Sound System

[Chris Chronopoulos]

This weekend, with help from Ben and Bryant, I set up a new sound system for the space. It consists of a two-channel amplifier and four JBL outdoor speakers. The amp is located underneath the file server and stereo, and the speakers are in the 4 corners of the main room, wired to the amp through the ceiling. There are two speakers on each channel, left being the side of the room with the arcade game, and right being the side with the main entrance.

The amp has two 1/4" mono inputs on the back of the amp. I've included some audio adapters to convert this to a standard 1/8" stereo plug for a laptop, MP3 player, etc. Right now it's plugged into the file server, so you can play music on the system using MPD from your phone or laptop (thanks Ben!).

The interface on the amp is dead simple: a power switch and two gain controls, one for each channel. With the current setup, the amp is capable of outputting 540 W (!) of total power. This is at the upper limit of the speakers' power handling capabilities, so you must be careful with the gain. As a general rule, never turn the gain up past 8, or you will run the risk of blowing the speakers. At 8, the system is already incredibly loud. For casual listening, a gain of 4 or 5 should suffice.

And one last thing: please remember to turn off power to the amp when you're done using it.

The amp and the speakers are my own; they are not for hacking on. I'm happy to let them live at the space for general use, but please treat them as you would treat anyone's personal property. At the end of August, I'll be taking them to Burning Man for use in an art installation. After that, they'll be back in the space.

All that said, enjoy using the sound system in all the creative ways you hackers can think of! I'm particularly looking forward to the next SSD audio jam :)

_chris

[Jim Turpin]

That's awesome. Thanks for the hard work! Also just noticed there's 2
gorillas in this picture that will lay the smack down if you hurt
those speakers...

[Ben Burdette]

I can attest to the loudness!  And the speakers have good resolution too - I have some tracks on the server that are ripped from vinyl and you can hear the phonograph noise, which I hadn't noticed before.  Thanks Chris!

- Ben

[Dan Julio]

What?!?! It doesn't go up to "11"? What kind of hackerspace is this?

Just kidding. Well done guys. Thanks.

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