Luke Bryan will sound as good as he ever has!

Your only a couple of more iterations away from you being able to use it as an ice chest too...you need to get up to speed with battery technology, build some Lithium Ion packs, this will give you a much smaller and lighter battery pack, that will allow you to mount your amps on the floor, put in a waterproof sealed plexiglass shelf over the amps and battery, you'll be able to get at least a 12 pack in there...and of course, no self-respecting cooler stereo is complete these days without solar panels, just because you can and it's easy

EskimoJoe said:

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Luke Bryan will sound as good as he ever has!

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There is so much Florida Georgia Line on my playlist, that I never actually make it to the Luke Bryan.

Bruh have you seen the price of lithium batteries? They are absolutely ridiculous. The smaller battery I bought was right at $100. A lithium battery of the same power capacity is almost $500. I don't think I'll be stepping into the lithium realm anytime soon.


But I like where your head is at on future improvements.

Bro...you got to build the battery yourself, you can get a 3.4v double AA size battery with pcb for $10, each 12v pack will cost you $40, build 3 or 4, put them in series, and you'll be jammin old school with boombox on your shoulder by your ear

You can buy a solar panel that plugs into the cig lighter that will charge the battery some as you use it. I made one of these 15 years ago, but did it for free. It's in the garage collecting dust. I am surprised you don't have battery problems, mine was only good for one day on the lake. Thats without a sub or amps, just had a head unit. Cool project, puts the one I put together to shame. Gonna have to go take some pics now and post them!

Made this in about an hour or so in the garage 15 years ago, when they did not really have bluetooth speakers. I was a few beers in when I started, so looks were no object. This was all spare parts in the garage. Deck was out of an old chevy pickup, speakers out of old cars. Cooler was one that I found on the side of the road. Used this thing for years out on the boat, on the river, or at our camp site. Never had a problem with it. Used a 2 dollar fm modulator to stream music through a radio station. Only money I spent was on a battery, marked down one for 30 bucks at autozone. Not sure why I still have it other than to laugh about it.

Don't belittle that! In a frugal DIY way, that is some ingenuity right there. My late father made $$ starting his own business that way and even after he was established, that mind set never left. His view was 'you can be stuck by the wagon waiting for help, or you can figure out how to cross the river.'

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I changed out the huge heavy duty ratchet straps I had holding the lid down to some much smaller pull style straps. Not only are they lighter, but they are red and black so they match much better

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Oh good. I speak for the entire OB when I say how excited we are that your cooler now has color coordinating straps.


:|

That thing is glorious. I love it.

Hamburger Dan said:

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I bet Ray Price, George Jones, and Waylon Jennings would sound great on a rig like that. Neat idea, but sadly this thread made me realize just how out of touch I am with music technology.

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PFG said:

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I changed out the huge heavy duty ratchet straps I had holding the lid down to some much smaller pull style straps. Not only are they lighter, but they are red and black so they match much better

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Oh good. I speak for the entire OB when I say how excited we are that your cooler now has color coordinating straps.


:|

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Your thread policing schtick is just as annoying as cooler radios and "is outdoors" in thread titles.

Gotcha.

FIFY

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Oh good. I speak for the entire OB, except for 03_Aggie, when I say how excited we are that your cooler now has color coordinating straps

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Nice update OP!

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I speak for the entire OB

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It's fun to see how equally the OB is split between being Pro PFG & The OB gays.

No judgement towards your lifestyle choice and tastes in coolers. Just not my cup of tea.

dlance said:

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I take this to mean all obstetricians because there's no way in hell you of all people speak for the entire Outdoors Board.

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Bad news for him on that front too, since being a sandy vagina in no way qualifies someone to work on them professionally.

Bump.

I had a couple people ask how much money I had into this project. I didn't answer at the time because I honestly wasn't sure. I just focused on sound quality, bought the components I wanted, and said I'll figure out the cost later. Well I had a little free time so I went back and added up everything I purchased for it to get a total expense.

I spent right at $800 for everything, including $52 for the special battery charger for the AGM battery.

That being said, I have a lot of fun building these and would like to build some more of them to sell, but I have a feeling it's more expensive than anyone is willing to pay. To make it worse, the prices on a few of the components I used have gone up and now the bill of materials is running about $840. In order to make it worth my time, I would have to charge ~$1000 to recreate this. Do y'all think it would even be worth attempting to do this?

I'm also considering making a prototype of a smaller and lighter version that has the 4 main speakers, but no sub. My cost on it would be about $630, meaning I would need to charge around ~$800 to make it worth my time.

What do y'all think? Worth building more and trying to sell them? Is anybody interested in one right now? I also might consider selling my first prototype at a discount to fund some new versions that I want to produce.

Discuss.


(Yes I am fully aware that somebody is about to respond with something along the lines of "there's no way I'm paying $1000 to listen to Luke Bryan", but this question is really for the non smartasses with constructive advice)

There is no way I am spending $1000 for a stereo in an ice chest.

Ragoo said:

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There is no way I am spending $1000 for a stereo in an ice chest.

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I feel like this is the reply that didn't really have to be articulated.

AggieChemist said:

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Ragoo said:

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There is no way I am spending $1000 for a stereo in an ice chest.

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I feel like this is the reply that didn't really have to be articulated.

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shouldn't have, but here we are with a venture to market one.

Ragoo said:

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There is no way I am spending $1000 for a stereo in an ice chest.

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I think this is going to be the prevalent opinion for sure, which is why I'm hesitant. I feel like the general public just isn't going to understand the capabilities of a setup like this (in terms of volume and sound quality) and is just going to wonder why a stereo would cost $1000. Furthermore, anyone that DOES appreciate the capabilities of a setup like this is probably savvy enough to build their own just like I did.

I will buy one if you throw in Spuds McKenzie and a pair of those plastic sunglasses with the bars instead of the lenses

drummer0415 said:

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Ragoo said:

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There is no way I am spending $1000 for a stereo in an ice chest.

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I think this is going to be the prevalent opinion for sure, which is why I'm hesitant. I feel like the general public just isn't going to understand the capabilities of a setup like this (in terms of volume and sound quality) and is just going to wonder why a stereo would cost $1000. Furthermore, anyone that DOES appreciate the capabilities of a setup like this is probably savvy enough to build their own just like I did.

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I think you've hit on the answer. Most people won't pay anywhere near $1k, if you want to market a version you'll have to down-spec all of the components to get the price (way, way) down.

Just make sure you factor in the cost of a noise nuisance ticket on the lake/river.

Other than that, yes I think it's a great business idea and you'll sell zero.

I mean, for $1,000 it would really need to be a Yeti cooler stereo. Or at least come with a Yeti sticker so people know how much I spent on it.

You have been out-Whataburgered my friend...

AggieArchitect04 said:

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You have been out-Whataburgered my friend...

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Meh, that's a completely different product altogether. That's just adding a small speaker (that probably sounds like shat) to a cooler that still functions as a cooler. My build has nothing to do with being a cooler, it's all about being a kickass sound system. I feel like a lot of people get hung up on the fact that it's built in a cooler, but that's really an unnecessary detail and unrelated detail to its intended purpose. It just happens to be a very convenient "container" to package the sound system in. I posted this earlier in the thread, but here is why building it into a cooler works well.

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It's durable, light, very rigid even after you cut holes in it, comes with wheels and a handle, can be made somewhat waterproof relatively easy, and was relatively cheap. There's not another container type item I can think of that offers all of this at the same price point.

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Like I said before, I don't think most people don't realize the amount (and quality) of sound this thing puts out. It's an entire high quality car or boat audio system in a box.

And those that are audiophile enough to appreciate it and want it, can probably build their own.

I'm completely ok with that, and not trying to start a business here or anything. I really enjoy building them, I just don't want to lose money doing it. So I thought I'd see if anyone is interested. If not, no big deal.

It may be a different product, but if you were to go to market, that's who you'd be sharing it with. And you're after the same demographic (probably).

I like your build. I think building something, tinkering with it, figuring things out and seeing a completed, satisfying result is where the true beauty lies.

drummer0415 said:

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Like I said before, I don't think most people don't realize the amount (and quality) of sound this thing puts out. It's an entire high quality car or boat audio system in a box.

And those that are audiophile enough to appreciate it and want it, can probably build their own.

I'm completely ok with that, and not trying to start a business here or anything. I really enjoy building them, I just don't want to lose money doing it. So I thought I'd see if anyone is interested. If not, no big deal.

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you would probably make more money by publishing and selling the BOM, wiring diagram, build instructions, etc. with a typical build cost.

Then you could come up with other build ideas, test and publish.