speaker(s). Right now we just have a boom box but I am sure it can't be heard with large groups off people. Can external speakers be hooked up to the boom box and have decent sound? This is an outdoor event.


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## The_Caretaker (Mar 6, 2007)

see if you can get an old surround sound unit with a aux input


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## Troll Wizard (May 3, 2012)

_*The only way to hook up external speakers to a boom box is if it has an external outlet for them. Even then depending on how big your boom box is, it usually won't have enough power to really make a difference in sound for thunder effects. I found an old home sound system on Craigslist that someone wanted to give away, and I use that in my haunts every year. It works great, and this might be something that could work for you as well. *_


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

I'd see who in your group might have an old DVD player and stereo setup, or maybe look in the PennySaver, Craig'sList, etc. The DVD player will play CDs and it's much easier to find than a plain CD player.
How and where you place your speaker(s) can also make a big difference. Placing them up at ear level helps keep the sound from being lost in foliage, body mass, furniture, etc. If you can scrounge an actual subwoofer, that will help with the bottom end of the sound range too. Ideally, the more power and speaker capacity, the better the potential sound. Keep in mind that you can use your own soundtrack for those too.


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## ccasey (Jun 24, 2014)

Thank you all for your help. I really appreciate it. Im thinking we might be able to find a stereo system at some thrift stores like you have recommended. Im sure I will have more questions on other projects as they come up. Thanks again all! Have a great day


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## ATLfun (Oct 12, 2012)

Funny that you posted this. I have been researching this too. Not sure what your budget is but powered speakers like a pa set-up would really get the job done. Or you could go with an amplifier and some old tower speakers. The hardest part for me is deciding how much I want tied up in the sound system just to be used for one night.


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## azscoob (Oct 6, 2010)

My elcheapo setup is as follows, one all in one mini stereo system I picked up at goodwill, $20, weatherproof speakers with brackets were picked up from a local pawn shop for $8

I then picked up a car stereo amp and 12"subwoofer on craigslist for $25

I built a simple sealed MDF subwoofer box with the sub firing downward, hooked up the amp and stereo (I used the subwoofer output posts for the sub) and scrounged a 120v to 12v converter to power the amp.

I now have a sub disguised as a headstone in my cemetery that is powered by a 1000 watt amp, my lightning machine flashes undercabinet puck lights behind other headstones to my thunderstorm CD, when it's cranked up the sub rattles the windows in the house across the street with the bigger thunder claps.

It's a great effect for very little money as long as you look for deals... I'm in goodwill weekly it seems getting all sorts of things at killer prices!


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Some good info already mentioned. The big kicker is going to be the 'outdoor' nature of the event. When your sound volume is essentially 'infinite', it's going to take a lot of power to generate good effects. So any way to add amplifier power and big speakers / subwoofers will help. Or you might consider having some kids beat on big bass drums (or plastic barrels, etc) at the appropriate times, as kid power is usually about the cheapest form of energy!

If you were indoors, or have a way to herd the crowd into some type of enclosed space, you might experiment with a tone generator to find the resonance point of that room/space. This will give you a natural amplification of the thunder 'rumble' without requiring a power/cost increase of the speakers. You could then use audacity to edit your sound track and insert that resonance tone into appropriate places.


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## tarpleyg (Nov 4, 2014)

I know it's a bit late but I had a similar dilemma this Halloween and ended up using my small Fender Mustang I guitar amp. That had never occurred to me in the past when I had borrowed a friend's DJ monitor speaker but I was able to get some really good sound out of it. So, something to think about and I think I paid less than $120 for it. Maybe someone would loan one to you. Cheap loudspeaker.

Oh, and I'm new here...from the Raleigh, NC area. Great site.


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## castart (Sep 3, 2014)

Go to Goodwill or some such agency, they always have recondition stereos and such for cheap. Might look at an AMP with SPeakers that work with your boombox. Since that is really all you are needing. I will tell you that I have not been really happywith CD players that they have reconditioned. The other components I have not had any issues with.


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## Abunai (Oct 28, 2007)

tarpleyg said:


> Oh, and I'm new here...from the Raleigh, NC area. Great site.


Welcome aboard, tarpleyg.


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## MansionHaunter (Sep 20, 2006)

to get the most out of an external speaker, it needs to have an enclosure that can maximize its output.

There are a lot of different designs, but the basic idea is to make sure that the speaker drives a mass of air in an impedance-matched manner, and such that the phase of the sound from the front doesn't end up cancelling out the phase of the sound from the back.

One design is to have the speaker against the cabinet's open hole in the front, and completely closed up in the back. You lose the power of the back of the speaker, but there's no cancellation.

If you want to get more ambitious, port the cabinet. There are lots of web sites out there offering equations for port design. Basically it's a hole in the cabinet with a little bit of a maze for the sound to have to travel through to get to it. The length of the maze is determined by the frequency of the sound you want to highlight. Like, 17 Hz or so, for subsonic "thunder" sounds. For an eight inch round port, the port tube would be something like 3 feet long.

To be sure, even with a perfect cabinet and an excellent driver, you still won't get a lot of audio power out of a boom box if you're outside; there's just too much air out there to move around effectively without some kind of massive driver - or a bunch of speakers.


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