Topic: Campsite / Festival Playback

[kindms]

I was curious what some of you guys use or if you had suggestions etc

I was looking at some of the ipod/iphone systems they have and thought that something like a T-Amp / low cost speakers would be a better bang for the buck.

Thoughts suggestions etc ? looking to keep it pretty portable and on the less expensive side but all suggestions are welcomed.

[dnsacks]

many satellite/subwoofer computer speaker setups use wall warts to provide 12 volt dc power to the system (and take their input from a 1/8" stereo jack).  I've hacked together an appropriate battery solution (or used a cigarette lighter adapter from my car) and run my cambridge soundworks setup in this manner with great success, using an iphone/mp3 player to feed it.

[Jimna]

^^thats my mobile whip

[kindms]

many satellite/subwoofer computer speaker setups use wall warts to provide 12 volt dc power to the system (and take their input from a 1/8" stereo jack).  I've hacked together an appropriate battery solution (or used a cigarette lighter adapter from my car) and run my cambridge soundworks setup in this manner with great success, using an iphone/mp3 player to feed it.

The dayton t-amp runs on AA's etc. I was thinking about something like that. I found some outdoor speakers for cheap (look like rocks) just not sure how much use it will get etc

[bryonsos]

I use an XMini II (mono), and several friends have them too so we daisy chain them. Awesome sound for the uber portable size and price, plus USB rechargeable. For stereo, the XMini II MAX looks pretty sweet.

http://www.x-mini.com/

[Gutbucket]

Oh, how often I'd like to throw the ubiquitous mini-noisemaking ipod dock systems of surrounding campers in the lake.  I guess there is not enough music going 18+ hours a day at fests and they feel the need to blather all surrounding campers with their crappy sounding, inappropriate timed, horrible taste in music.  Why not some welcome audiatory contrast.. listen to the birds, bugs, laughter of children playing.. and the inescapable bleed of main stage subwoofers turned 20dB too hot over a mile away which conflicts with the tinny buzz of the ipodded noise anyway?

sorry for the rant.. touched a raw nerve.


[edit- that old school blaster is pretty cool, Jim]

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

Danny Brnes would love that boombox Jim.  He's obsessed with them.  He ran one at NWSS stage lip.  Flipped the tape at 45 minutes.  Can't possibly sound good.   

[Jimna]

oh how I miss tape flips at the worst times....

[Gutbucket]

oh how I miss tape flips at the worst times....

Back at the apex of the cassette era in the late 80's, I had a Yamaha auto-reverse deck that I loved (not a portable) with several cool features.  It had a sensor that would detect the upcoming leader at the end of the spool and quickly auto-reverse and continue recording with a gap of only a couple milliseconds.  You could also press a button and it would fast-forward to the end of a tape, reset it's time-based counter to zero, then rewind to the previous position, letting you know exacty down to the second how much time was left on the side, and offering an automatic fade out in the last 5 seconds.  Those features, combined with the CD player I had which would scan the disc at high speed for the highest level peak passage and repeat it until you could tweak the recording level perfectly, made for great mix-tape making.  A near lost artform.

[bryonsos]

oh how I miss tape flips at the worst times....

My favorite part was when I switched to 120 min tapes and got to watch all the patchers panic when I wasn't flipping when they needed to

[KenH]

I used a T-Amp (MUSE, from eBay) to test some nice Klipsch speakers I ended up purchasing from craigslist.    Just used a 12-volt cig lighter adapter to power the T-Amp. Worked great.    Would probably drain the battery pretty quick though.

[T-90]

Oh, how often I'd like to throw the ubiquitous mini-noisemaking ipod dock systems of surrounding campers in the lake.  I guess there is not enough music going 18+ hours a day at fests and they feel the need to blather all surrounding campers with their crappy sounding, inappropriate timed, horrible taste in music.  Why not some welcome audiatory contrast.. listen to the birds, bugs, laughter of children playing.. and the inescapable bleed of main stage subwoofers turned 20dB too hot over a mile away which conflicts with the tinny buzz of the ipodded noise anyway?
sorry for the rant.. touched a raw nerve.

^^^ agreed 100% lee....also, i seem to remember reading a thread here not too long ago that went something like the dude was playing back his recordings, amplified in the camp site at a fest, and it got noticed by some unsavory neighboring campers who then proceeded to steal the guys rig at a later time....i do however listen to my recordings while camping at festivals, at night through my headphones, to kill the background noises of ppl blathering all the surrounding campers with their crappy sounding, inappropriate timed, horrible taste in music    i also remember reading somebody else's statement of "i love camping and i love festivals, however i hate festival camping".....couldn't be more true at the bigger ones

[cybergaloot]

I heard one of these today and it didn't sound bad at all. http://www.soundmatters.com/foxl/technology.html
A bit pricey though.

[jlykos]

I use an old Sony boombox that I have.  Tape player, CD player, and RCA aux input for an ipod or anything else.  Cost like $50 at Best Buy for a demo model.  With the rain, dust, dirt, and alcohol present, high fidelity is not my watchword.

[stevetoney]

If I believed in guns and had one, I'd use mine to kill boomboxes in campgrounds.  But since I don't own a gun, I'm going to start a conspiracy to get REALLY talkative girls with REALLY obnoxious voices to stand directly under the mic stands of anyone that responds to this thread.     

Just kidding...sort of...