Best products from r/diysound

We found 38 comments on r/diysound discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 180 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

Top comments mentioning products on r/diysound:

u/sniggly · 2 pointsr/diysound

---power supply:
I just ordered one of these 1100/1400 watt (depends if you give it 120v or 240v) Supermicro PWS-1K41P-1R power supplies for $25, hoping I will be able to turn it on when it gets here! What I currently have, and am super happy with, is a 460 watt HP DPS-460EB. Second one down on this page is where I found out how to power it up. These server power supplies have one giant 12v output (there may be -12v or other voltages but at tiny amounts), perfect for car amps.

I had to solder a wire between the first and fourth pads - as shown in the photos and schematic above - so that it would turn on when plugged in. I might put a switch in there, so I left the wire long. Also soldered some 10 guage power wires to it. That's plenty for 500 watts over a few feet or less, according to a voltage drop calculator. It's nearly silent at low power, pulls six watts when idle, and gracefully handles overloads: I didn't try waiting to see if it would come back up on it's own, but when I overloaded mine with a battery tester it simply turned off. I let it cool and it came back up like normal afterward. Super happy with it; I've powered a kenwood amp wired up to make 350 watts, which worked great, and I'm currently running a smaller infinity with better controls as it's plenty for my room. The only hard part is soldering to the big bare copper pads, I think you need a high power soldering iron. Also some of them have loud fans, apparently. This video is where I got started, and including mention of a current-sharing pin which I sadly don't think most of them have, but would let you run multiple PSUs in parallel.

There are lots of people doing this sort of thing to run high power RC battery chargers, as well as amps, fwiw.


---Amp:
The Rockville RXM-T2 apparently does 1200 real RMS watts bridged at 4 ohms. Dynomometer tested here. I spent some time looking through cheap amps that have test resuts, and nothing else I could find is even close at 4ohm, for under $150. The crossover in it may be BS, or low-order, according to reviews, and it doesn't actually handle 2 ohm bridged like its supposed to, which doesn't inspire confidence.

u/brad1775 · 5 pointsr/diysound

That's a 5.1 setup, the receiver outputs a coaxial digital RCA plug directly to the subwoofer, so you just put the sub right next to the receiver. thats the ".1" part. you also buy a bunch of "bannana plugs" to make 5 cables that go from the positive and negative of each of the 5 outputs of the receiver to each pair of outputs on the wall. without more info, I'd just say buy this, it comes with the wire, plugs, and receiver. if you can tell us more about what size room, and what kind of speakers you have (you'll need to use a bent paperclip stuck through the holes in the grill to pull the metal grills off the speakers, don't worry, you won't hurt them) I might tell you to get a better quality system so you aren't wasting time with a low powered receiver, but honestly, if you don't know, you will never notice a difference and that's beautiful! you will only use 10 of the 12 included bannana plugs, and only for the wall, the rest of the connections will be direct stripped wire into the receiver. this willt ake some wire stripers and practice if you've never done it, watch a youtube video about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-STRDH590-multi-channel-Receiver-Bluetooth/dp/B07JGFM616/ref=pd_cp_23_2/132-0038274-5893769?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B078WG7HZY&pd_rd_r=b86f913a-17f2-4ede-94aa-d70bda909e11&pd_rd_w=XoV6b&pd_rd_wg=scFt2&pf_rd_p=0e5324e1-c848-4872-bbd5-5be6baedf80e&pf_rd_r=HCY5TKVSNZXK4D54KN61&refRID=HCY5TKVSNZXK4D54KN61&th=1

Then, you'll need a subwoofer to go with this, and same story, without knowing more I'm gonna tell you to buy this, because it's the best price, and you won't notice a difference until you have a second sub to check the quality against. If all of your speakers are mounted on the ceiling, I'd say just buy one sub, but if they are mounted like, 8 feet apart on the wall, with the TV centered between them, and you have space on the floor, you could buy two and place each one under the right and left front speakers. Not necessary and people will jump in and say "But subwoofers are non directionsallll" bullshit. 2 subs sounds better than 1 in most rooms for reasons I don't want to explain right now, but it's only an extra $80, and you just bought a house. Treat yo self. But then again, maybe just buy one, and later, upgrade the receiver to a $400-600 version with higher wattage output and a better sub for like $400. no need to clutter your space when something is better than nothing. https://www.amazon.com/Sony-SACS9-10-Inch-Active-Subwoofer/dp/B00O8YLIY6/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=subwoofer&qid=1575001825&s=electronics&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sr=1-5

​

you will also need a cable to hook the sub to the receiver. buy the shortest length you need just for cost and saving the uglyness of extra wires laying all around the place. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D5H8UTW/ref=twister_B01LYNSL5S?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

u/LSR305s · 2 pointsr/diysound

Wow thanks for such a thorough response!!!

  1. yeah I figured as much, I'm thinking i'll start with Corded Hitachi , or Corded Ryobi and then if it ever breaks or if I need a cordless I'll upgrade down the line.
  2. True, Likely worth the upgrade. Do you think I should focus on Titanium over Black Oxide? or is a reputable brand the main concern?
  3. Thanks for the insight!
  4. Solder , Gotcha Yeah i'll try to see if I can find anything like this locally (smaller quantity preferably)
  5. Stahl Soldering Gun , I'm thinking this one which was linked elsewhere in this thread.

    6/9/10 - I think they were written into the manual as different ways in which to attach the crossover board to the bottom of the box. how do you normally attach it to the bottom of the box?

    I'm considering Crossover Board , just to help with organization, however i'd still need to attach it to the bottom of the box.

    ​

    I just realized I forgot speaker wire for the internals, does it matter a lot which gauge? any general guidance.

    ​

    I would really like to complete the outside of the boxes , as i may end up giving them away as a gift eventually. wondering if i'll need a Sander , if i plan on doing vinyl or some sort of wrap? I'm not against painting, just against spray painting.

    ​

    ​

    Also forgot Snips
u/jrshaul · 1 pointr/diysound
  1. Metal works great - if it's sufficiently well braced. 3mm steel with a lot of internal bracing (little triangles in the corners will go a long way) is plenty strong, and while you'll want to coat it with something to prevent ringing, it should work pretty well. That said, it'd be a huge amount of welding - MDF is a lot easier.
  2. Upgrading to an amp like this would be a worthwhile upgrade. Alternately, buying a Sure Electronics amp board for cheap and building your own amp enclosure would be a great use of steel...
u/JohnBooty · 4 pointsr/diysound

If you have the space for it a 5.1/7.1 home theater receiver will actually provided the easiest, cheapest, and best subwoofer integration since it's guaranteed to implement a proper crossover that high-passes the C-Notes (improving their power handling and clarity about the xover point) and low-passes the subwoofer. Accessories4Less is reliable and has great refurb deals. They'll also put out more clean power than your typical compact Class D amp.

Of course, there's not always space for something like that.

Compact amps with subwoofer out are annoyingly hard to find. The SMSL AD18 and Q5Pro have subwoofer output, but are a bit pricy. They don't get super super loud, but should be plenty loud enough for practice or as monitors I guess! Keep in mind that their sub outs aren't high-passed so the C-Notes will still play full-range.

Alternately you could choose any old amp, and simply control the volume upstream from the amp. Then you won't need a subwoofer out on the amp.

(RCA splitter) --> (inline volume control) --> (piano)

The amp would go into one set of RCA outputs and the sub into another.

You could of course skip the inline volume control if you can simply do it on the piano!

> Main goal is to get distortion free power that won't starve the speakers, so I'm thinking it should probably put out 40 watts per channel at a minimum? I could be wrong there, parts express has the cnotes rated at 60 watts RMS.

If you're going with a class D amps in the $100 range, look for amps rated at around 100W per channel -- typically based on the TDA7498E like the SMSL SA98 and Topping PA3. That "100W" rating is at 10% distortion. However, they'll do 50W at nice low distortion levels, giving the C-Notes about as much clean power as they can take.

However, if you're just using these for practice from a distance of several feet you don't need to go that big. A "50W" class D amp will give you around 25W of actual clean power, which is pretty damn loud at close range and is only ~3dB less than a 50W amp and 6dB less than a 100W monster.

u/wav4rm · 3 pointsr/diysound

I know using 18650s is trendy (and pretty easy if you use an amp board from Parts Express, they sell battery holders that plug right into the boards) but I’ve been a big fan of using a removable battery pack (with its own safety circuit), like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ME3ZH7C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_RNnoDbP0KDB6R


I built a mid sized boombox using these: https://reddit.com/r/diysound/comments/7ph3ck/update_pelican_550_budget_audiophile_boombox/

Using this type of battery makes it easy to swap batteries instead of recharging them inside the unit (I use industrial velcro to keep them secure inside the boombox), and like I said, they already have safety circuits. I like to put an externally visible volt meter on the power switch circuit so you can know how charged your battery is too.

One limitation is you’ll be limited by the amperage of the safety circuitry on the battery configuration you choose. With 18650s you can get a lot more wattage depending on how you configure them, with the battery I suggested you’re limited to 3 amps at 12 volts, so 3 x 12 = 36w total

u/Mundain · 1 pointr/diysound

Well, just from what I was reading it seems its always best to go with proven deivers and crossover design, especially for someone like me who has not made any enclosures. Due to that, I didn't find any very small options that had significant plans. Other than that barrier, I have no issues with the mecahnics of hooking anything up.

Honestly most of the stuff I see online and youtube for a form factor I am looking for rarely has specs or parts listed.

I mean honestly right now I have a little D-class amp powering two of the speakers from an old set of computer speakers (https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-X-530-5-1-Speaker-System/dp/B0002WPSCG/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1467651033&sr=8-7&keywords=logitech+5.1+computer).

If it sounds better than that, I probably wouldn't complain and just salvage the parts in the future for a more robust build as you suggest.

Source would be mostly streaming or mp3 as well. So my question is, if I get a driver like the HiVi B3N, will it be just as useful as a mid later one as the FE85s (assuming i eventually take it apart to do something else with)?

u/iBuildSpeakers · 4 pointsr/diysound

Excellent input- I completely agree with JohnBooty's assessment of the OS sound. Definitely not for home studio usage.

As far as amp - unless you're pushing them super hard, (since you're in nearfield) you can go with a SMSL amp. Good price, decent build quality, and it should hopefully free up more budget to spend on speakers.

https://www.amazon.com/SMSL-50Wx2-TDA7492-Amplifier-Adapter/dp/B00F0H8TOC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465509439&sr=8-1&keywords=amplifier+smsl

u/RhysLlewellyn · 2 pointsr/diysound

Thank you. I've attempted to get a refund and just bought something else. If that fails I will attempt a repair.

Those amp boards could come in very useful though! They're insanely cheap. I have a side project building a racing simulator. I need a few amps to send power to some body shakers mounted under the chair. Do you happen to know if one of these would provide enough power one of these:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Unknown-Bodyshaker/dp/B002LQAHPE/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=body+shaker&qid=1567975857&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Thanks. I appreciate I've drifted off topic slightly now, so obviously don't feel obliged to answer. :)

u/quantifiableNonsense · 2 pointsr/diysound

I have this cheap POS: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9HNK6L/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It isn't exactly "tiny" but it works perfectly for heatshrink. Definitely feels poorly constructed though.

u/amd_kenobi · 8 pointsr/diysound

Here's a link to a few bare board amps with bluetooth that should do a good job if you want to do a full integration job or a pre-built all in one with a remote as a convenient bolt in option. These amps have wired and bluetooth inputs and can power both standard 8 ohm speakers and 4 ohm vehicle speakers. These are by no means audiophile quality amplifiers however I have a basic 2 channel one hooked up to a pair of Sony monitors as my computer and have no complaints about the sound quality.


How many and what size speakers is the cabinet cut for?
Parts express is good place to find speakers and other components.

Beyond replacement parts I would look into baffling and adding some additional internal panels for better acoustic quality and, since you live in an apartment, sound isolation.


That looks like it will be a fun project, good luck and keep us up to date.

u/meezun · 3 pointsr/diysound

Just my opinion here, but class-D amplifiers have gotten good enough and cheap enough that there's no real reason to DiY amplifiers if your sole goal is bang for the buck.

Here is a nice amp that's probably better and cheaper than anything you could make yourself.

u/Elaborate_vm_hoax · 1 pointr/diysound

Those speakers aren't powered are they? That Fiio isn't going to get anywhere near the amount of power that you're going to need to get much out of those speakers.

A basic amplifier like the Lepy LP-2020A would get you a lot closer to the power demands that you need.

For a bit more I like the SMSL SA50. It's nicer to use and has a bit more power than the Lepy unit.

For a basic explanation of why that FiiO isn't going to get there... it pushes a maximum of 78mW (.078 watts), your speakers will need more power than that...to get to 87dB at 1 meter you'll need 1 watt.

u/2old2care · 6 pointsr/diysound

These are amazingly good for the price. The 8-inch woofer provides great bass, though they are a little larger than most desktop speakers.

u/kkdigger · 1 pointr/diysound

Thanks for your reply. I'm not sure about a metal tab connected to ground. This is the amp. Best I could tell I think this is the same one too?

u/Brendanct · 5 pointsr/diysound

I built up my first "real" listening area and I am absolutely thrilled with how it all came together. Pretty standard C-Note build, I did do the .22uF capacitor mod on the crossover to bring the peak down from -20 dB to -40 dB.


C-Note speaker kit


Crossover PCBs


.22uF capacitor


Binding posts


SMSL SA50


Chromecast Audio


u/remembertosmilebot · 3 pointsr/diysound

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

this

---

Never forget to smile again | ^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

u/bontonton · 1 pointr/diysound

Need help getting my speaker system for my PC. Have the following:

DAC: Micca OriGen+ < https://www.miccatron.com/micca-origen-usb-audio-dac-and-preamp-2/ \>

AMP: SMSL SA50 < https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A2QLGEQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 \>

Bookshelf Speakers & Sub: Infinity Reference R152 and R10 Subwoofer < https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1179704-REG/infinity_reference_2_way_bookshelf_speakers_pair.html \>

Not sure how to connect the subwoofer in this setup. My old sub had speaker in/out so I connected PC > DAC > AMP > SUB > Speakers. The R10 Subwoofer doesn't look like it has any speaker in/out so now it is PC > DAC > AMP > Speakers.

I bought a Y Adapter and have it connected like this: https://imgur.com/a/JWWmjZS

I ran a left/right sound test but the bass only seems to play when the left side plays. No bass on the right. How do I get the bass to work for both sides?

u/PioneerStandard · 0 pointsr/diysound

Those would be very good for that amp. Appropriate suggestion IMO.

u/tl_attack · 2 pointsr/diysound

Do you have any recommendations? I recall seeing someone using something like this in a previous build. Would I have any issues powering both the amp and bluetooth receiver off one of those?

u/sphykik · 3 pointsr/diysound

You can get one that outputs 12v already - something like this: TaletCell

u/l1788571 · 2 pointsr/diysound

The $25 Lepai LP-2020TI will get the job done at normal volumes:
https://www.parts-express.com/lepai-lp-2020ti-digital-hi-fi-audio-mini-class-d-stereo-amplifier-with-power-supply--310-3000

If you can afford to spend more, something like the SMSL SA50 would be a beefy upgrade that could really open the C-Notes up, but it's $68, so that might be outside of what you were looking to spend:
https://www.amazon.com/SMSL-50Wx2-TDA7492-Amplifier-Adapter/dp/B00F0H8TOC

u/fullmetaljackass · 3 pointsr/diysound

I'd just buy this or something similar.

u/SoberBrent · 2 pointsr/diysound

It does say they have a BMS so it’s got some protection for the cells. I’m not sure if it would be full capacity for that price. I recently tried out this power bank/12v battery

Used Velcro to attach it to the back of my project. I’ve used it for a week and it’s still half full and you can always peel it off the Velcro and use it for a usb power bank.