Bose S1, Fishman Loudbox Mini Charge ALTERNATIVE

[bsman]

Originally Posted by zhunter

What a difference 5 years makes.

Yup - there is an amazing amount of research $$ going into battery technology right now, because this technology dictates the pace of market acceptance for electric transportation and distributed generation (i.e. microgrids, solar/wind, etc.) power storage.

[JakeStone]

It is fantastic to see these porta-battery systems. Like others have said, it opens the door to many possibilities.

As a S1 Pro owner for over a year, it still comes down (for me) the unit's simplicity and portability. Plus of course the speaker's performance in relation to it's size/weight. But if I was in market today, def would take long hard look at the alternatives.

[Pine Cone]

Originally Posted by Per Burström

That was me, but I do realise the superior power you will get with the CP8. My point was that if you are a busker or traveling musician considering the S1 Pro your "weight budget" is probably lower than what the CP8 + battery lands on.

Cheers,
Per

I can understand that. I have only busked acoustically.

Do you know what amplified buskers do for vocal micing? I wouldn't think using a microphone in a conventional heavy mic stand for vocals or instruments would be very practical. I would use a guitar with a K&K Mini with a preamp or DI, but am not sure if a headset-style mic would work well enough for vocals.

As an experiment I put together a potential setup with the Kustom PA50 (about 15 pounds), the Beaurens power pack, 2 mics, cords, and packed it all into an 18" nylon tool bag (Husky brand) from Home Depot. The fully loaded toolkit is about 18"x10"x10" and everything weighed just over 26 pounds. The toolkit comes with a shoulder strap so it would not be too difficult to haul around. If I used a gig bag with backpack straps I would even have a free hand for a mic stand, so it looks like it might work for a busking or small venue setup.

Thinking about the hassle of amplified busking both total kit size and weight would be limiting. For the "Farmer's Market" or similar gig a larger kit would probably be worth the hassle of mic stands and the more powerful, heavier CP8 setup.

[necrome]

A lot of (silly) buskers use mic stands but I personally run with

https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/microphones/wh20

You need a preamp since it has a weak signal but if you already have a harmonizing and tone shaping device from TC Helicon or BOSS it'll work fine and sounds great. The condenser headsets are all pretty expensive so I don't think it's worth risking those outdoors!

[Pine Cone]

Originally Posted by necrome

A lot of (silly) buskers use mic stands but I personally run with

https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/microphones/wh20

You need a preamp since it has a weak signal but if you already have a harmonizing and tone shaping device from TC Helicon or BOSS it'll work fine and sounds great. The condenser headsets are all pretty expensive so I don't think it's worth risking those outdoors!

Thanks for the info on the WH-20. Nice to know what it needs to make it sound good.

[jonfields45]

Not the greatest picture or the most significant gig (the patrons are seated in front of us). The power supply is on the table between us.

[roylor4]

Thanks for this very informative post Jon.

[Sound of Wood]

A little late to this thread, but I bought a Beaudens and it has been running my Quilter MP and pedalboard for about 10 hrs, just down into the 4th bar flashing. Amazing. Brought it to my big band rehearsal last night and the guys couldn't believe it.

[Guitars44me]

Any updates from folks using the CP8/Beaudens combo?

Seems like a reasonable solution to portability and it would be lovely to avoid searching for an outlet!

Thanks, all

Paul

[wweiss]

I don't believe the Beaudens is made anymore. I now use the GrantMaya. Same 5 pound weight, more AC inputs and 300watts Pure Sine Wave!https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...V9CZS39O&psc=1 Total price CP8/GrantMaya less than the S1Pro!

I have the CP8/Beaudens combination and I want to thank jonfields45 for the great recommendation. It's my favorite portable rig!

[Guitars44me]

Seems to be available on eBay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313456573074

Is this the same?

Cheers

Paul

[Lost Sheep]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

A good first step is to figure out how much power the equipment you own requires to run. My CP8 is roughly 7 watts producing no sound (running its DSP and CPU). My Mixer is 10 watts. Thus picture 3 which is how to get away with no mixer and still handle two guitars and two mics for my duo (XLR Y-cable, and 3.5 mm TRS to dual 1/4" TS female).

Blasting Steely Dan as loud as I think we've ever used our PA is only 10 watts (on the order of pushing a 25 watt RMS system to the limit of no distortion, or 2.5 watts continuous):

This is an easy lift for the 166 watt-hour Beaudens portable power supply. It shows 5 of 5 bars remaining power after two hours of Steely Dan:
(edited for brevity, this is quoted from the original post in this thread)

So, keep my Fishman Mini Charge or keep my Fishman Loudbox Mini and add a battery-powered AC power supply? (despite efficiency losses going from AC to DC)

I have wondered if the circuitry inside similar amplifiers (and other gear) for battery-powered gear is made to be more efficient than wall-powered gear. It would make sense for manufacturers to put some effort into such efficiency so battery-powered run time would be as long as possible and perhaps cut corners on equipment that is supplied with regular essentially endless electricity.

Thank you, jonfields45 for your 2019 post. I hope you might weigh in if you see this.

My question is prompted by the idea that, for a given battery capacity, the units purpose-built with battery power in mind might still be better than a unit designed for AC power in combination with a battery source of AC. Especially given the need for changing the battery power to AC which then may be converted back to lower-voltage DC inside the amplifier/mixer/whatever.

[jonfields45]

Investing in an AC power meter is still a good idea to check out your portable rig's power requirements. Assuming 80% of the rated watt-hours of any power station divided by the time you plan to play is a good rule of thumb.

What you can't know until the power bank gets home is can it support the power up transient of your system. That will be quite a bit higher than the steady state requirement and the inexpensive wall power meter can't tell you. Several people reported to me that the Beaudens I bought, while fully capable of running a CP8, can't supply the start up transient to run a K or K.2 series QSC powered speaker. Amazon's return policy is perfect for this experiment.

To my knowledge the Beaudens is no longer made, but available time-to-time from third parties clearing inventory. If I was buying today, I would probably lean towards a better supported brand such as Anker (however their "521" is roughly 250 watt-hours and $200 on Amazon at the moment). I searched Amazon for $100 to $200 priced power stations and there seems to be a rich selection of brand-X products...