One thing I've become very aware of of late is the need to have a certain level of volume when carrying around the streets.
I find a HUGE difference in what is 'normal' listening volume indoors to what I consider normal outside, and on numerous occassions
I've found boxes that I listen a lot at home, and get all excited about carrying then end up too weak to cut the mustard outside and end up putting on a pretty disappointing display.
Indoors we can position our boxes perfectly for stereo separation and be an ideal distance from them. When carrying the box is projecting the sound away from you and is well below ear level (if carrying by the handle, I don't do the hollywood-shoulder carrying). I find that most times at home I'm on maybe 3-4/10 volume for most listening, but outdoors this is more like 6-7/10. As we all well know many box's bass craps out around halfway, so the whole idea of these things being designed to be carrried around outside must come into some sort of question.
Of course theres loads of boxes with volume to burn outside, especially the larger classics like the C100/GF-777/M90 etc. But I find a lot midsize boxes, regardless of brand or quality are, quite bluntly, rubbish out on the streets. Theres certainly a lot of tuning you need to play with for sound on any box outside at volume, making sure the loudness is off and balancing out the treble sometimes helps, but again, this is usually at the expense of the range you're going to get.
I've carried all my big onepiecers (bar the VZ's) to work at some stage or another and now that I look back at which ones are my go-to boxes to load up with batteries at the start of the week the list is actually pretty short. I'm not going to go through them all, but without a DOUBT (regardless of recent incidents) the TRC-975 delivers the best sound to weight ratio when out carrying. Then followed by the Conion TC-999/C-126, Sanyo BigBen (this is a bit of a pain to carry due to the depth though, the sound makes up for it). The TRC-931, RC-M70 and high end Toshibas and Panasonics go next and then you step down to the RISING 20/20 and the GF-9000. The C100s/M90s/777s/etc of the collection are just a bit too heavy for every-day use, I find, but their sound outside is always totally kick arse.
This is something I ponder about quite a bit as I work on my theory that boomboxes, portable stereos and ghetto blasters are three markedly different designs that were made for specific purposes. And it's starting to gain a bit more credence with my experience on volume outdoors and in particular the Lasonic TRC-975 which is truly designed to look like a ghetto blaster, but in the essence of it's sound reproduction it actually IS one.
Just some musings on my behalf, but something I'm sure lots of us can share some theories about. And even more so, what have been the best results you've heard from your radios out in the streets while carrying? Or cranking outdoors in general.
Rock On.
I find a HUGE difference in what is 'normal' listening volume indoors to what I consider normal outside, and on numerous occassions
I've found boxes that I listen a lot at home, and get all excited about carrying then end up too weak to cut the mustard outside and end up putting on a pretty disappointing display.
Indoors we can position our boxes perfectly for stereo separation and be an ideal distance from them. When carrying the box is projecting the sound away from you and is well below ear level (if carrying by the handle, I don't do the hollywood-shoulder carrying). I find that most times at home I'm on maybe 3-4/10 volume for most listening, but outdoors this is more like 6-7/10. As we all well know many box's bass craps out around halfway, so the whole idea of these things being designed to be carrried around outside must come into some sort of question.
Of course theres loads of boxes with volume to burn outside, especially the larger classics like the C100/GF-777/M90 etc. But I find a lot midsize boxes, regardless of brand or quality are, quite bluntly, rubbish out on the streets. Theres certainly a lot of tuning you need to play with for sound on any box outside at volume, making sure the loudness is off and balancing out the treble sometimes helps, but again, this is usually at the expense of the range you're going to get.
I've carried all my big onepiecers (bar the VZ's) to work at some stage or another and now that I look back at which ones are my go-to boxes to load up with batteries at the start of the week the list is actually pretty short. I'm not going to go through them all, but without a DOUBT (regardless of recent incidents) the TRC-975 delivers the best sound to weight ratio when out carrying. Then followed by the Conion TC-999/C-126, Sanyo BigBen (this is a bit of a pain to carry due to the depth though, the sound makes up for it). The TRC-931, RC-M70 and high end Toshibas and Panasonics go next and then you step down to the RISING 20/20 and the GF-9000. The C100s/M90s/777s/etc of the collection are just a bit too heavy for every-day use, I find, but their sound outside is always totally kick arse.
This is something I ponder about quite a bit as I work on my theory that boomboxes, portable stereos and ghetto blasters are three markedly different designs that were made for specific purposes. And it's starting to gain a bit more credence with my experience on volume outdoors and in particular the Lasonic TRC-975 which is truly designed to look like a ghetto blaster, but in the essence of it's sound reproduction it actually IS one.
Just some musings on my behalf, but something I'm sure lots of us can share some theories about. And even more so, what have been the best results you've heard from your radios out in the streets while carrying? Or cranking outdoors in general.
Rock On.
and I have a minty SCR8 for sale as well 
I just put my SCRATE back together (SCR-8) a couple days ago, and I just realized how LOUD IT IS!! 
