Modifying a soundbar

[Syd Rumpo]

I have a car radio/ CD player in the kitchen which fits nicely out of the way underneath a row of wall cupboards with a suitable cut-out in the trim.

The speakers are on top of the cupboards, quite near the ceiling, which is fine when things are quiet, but they're a bit far away compared to, say, the kettle and so need to be turned up more than I'd like.

An answer would be some sort of flat speakers attached to the underside of the cupboards - say about 2" high.

Then I saw pictures of 'soundbars'. I know nothing of these, but it looks like some of them would fit nicely and unobtrusively behind the trim on the underside of the cupboards.

But I don't want the electronics, just the housing with the speakers directly connected to the car radio. Seems like it should be an easy mod, but I've never looked inside these things - anyone done this?

Cheers

[tabbypurr]

Speakers with minimal box volumes can be expected to have pants bass. If you must save space, use ceiling speakers.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

Seems overkill. Surely you can make some shallow MDF cabinets and mount a pair of car speakers ex a scrapyard?

[Davey]

Or cut holes in the bottom of the cupboards and mount a pair of 8" Goodmans in there, using the whole cupboard as a resonator box? That will get the kitchen moving!

[Syd Rumpo]

It's not so much about the space as moving the sound source closer to the ears, although I wouldn't want conventional speakers in the way on the worktop. Bass isn't the issue - it's the kitchen and there's good old fashioned Hi-Fi in a couple of other rooms.

Cheers

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sound bars generally ain't just speakers. They have active electronics driving them. As well as being a power amp will tailor the response for the small speakers. And usually have a separate bass unit too. Often Toslink input only - so a PITA to connect to a car radio.

I'd say your best bet would be to buy a radio designed for under cupboard mounting in a kitchen, etc.

If you really want to DIY, the best place for the speakers would be in the ceiling.

[Adrian Caspersz]

I'd say yes, ideal and cheap if you are not worried not having ultimate HiFi quality in the kitchen. Further more, some of these things have bluetooth so you can link it to audio playback from your phone, or maybe the TV in the other room so you can hear the match?

Your car radio should hopefully have a low level output, that normally used for an external boot amplifier.

[Brian Gaff]

Actually that depends on whether they are ported or not. also some long throw speakers are made for infinite baffle small enclosures and sound surprisingly nice. Sound bars, well, depends, I don't like the sound from the cheap ones myself, too plasticy. Has this person thought of something like the Kings Audio Sovereign usb stick player? Brian

[tabbypurr]

it doesn't, the space the OP is talking about is far too small to get a good result even with a ported cabinet.

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!

[newshound]

Not actually answering the question, but this is what I sometimes use in the kitchen

to play stuff on, or streamed from, a tablet, phone, or laptop. I'm pretty sure it has a direct "line input" connection as well. Batteries recharge via a micro usb port so no special power supply needed.

[Andy Burns]

Yep, I used to have a tinny old transistor radio in the kitchen, but recently bought a VaVa bluetooth speaker, quite weighty, not claiming it's an actual hifi replacement but certainly impressive bass and volume for a small device.

My nexus7 tablet had become too sluggish for general usage, but is happy to run iPlayer radio and google play music, weather and news "ticker" widgets for good measure. I plug a chromecast audio into the speaker (both USB power and audio in) so wifi gives better range than bluetooth.

[RJH]

I've one of these:

Very impressive, considering the size - better sound than any flatscreen TV I've heard.

But don't you mind faffing about with tablets/phones just to listen to the radio or some music?

[Andy Burns]

Didn't come across that one in my search of bluetooth/wifi speakers and/or DAB radios.

Not really, I've dedicated my old Nexus7 tablet to the purpose (it had become too slow and clunky for general use). It sits on the breakfast bar in its docking stand, it's always charged, just goes to sleep and becomes a big clock, one touch wakes it up, then I've got a bunch of widgets per radio station on the home screen, so another touch selects the station.

Other widgets for music, news, weather and volume, so I don't use android apps as such, just a block of widgets, like a touch screen radio/mp3 player. If I'm at home all day, I leave it streaming away to itself like I would leave a normal radio on ... bandwidth? schmandwidth.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Can I ask what you and yours usually listen to in the kitchen? ;-)