Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

I found an awesome new yard speaker to use with the LOR setup!

Guest guest

By Guest guest
in General LOR Questions

 Share

Recommended Posts

Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

Check this out:

I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do for a yard speaker to connect to my LOR so that during the early evening animation lighting shows, people walking by can hear the music too, not just on the car radio.

So I'm in Costco this afternoon, when Jesus appeared before me and said "Dude, go down the Christmas Aisle"

So as I was browsing, I saw my perfect solution! It's called the Animated Snowman Speaker, see the photo below.

I thought this was totally ingenious! It plugs into a standard 120 volt outlet, and comes with a stereo to stereo 1/8" audio cable. But the speaker itself is mono. The sounds is pretty darn good too. I was surprised at how well the base frequencies play. It also has some multi colored lights inside that rotate slowly around, and he’s animated. He slowly lifts his hat and lowers it with his arm while he is powered on.

My guess is the cylindrical body somehow acts like a mini ported subwoofer to supplement the small but adequately loud speaker. I had no problem hearing it 30’ away loudly when I tested it at home today.

One issue with the LOR MP3 card controllers: The line level audio output on them is too loud and distorts the speaker. I may have to buy a cheap line level mixer from Radio Shack with an attenuator built in so I can control the signal level going to the speaker from my LOR MP3 card.

The audio worked out a lot better connected to my portable CD player headphone jack, where I could control the level.

Maybe Dan-O-Rama could come up with a way to build in attenuation to the MP3 card. That would eliminate the need for any external attenuation, because the line level audio coming out of the MP3 card is just a bit too high.


Attached files 73577=4537-speaker.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

Yeah you got the Spelling of Potentiometer right... I just call them Pots... Not to be confused with Pots as in plants or Pot as in an illegal substance though...

I agree with you brian a Pot would be a valid way to attenuate the signal.

Wire it up like this:

| 1 Connect line in here
/

/
_ 2 Connect Speaker here
/

/

| 3 Leave this one open


Connect the grounds together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

This speaker was made exclusively for Costco. I'm surprised it's not on Costco's web site, because they have 50 Christmas home decor irems on the site.

Too bad they don't have their LED lights online, only in the store. The thing that makes the Costco LED lights better than the others, is you get 100 lights for $15, instead of 70 lights for $19 like everyone else charges.

Here's a photo of the information off the Snowman Speaker Box. Try calling that number.


Attached files 73736=4555-speaker2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

I dropped by my local Costco today and they had a ton of these things but they say they are indoor use only. The demo unit looked like it would keep the water out but I wasn't convinced that it would hold up in cold weather...so I declined.

For those of you buying them I would be interested in your feedback come January.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

Because shower radios sounds like crap. They are very tinny, and with tiny speakers, have absolutely zero bass notes.

This clown speaker has an interesting design that actually has some fidelity to it. Like I mentioned earlier, the tube of the body is most likely acting as a low frequency resonator, a ported sub woofer if you will, so that you get some bass out it. I was very surprised at the good quality of sound for such a low priced speaker.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

Great find Jeff, and it will blend in really well with all the decorations. We could by 2, one for Christmas and 1 for Halloween.... We would just have to "Adjust his looks a little and paint on a pumpkin face.." for the Halloween one.

So, you say the sound is pretty good? How loud can you get it before ir distorts? This would be a real benifit for placement of the speaker. Thanks, I'm going out today to have a look at one..( if they have them at our Costco..)

Ken Gelinas

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

My wife and picked up two of them yesterday for me. I will use one of them outside that will mount under my eve where I mounted a speaker last year. I already have one of those speaker wall mounts that I will just hook onto. It should be out of the weather that way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

I went to our Costco yesterday and they didn't have it. From asking around at the store it seems like they didn't get it yet, rather than they had sold out. Not as much xmas stuff at costco as I expected, our Lowes display is HUGE.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest guest

Guest guest

Posted
Posted

robogeek wrote:

Yeah you got the Spelling of Potentiometer right... I just call them Pots... Not to be confused with Pots as in plants or Pot as in an illegal substance though...

I agree with you brian a Pot would be a valid way to attenuate the signal.


You're totally forgetting the networking acronym! POTS actually stands for "plain old telephone service" for those CISCO geeks out there... :laughing:
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...