Making your own SD sound system

There is not much magic involved in creating parts of your SD set. If you are interested in electronics and know how to handle a soldering iron or a saw, you can make lots of things yourself.

But beware! This needs lots of time, and I experienced that developing my own amplifiers, mixers and so on is lots of fun, but not necessarily cheaper than buying them. OTOH I could create what I wanted and was not restricted to what was commercially available. One big problem for me was (is) the need for very high reliability, as systems are transported weekly and a system failure at a dance is a BAD THING.

There are three main fields in this.

  1. Combining commercial products (mixer, amplifier, MD player ...) into a special case (a suitcase or a PA rack),
  2. Building the electronics (for a mixer, a remote volume control ...) and integrating it into a case,
  3. Building loudspeakers yourself.
I have done all three, with varying success.

Projects I have been involved in

Completely selfmade turntable system

Over a period of several years I made a system with a variable-speed turntable, two microphone inputs, High/Low adjustment for each input, inputs for additional sources (I use them for MD input or for connecting an 8-channel mixer for more microphones) and a power stage for 10 W. (I thought it has more than 50 W but measured it recently. Maybe I'll change this to get full power ...)

The turntable was bought from Völkner Elektronik, a German mail order company, the original power stage and all electronics are derived from several magazine articles.

Mixer rack

Together with a friend I designed a rackmount system for him, when he started calling. He used MiniDisc from day 2 and does not own a record player for clubnight use.

We found a mixer with 4 mono microphone inputs and 2 stereo inputs that can be switched between line and phono and A 2x100W PA amplifier. I made a small remote control unit and this friend made the rack and mounted everything. The system works flawlessly, the only disadvantage is it's weight.

Small speaker

One could say I collect loudspeakers... I made one at the size of 20x20x40 cm, using two small broadband speakers. This is a handy size (like a standard record case). It has reasonable performance and covers easily the rooms I use (1 to 5 squares). I used it for a long time, but replaced it recently with a more efficient and better sounding JBL speaker.

Phono amplifier and Remote volume control unit

I integrated a stereo phono amlifier (old ELO article) and two independent stereo volume controls (completely self-designed) for use with a standard hilton microphone cable packed into a 19" case one unit high.

Really small power mixer

This is my latest project. Two microphone inputs, two stereo inputs for MD and a turntable, a power stage with 40 W, and a target size of roughly 30x15x8 cm, so that it can easily be stored in a suitcase along with a portable MD player, all MDs I need, microphone, cables and notes. This is, again, derived from several magazine articles. I built two units, one for a colleague, one for myself, and both perform excellent. (- After replacing all 3.5 mm sockets with something that works. I have yet to see 3.5 mm plugs and sockets that have better than poor quality.)

If I knew how to make my schematics available via WWW I would do it. If you have any questions or suggestions or want more information, just send me an email.

written by H. Niemann, last change: 1999-12-23