mixing with crappy car speakers?

[Sean Holland]

I've been mixing a recording of a live rock band I did the other day. The first mix sounded great on my monitors (Audix near fields), although I knew it was too bass heavy. It sounded good on my home stereo (nice speakers). I gave the CD to a member of the band. He played in his truck and it distorted horribly. I tried it in my van and had the same result. Further mixes improved things but there were still issues playing on crappy vehicle systems.
So I'm thinking I should get some crappy car speakers to add to my rig so I can run the mix through them from time to time instead of having to burn a CD and take it out to the van to test the mix.
Any suggestions or comments on this issue?
Thanks.

[Messiah]

Auratones?
Even just one placed in between your regular monitors.
If it sounds good on Auratones it usually transfers well to cars, tv's and small radios.

[TYY]

I have thought about putting some 5" car door speakers into little boxes and using them as monitors. Need a cheap amp for them.

$150 for a pair of auratones seems expensive (ebay prices), still need an amp, too.


I am trying to find a little boombox with a line in to use for mixing. You'd be surpised how much a 1983 sharp boombox goes for on ebay! Broken antenna, tape player broken, battery door missing, $50!!!! At a yard sale it'd get $1! Madness...

[Telecastr]

so go to a yard sale.

[TYY]

Unfortunately the boom boxes with line-ins are very rare unless they are of the super-giganto variety. I am looking for a compact one with two 4" drivers. They are out there, but not easy to find without ebay. Obviously I'm not the only one looking for them, but the demand seems oddly high...

[Sean Holland]

On the way home today I went to a car audo specialist shop to see if they had any crappy car speakers they hadn't thrown out. Nope, they throw them out right away. Then I saw Joe's Used Furniture. In there I got a pair of crappy Sharp bookshelf speakers for $10. Now I just have to find an old amplifier for them. I dunno. They might be TOO crappy, but I guess any mix that sounds ok on them will be ok on anything.

[Improv]

We use a model similar to <a href="http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&itemId=61415&catGroupId=25023&modelNo=RX-FT530A&surfModel=RX-FT530A&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702"target="new">this</a> at my studio, and it's true... if you can get your bass to sound good on the mains and not crap out on this box, yer golden.

self-powered computer speakers work well, too.

[TYY]

Originally Posted by Improv

self-powered computer speakers work well, too.

Well, I just bought these on ebay today. Anyone have these with a dell computer? Think they'll do ok for mix checks?

my new "monitors"

[cornboy7x]

i actually have those at work. they sound better than youd expect. great for checking mixes. i use them all time.

[84K]

How about the Philips Game Port Boom Box?

[7rojo7]

you'll need balanced load line attenuaters to use a boom box and sound good.
I'm currently looking into the same thing 4" CoAx, the car stereo place has an amp, same problem with the signal from a +4 balanced out being too hot. I made a little box with 2 xlrf and to rca-f panel mounts and 6 resistors, I wired the resistors directly to the xlrf conectors, no pc board
These are 2 designs by tiny and Tim Farrant were so kind to show me here on gearslutz

[djwayne]

For a cheap speaker sound test, I use an old Panasonic table radio I modified with a 1/4" switched jack connected to it's 4" speaker. You can find these old table radio's on E-bay or thrift stores, cheap...Mine is in a nice looking wood cabinet, and would be used in an office setting.....Sound wise, it's all mid-rangey.....and a perfect tool for testing for mono sound out of a cheap radio......

The thing about it is, it's not very dynamic, but very easy to listen to for long periods of time, such as in an office setting......

I also have an old Sony boom box with line input jacks, that I use occassionaly.

My main monitors are Yamaha Home Theater speaker cabinets. They are a three way cabinet with 12" speakers. Very similar to NS-10's but with more bass....I also have a set of NS-10's connected to this system....The end result is, if it sounds good on the Yamaha's, it usually will sound good anywhere, car, boombox, table radio, so I'm happy wity my setup and monitoring options.

[BevvyB]

Yes as someone mentioned, I already got excited about the Philips boom box months ago for all the above reasons

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthre...nsumer+speakers

If you want it to sound like an auratone.....

put your mix into mono and pull one of the leads out