My Saturdays at work usually turn out to be 16 hour days.I work by myself.Fortunately for me there are large blocks of time I can spend listening to my blasters.After a recent thread here in the forum,I thought running multiple boxes together would be a different experience.I decided to get a Belkin Rockstar headphone splitter to do this partly because the device is so cool looking.The results were quite a happy surprise!
Of all of my '90s boxes,my Panasonic RX-DT680 yields the best results when adjusted for classic oldschool sounding mids and high frequencies.The effects from its upper EQ sliders are very good though not completely satisfying.I admit I tend to be overly critical.The highs are certainly not lacking quality.To my ears they just don't have the "attitude" to compete with the boxes quite impressive bass.This is most noticeable to me with rock as opposed to electronic music.As I love an electrifying listening experience,I suppose it's highs are a bit too "polite" sounding when compared to my favorite classic era boxes.
My Telefunken TM6670 is quite a different animal.Its bass is decent and tight though not nearly as voluminous as the output of my Panny 680.Where this box shines is its mids and highs.It can really put out some sharp cymbals and "in your face" electric guitar noisiness!It's naturally bright mids can render vocals a bit harsh depending on the music.However,most of the time this is not an issue.This box has real presence and adds excitement to music!
Last Saturday I had the idea of trying to getting the best of both worlds.I brought my new splitter to work to run both boxes off the same source at the same time.Hoping to get a cohesive sound from the two boxes I hooked them up and made some adjustments.
Since the 680's most outstanding attributes is its bass,I adjusting its 2 bottom sliders up a bit.The extra bass 50Hz dial seemed to work well at level 6.Wanting to still keep the boxes solid high quality mids for fullness,I left the 1K midrange slider centered.The 2 treble sliders remained at their centered position also to add additional "fill" to the sound.Overall listening volume ended up at 7.
Now it was time to dial in some exciting highs.To add some "spice" to the sound,I moved the two treble sliders up on the 6670 for maximum effect.In the interest of keeping any vocal harshness away,I left it's 1K mid slider centered as it is a naturally bright sounding box anyway.Bass sliders were left in their natural center resting positions as additional lows couldn't hurt.I slid the twin volume sliders to level 7.
Wow this was an amazing listening experience!All ranges were present and all types of music sounded great.Despite 8 drivers working on 2 separate blasters,there wasn't the slightest hint of listening to more than one sound source.Even quiet folk music with a solo vocal sounded natural.The results for many different types of music were top notch.The bass boomed,the upper bass had tone and presence,the mids were bright and lifelike,and the highs were shimmering and sharp as a tack!
I'm really glad I got this Belkin splitter.If it wasn't for others recommendations here in the forum,I would have probably never thought of running multiple boxes from my Ipod.I really wish I could open the speakers on the Telefunken to check out its tweeters.Unfortunately,they were put together without screws.As I'm not a carpenter,I suppose I'll just have to guess what kind they are.They don't look like cones.If they are Piezo style,this is proof that these are very effective in some designs despite their bad reputation with some people.
Hi Jovie-at first I though you got the Hannah Montana boombox!-Just kidding!
That's very cool! I like that idea.
I just missed out on a 690 today-I wasn't around when it sold.
Oh well-next time.
Thanks for showing us this-GB.
Jovie - great detailed update.
Am also looking to get one of this and am particularly interested in the required cables to get the signal to the boxes. My guess at what I need is:
- ipod to 3.5mm jack
- 3.5mm jack to dual RCA x 5
...is that correct?
Thanks
Great story! Now get back to work
Awesome experiment Jovie! Good to see the pay off was worth the effort too.
Brilliant stuff.
Rock On.
ghettoboom777-I had to do a web search to understand the Hannah Montana reference.I see her merchandise everywhere.With that kind of marketing over saturation,you'd think the fad should die pretty soon,whatever it is
.
Ewen-Both boxes have L+R RCA Input jacks.I use a "L (mono)+R(mono) RCA" to "headphone (stereo)" cable for each boxes inputs.The headphome jack ends of these two cables are joined together by the Belkin slitter.The splitter has a built in stereo headphone jack lead which I plug into my Ipod.
The Belkin splitter has a total of five plugs for stereo headphone jacks.I could run additional boxes but I would either need stereo headphone extension cables or a multilevel shelf for all the boxes.The main reason I chose to run these two boxes was because each has obvious strengths the other lacks.This experiment was very effective with no noticeable downside (except an involved setup).Each box can certainly stand on its own.Both are quite wonderful in their own way.The two together however give a totally optimized result.
vlad-Unfortunately I really don't have enough time to do any real experiments or in depth testing.My job involves a lot of busy work.This time goes by really quickly with my 16 gig Ipod on shuffle.When I'm in problem solving mode the volume goes down (or off).
gluecifer-I really wish I could put both boxes together into a single box.The bass/clean sound of the 680 and the high frequency "attitude" of the 6670 leave me wanting for nothing!There's nothing like old school highs.That's what has kept my nostalgic passion for the golden years of the boombox alive all these years.In my opinion,every box should allow you to adjust for that type of sound.
Hi Jovie-I said that because Hannah's most popular song is called: "The Best Of Both Worlds"!
I still want a Hannah Montana boombox.
She will still be around for a long time-very talented young singer and very funny show!
She will be bigger than Britney Spears-already is closing in!
I'm a fan of Disney-totally,it really is a very funny show.
Have a great one-GB.
Actually to be completely accurate,the DT-680 only has "CD out" jacks on the back.As I learned here in the forum,these jacks will act as inputs if you use the "Data CD Trick".For some reason the DT680's CD player will track the burned area of a data CD-r as if there were music in that area of the disc.Of course the data CD has no sound on it so you won't hear anything from it.Even so you will actually see the minutes count down when you do this!However what this does is open the "CD out" jacks to whatever sound is present.This is of course the input from your external music player of choice.If you "play" the fullest data/program CD you have your music input into the "CD OUT" jacks will be heard for the longest possible duration.A completely full CD-r should "track" close to 80 minutes.When the data CD-r finishes the sound will stop from the speakers.At this point simply press play again to continue hearing your music.
I'm sure many of you already know this trick but I just thought I would clarify it to some.For those late '80s and '90s CD box fans who frequent thrift stores you might take whats necessary to check out other boxes having the CD Out feature.In my experience some boxes will do this and some will not.
