As you may have noticed, we’re quite the fans of dub and soundsystem culture at A Bass Odyssey, and it was only a matter of time before we started building our own sound! During the first C-19 lockdown in 2020, I decided to begin with a battery powered, 3-way system for home/studio use, which could also be mounted on a cargo bike for small mobile/open air sessions. Since then I’ve spent quite a bit of time optimising the system, and as there have been a number of questions about the sound over the past 3 years (as of June 2023), I decided to create a walkthrough of the process, including components used and updates made to the sound during that time. So without further ado – please give a warm welcome to the “Rolling Lion Hi-Fi“!

I’d been thinking about building my own sound system for quite some time, but mainly due to storage constraints and often moving house and studio or travelling for longer periods of time, it was never really a practical endeavour! Upon returning to Berlin in March 2020 from some winter travels, and learning that the future of our next events was up in the air due to C-19, I decided to use the “lockdown” time to work on some other projects. With a new base of operations on the outskirts of Berlin and a full wood workshop, there was nothing left to keep me from starting on this one!

Why a 12 volt sound system?
I decided to start this next chapter of the odyssey with a “mobile” version of a 3-way sound system – with 3 separate sections for low, mid and high frequencies – which could also be used at home / in the studio, and eventually mounted to a cargo bike for the odd open air session here and there. The system is fully powered by a 12 volt “leisure battery” (Varta LA95), and after the first test sessions in the area, it seems to last for at least 8 hours at a decent volume!

How does it sound?
The first sound check was surprisingly good for having just wired everything up and making some intuitive adjustments in the DSP software! At first we tested the sound in the workshop, driving the levels up to a point where the mid and top cabinets began to vibrate off of the subwoofer! After fastening a tension belt around the stack (which is about 110cm tall), we continued making some adjustments in the software, until we found a balance we were happy with. On the next day we rolled the stack into the garden, and were surprised to realize the bass was even stronger / warmer outdoors (using the same settings)! There’s still a lot to be done, but we’ll get to everything in due time.

What’s next?
During another “lockdown” in winter 2021, I created the “Rolling Lion Hi-Fi 2.0“, which has been sitting in the studio and providing some nice sound in stereo! After crafting 2 “mini-scoops” for the 8″ drivers, I started on some horns for the 1″ drivers, and gave them a nice finish after sanding everything down by hand. I’m really happy with the way they turned out!

Update: In June 2021 I took the sound out for a little ride – 50+km! – as part of the world’s largest bike demo called “Sternfahrt”. Riding from my home base in the southeast of Berlin, I head into Neukölln where I met up with a bunch of people and jumped on the Autobahn! From there we rode past Tempelhofer Feld and then north to Zoo and finally to Brandenburger Tor, where we chilled for a few hours in the park! 

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