" MS" wrote in message
...

"Neil" wrote in message
om...
" MS" wrote in message
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Are there any decent portable powered speakers available today, good
for
music?

Budget?

Undecided.

For what purpose?

I'm an elementary school music teacher. Unfortunately (since the district
only funds one music teacher per five schools), I teach at five different
schools. At some there is a decent stereo I can use. Others not, or not
yet.

I am putting more music these days on my PDA and laptop computer, so I
think
it might be a good idea to have a decent pair of powered speakers in my
car,
that I could use when need be. Therefore, the size should be fairly small,
as I often have a LOT of stuff to carry around, therefore no more than 2
speakers (no subwoofer or anything).

How big is your audience?

Where will you use the speakers?

How loud do you need?

Sometimes in a large hall, a school auditorium. Sometimes with school
choruses, with which I have MIDI accompaniments on my laptop, as many as
60
children or more.

Therefore there has to be a balance between size and power. Often a large
hall with a lot of kids, for which more power would be good, on the other
hand something I can carry around with a lot of other stuff as well. So of
course not as small as the tiny "travel speakers" to carry in your
suitcase,
but still fairly small and portable.


In these larger arenas you will need some 15's. Definately not small or
portable. For the smaller areas some 10's would do good, but auditoriums
you need some good throw that comes only in much bigger, much heavier
speakers, definately not something you would even want to have stored in
your trunk.


If you just want to entertain yourself, I suggest headphones.

I have many headphones, thank you. No, I don't "just want to entertain
myself". (Actually, that was a strange statement. Did it sound like I was
looking for headphones?)


Some of the Cambridge SoundWorks speakers are portable and can run
from batteries, as shown below. I haven't heard these:



http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/s...=mul_speakers&
item=a1mmbatt&type=store

http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/s...gory=port_spkr



http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/s...y=mul_speakers

Thanks for the tip. Has anyone reading actually heard these?

Frankly, I don't know if one can judge from brand name, without hearing
the
speakers. Among those junky-sounding ones in the computer section, there
are
speakers made by well-known speaker manufacturers (or at least wearing
their
brand name) such as JBL, Altec-Lansing, etc. They try to market these to
people by using fancy names, by the looks, and by the quantity of speakers
(7.1, etc.), etc. (Frankly, one decent speaker is worth a million times
more
than 8 junky ones.)


Go to a music store and listen to the pro quality (Yahama, Behringer, etc.),
or music quality (Peavey) speakers.

(Now I looked at your CSW links above, and none of the systems on those
pages fit the criteria I described. There are the tiny "travel speakers",
such as those by Creative Labs., which would offer the utmost in
portablity,
but not put out enough power for my needs. Then there are these new
popular
"multimedia" systems with "subwoofers", etc. As I wrote, two good
speakers
are enough for me, I don't want three, six, eight, 17, or 100.1. ;-)


Your desires are phantomware. The products that meet your desires do not
exist. You can NOT get the sound you want in the auditoriums or gyms
without the 15's. You *might* get away with four 12's or even a pair of
double 12's, but you are talking even more space needed than you want.

Also, what are you powering them off of? Do you have a decent mixer to run
the computer through? Your source is not very good unless you have a Turtle
Beach or similar top of the line sound card. You really are not going to
get excellent sound from a computer no matter how good your speakers are.
Therefore all you need are something like a Peavey or Sonic or some such
low-grade powered speaker. Then again, your handling needs show you need a
better quality cabinet that can handle the abuse of being stored in the car,
something that is all-weather to handle the dampness and cold and heat of
being abused while stored in the uninsulated, unheated, unair-conditioned
trunk.

I think your most reasonable solution is to go mono and stick with a single
15.

--
Mike D.

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