off the wall question

[Druke]

I know nearly nothing about guitar amps. That being said, I work in a factory. I tried buying a job site boombox, but it was too quiet. Someone recommended that I pick up a portable amp with an aux in to plug my phone into to be able to listen to music. I looked at amps a bit, but have no clue as to what I need, what would be loud enough, or what is overkill. If anyone could help a poor stir-crazy from no music worker out, it would be very appreciated. Suggestions as to what to look for, what wattage would be appropriate, or point me at an amp that should work, and I'll love you forever, or at least say nice stuff about you! Thanks in advance!

[Chuck H]

If you go into any "Good Guys" or "Best Buy" type place they'll be happy to show you a butt load of stuff you can plug your phone into to generate audio. That said... I know DeWalt and Makita both make job site boom boxes that run on their standard power tool batteries. I'd be VERY surprised if the current models didn't have an iPhone interface. That said... They do make phone music power modules that you simply set your phone into (Best Buy/Good Guys again). I'm a painting contractor and one of my coworkers just puts his phone into a 2 gallon plastic bucket set on it's side. It doesn't sound like all that but it does improve the bass and focus the sound. YMMV.

[Druke]

Appreciate the reply! I tried one of those, but the factory is VERY loud, and I had the boom box about 3 feet away from me, and at max volume, and couldn't hear the music worth a crap.

[Chuck H]

Appreciate the reply! I tried one of those, but the factory is VERY loud, and I had the boom box about 3 feet away from me, and at max volume, and couldn't hear the music worth a crap.

If you want to do it on the cheap you might be able to find an old cassette iPhone interface at a thrift store or on @Bay (I remember my daughter had one ten years ago ). You could then buy a big, strappin', old school and cassette equipped boom box at said thrift store or @Bay and rock on.

It sounds like your problem is a lack of watts from the current offerings. I'll assume headphones aren't an option then. An old school boom box from a thrift store might be just the ticket if you can negotiate an interface. Again, this is a specialty for the modern electronic gadget outlets. You just need an amplifier with (relatively) big watts.

EDIT: I just looked into it and for $140 you can get the Makita unit that is fully compatible with frekin' everything. I worked a site where a guy had one (an older one, but looked the same) and we never got it above about half volume. If you're running loud power tools and such I guess that's your ass!?! But in the words of Red Forman (That 70's Show) "That's why they call it WORK and not happy fun time".

[R.G.]

If I may make a sideways suggestion -

I once worked in a very loud factory. I wore earplugs to save my hearing. There is a classical hearing malady known as "boilermaker's ear" where the banging and clanging simply wipes off most of the worker's hearing. Trying to overpower factory noise with an even louder boom box is both a losing proposition and guaranteed to eventually make you deaf(er).

Get some noise cancelling headphones.

[Leo_Gnardo]

If I may make a sideways suggestion -

I once worked in a very loud factory. I wore earplugs to save my hearing. There is a classical hearing malady known as "boilermaker's ear" where the banging and clanging simply wipes off most of the worker's hearing. Trying to overpower factory noise with an even louder boom box is both a losing proposition and guaranteed to eventually make you deaf(er).

Get some noise cancelling headphones.

Thanks for mentioning that R.G. , I was gonna . . .

Much the same can be said for those who work concert stages. At times I had earplugs in plus shooter's muffs, and I'd go deaf if I opened my mouth, yes that loud. Long periods of quiet at home help some, but that just slows down the damage, doesn't stop it. Save your hearing anyway you can, WHAT WHAT ? ? ? Or you'll wish you had in years to come. I've watched my neighbors struggle with $2000-$3000 hearing aids, they still can't hear anything, the gain's dialed up so far they whistle loud enough for me to hear 50 yards away across the street. You don't wanna go there. Other neighbors used to look at me like I stepped out of a flying saucer when I wore muffs while mowing the lawn. 20 years later, they have their muffs on, did I start a trend?

Needless to say, earmuffs with a built in radio or some such, not a solution to substitute one noise for another. Last time I went to Home Despot for some muffs, that's what I found, no plain ordinary ones.

[g1]

As this is a factory setting, are you already wearing hearing protection? If so, what type?

[olddawg]

These work great.. I just got one on sale for $149 - free shipping. They also make one with a 12" speaker. If that isn't loud enough I don't know what to tell you...


Harbinger V2115 600 Watt 15" Two-Way Powered Loudspeaker | Musician's Friend

[eschertron]

These work great.. I just got one on sale for $149 - free shipping. They also make one with a 12" speaker. If that isn't loud enough I don't know what to tell you...


Harbinger V2115 600 Watt 15" Two-Way Powered Loudspeaker | Musician's Friend

[put head-banging smiley thing here]

[R.G.]

... If that isn't loud enough I don't know what to tell you...

... or how you'd hear me yelling.

[defaced]

Standard in ear head phones, even the 20 dollar ones from the local big box store, do a good job of cutting down area noise. I wear them when I'm in the shop and found they are good enough to knock down the level of a grinder or die grinder to where I don't have to turn up my headphones really to compensate over my usual listening level. They're not as good as industrial hearing protection, but they are alot better than trying to over power noise with more noise.

That said, I will also say that doing this is very dangerous if you have a job that requires you to have a high level of situational awareness. If you work for a large company, I would be _very_ surprised if they don't have a safety policy against this (or if OSHA doesn't). Being in a two man shop I can get away with this depending on the task I'm doing, but there's no way I'd be doing this in a facility with many employees or lots of movement. Too much risk.

[Mick Bailey]

+1 on olddawg's powered speaker suggestion.

Also, quite a few bands get a new setup when one unit out of a pair fails, so there are plenty of single powered speakers around. I know plenty of bands where one half of the PA becomes redundant, or ends up getting used as a monitor. Mackie SRM350s in particular.

I would avoid guitar amps for audio reproduction. The frequency response and distortion characteristics generally don't make for a good sound at higher volume.

One thing to be aware of is if you use a single powered speaker, or any other mono amp/speaker, then you can't feed this directly from a stereo source. You need to make up (or buy) a proper mixer cable to combine the left and right channels into a single mono output. You can't simply wire the two channels together as this will usually cause problems or damage to your audio source. I use two 510 Ohm resistors mounted inside a 1/4" plug to mix the L-R and this works perfectly when running a powered speaker from an MP3 player.

[Steve A.]

After reading this thread I thought I better check my watch to see what time it is. Just as I thought... it's 2015! (If it doesn't have bluetooth connectivity it's prehistoric, man! )



Here's a 2000 peak watt 15" bluetooth-enabled power speaker at Fry's for $139.99 which also plays MP3 files on microSD cards and USB flash drives and has 1/4", XLR & RCA input jacks and an FM radio.

FRYS.com*|*QFX, INC.

Or if you want something that is rechargeable this one is $74.99 and puts out 300 peak watts...


FRYS.com*|*QFX, INC.

QFX's PBX-710700BTL Bluetooth Party PA packs big sound with wireless, Bluetooth streaming or USB/SD/FM playback, and 300W pumping through the LED-lit 6.5" woofer. Tell the world who you're rooting for with the included dynamic microphone and guitar/microphone input. With a built-in rechargeable battery, the Bluetooth Party PA is ready whenever and wherever the party leads.

Steve Ahola

P.S. I got the QFX PBX-505100BT boombox-sized unit on email promo code price of $39.99. I checked out the rechargeable battery and it is a 12V sealed lead acid one easily replaced- get a spare one for those long 7 day raves! [The battery is a 6FM2.6 (12V2.6AH/20HR)]

FRYS.com*|*QFX, INC.



P.S. Fry's offers free shipping on most orders over $34 and anybody can sign up for promo codes emailed every day. So if you are not one of the fortunate few who live near a Fry's store you can still get most of their sale or promo code items (some are marked in-store only.)

[rjb]

...I thought I better check my watch to see what time it is...it's prehistoric, man!

Your watch? Nobody wears a watch anymore! That's prehistoric, man!

[Leo_Gnardo]

Your watch? Nobody wears a watch anymore! That's prehistoric, man!

Check what's on the young hipsters' wrists - watches are back. The bigger the better, 3" diameter commonly seen. If that's not enough now there's wrist-worn bluetooth/smartphone gadgets that look like watches but do oh so much more. Wearers can check Farcebook every 30 seconds, see if they have friends. But I could be behind the times, maybe the recent watch trend has already run its course, obsolete as . . . vacuum tubes.