Power Horn/Dawnsong Question

[Larry D]

Will the Radio Shack power horn (which several of y'all use) make the Dawnsong louder than the CD player with the volume on max? or is it limited to the CD volume? I'm not so much interested in blasting too loud, but maybe a little more. I do want get the CD alarm out of the weather, though.

[Doug Martin - PA]

Larry,

You do not specify what type of CD player you have but let me try and help.

The powerhorn from radioshack comes in 2 basic models. I believe one is 50 watt and the other is 100 watt.

These speakers are designed to be used with an amplifier typical of the old component type stereo systems. (40 watt and above)

If you are using a low watt (10 watt or under) boom box or other power source you may have some trouble. Although it will work... you will need to play it at a very high volume to push the 50 watt powerhorn. This will result in an overheated music player and a lot of distortion at the high volume. (It will sound bad).

Speakers are rated in OHMs the lower the OHM the higher the efficiency. (easier to push). Most of these horns are 8 OHM. (hard to push)

My suggestion is to find an old stereo system applifier and run a CD player thru it. The amplifier can be rated at or above 50 watts per channel. You can run the right and left channel speaker outlets both into the powerhorn simultaniously. Just make sure the + and - wires are the same at the speaker. So you would have 2 positive + wires (R&L) and 2 neg wires (R&L) connected to the + and - of the powerhorn. Half volume will bring them from 10 miles away. (very loud)

People pretty much give away these old style amplifiers that used to make up a component system. You can hook up a turntable, cassette, or any other device to it. They have built in stereo tuners (radio) in them. A CD player that repeats hooked in is also neccessary.

Played at a nice low volume this sounds just like a real Martin.

Hope this is helpful.

Doug

[Larry D]

Thanks! I think I understood most of what you said. I happen to have an old amplifier in my workshop. I don't think I know how to hook up the clock radio/CD player, though. I'm still probably a couple of weeks early for SYs, so I'll take a look at'what' I have. I think I have an owner's manual, too. I think for now I'll just play what I have at full volume (not very loud) and watch the weather forcasts for rain. If "medium volume" brings them in from 10 miles, then maybe mine at full volume will get a few. I only need one or two for starters, right?

[TGivens]

Started trying to attract pm in 2009 put up housing the cavity were to small miss out, in 2010 got new housing put them up late, got my pair on 3/17/2011,there are no starling or sparrows in the area so far,how long before the first egg,so they just feed all day they are out in the morning and in the evening when i get in from work.

[Guest]

I have a power horn, and just have it wired with a jack that fits a small personal CD player. I built a small "cabinet" to place the player in, and I sit the power horn on top of the cabinet with the jack running through a small drilled hole to the player. That way, I don't have to worry too much about the weather because the player is protected, and the power horn can be left outside in bad weather.

[Larry D]

Liz, does the speaker make your CD play louder? or is the volume the same and it just gets the CD player out of the weather? I think I'll probably do just what you did, anyway.

[MDavis]

Larry
What I have is the setup you are talking about I think
Powerhorn with amp and cd player
How I have it setup is my cd player runs 24/7 set on repeat, it's plugged into the wall
My amp has it's power turned on but it's plugged into a cheap $5 timer from home depot which allows it to be hands free.

I wouldn't worry about the cd player running all the time, mine has ran for 2 seasons and it hasn't given up on me yet
Hope this helps. It was the easiest fix for me!!
Mike