Speakers for your Noisey Cricket, Smokey and other mini amps

[Canucker]

what speakers have you been using for your build (and from where?)... I'm looking at getting some of these but they are rated at a half watt and the one watt versions are sold out..your thoughts? http://www.taydaelectronics.com/hardware/speakers/mylar-speaker-8-ohm-0-5w.html

[petey twofinger]

those are tiny , as in 57 mm . i have a dano hodad that i bought and moded into a cigar box with a 5 inch speaker . i used the stock speaker , one of them , in a small aluminum box with a noisy cricket and was very surprised how loud it is . but it doesnt have any bass .  now i have to figure out how to tame the oscilation i am getting with that amp .

guitar speakers typically have a smaller diameter cone as opposed to the lgr diameter full rande speakers you see in book shelf systems / boom boxs . the cabinet also has a lot to do with how it will sound as well .

i am more into recycling stuff , but at one point i did buy some  jensen mods , due to advice online , i found for this particular application they didnt work well , but they sound excellent in another amp . this amp needed more fullrange type speakers for high end . go figure , i guess i like a bright sound too .

i'll be honest though , i , personally wouodnt go for that speaker you linked , it resembles something you might see in a toy . the smaller speaker i got out of the hodad was a traditional paper speaker . i would say look at your junk in the attick , or even try resale ... i wouldnt recomend going smaller than 5 inches unless you are going for pocket amp or mini mini , and in that case , paper .

when messing with my slide synth i tried a bunch of mini speakers , those type designs did not stand out as being very loud , actually those are the quietest i tried . but ymmv .

[tca]

I've been using Fonestar speakers:
- Fonestar UT336, 3''=7.5cm speaker (8W rms, 20-14.000 Hz, 8 Ω, 89 dB - 1 W/1 m)
- Fonestar UT528, 5.25''=13.3cm (15W rms, 50-12.000 Hz, 8  Ω, 90 dB - 1 W/1 m)

with good results. If you want to use a small speaker choose something like a 3'' (the Fonestar UT336 is a TV speaker) with at least 5W (large magnet speaker with a good sensitivity works better). Looks something like this:



Cheers.

P.S. (Edit)

These Fonestar speakers are made in Spain and I buy them in some local stores.

[Canucker]

Thanks for the advice. I built up a smokey really quick last weekend...point to point just to give it a try and of course recycled a speaker as I keep everything. The reason I want to purchase speakers is to build a few of these...I was really happy with the results and low cost so it could be great for many birthday presents. I'd like to keep it as small as possible because I put mine in a wooden box from the dollar store (it was a buck and a half) and it sounded great with that and a three inch speaker. Sure its kind of a toy but for a total cost of under five bucks I don't expect much more! I'll look into the stuff you guys advised. I'm really getting cornered here though with having to order parts from different places for every project I seem to want to make. blah.

[Canucker]

I looked up the Fonestar speakers...none of the results were in english 

[earthtonesaudio]

[tca]

@earthtonesaudio: that would work too , but you can not find it for less than 10Eurs!?!?

[Canucker]

yeah what he said....not to mention shipping included!

[cab42]

Like tca, I have had good experience with speakers for television. I have a couple of speaker between 5 and 7 w I have taken from broken televisions. They sound pretty decent.

Carsten

[earthtonesaudio]

Well I was only halfway kidding.  The size/cost ratio between a Marshall stack and a lm386 amp is a couple orders of magnitude, and ridiculous.  However in my experience it is the most fun and best sounding choice of speaker for that particular amp.  If you get a chance to try it out, I highly recommend it.

[petey twofinger]

yeah the tiny one that i made has really come in handy for testing things . its nice to have , almost the smaller the better for that idea . i wonder if the speaker size is relative to how long the battery lasts .

[earthtonesaudio]

Size, no.
Impedance, yes.

[waltk]

However in my experience it is the most fun and best sounding choice of speaker for that particular amp.  If you get a chance to try it out, I highly recommend it.

+1 - and extend it to any of the small amps you find around here. Some of the mini amps have an unbelievable full sound when you hook them up to a decent speaker.  I've seen people ask whether mini-amp-x will power a 12-inch speaker - wrongly thinking that a low-powered amp would have difficulty with a physically big speaker.  Just the opposite is true - an efficient big speaker sounds much better and louder than a smaller (less efficient) speaker of the same impedance.

[roseblood11]

http://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/index.php/language/en/cat/c249_TT-Speakers.html

[tca]

http://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/index.php/language/en/cat/c249_TT-Speakers.html

Did you try any of those speakers? They seem good (have to see what is the shipping cost).

EDIT:
The 10'' speaker (shipping costs included) is about 26 Eurs.

[roseblood11]

Both are often recommended for this kind of amps at the musikding.de forum.