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Crazy idea? Sony SRS-XG500 as a home "speaker" for my Helix (small room rehearsel)


jo_arch
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Hi all,

 

Looking for a bluetooth speaker for my PC and for playing music in the living room I came across the Sony SRS XG500 and was surprised it has a mic/guitar input jack.

Ok, uhm... I probably know the answer myself: stuff like bluetooth speakers aren't made/designed specifically for guitar as they are more focused on "party" stuff, right?

 

So, this is probably a stretch: has anyone, by any chance, tried this with a Helix? :-)

(I'd merely use it for room rehearsels on my own.)

 

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I would suspect as long as you set your Helix 1/4" output to Instrument it should work fine.  I can't imagine how valuable it would be for any real use since it's just a simple consumer product other than maybe jamming along with some bluetooth tracks on your phone.  That seems like a lot of setup work just for that though.

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1 hour ago, DunedinDragon said:

I would suspect as long as you set your Helix 1/4" output to Instrument it should work fine.  I can't imagine how valuable it would be for any real use since it's just a simple consumer product other than maybe jamming along with some bluetooth tracks on your phone.  That seems like a lot of setup work just for that though.

 

Cheers! ...Yep, I think it should work. Apart from setting the 1/4" output to instrument, I wouldn't set the big volume knob to the maximum to start with. 

I'm (obviously) well aware of the limitations of this kind of speaker, but it was just an idea. Of course it probably won't sound like a Powercab and definitely not like a real guitar cab. 

And again, it's a stretch, but if someone has tried it with this particular Sony speaker, I'd like to hear from you.

 

And of course it's only for playing by myself in a small room. Without the demand for sounding like I want my Helix to sound on stage (which I have my studio headphones for). 

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I haven't used that product but I bet it will work OK for bedroom practice. 

 

If you don't need a portable, waterproof device you can probably get better sound quality by going a different route, like a pair of self-powered speakers and some way to switch inputs. 

 

Let me tell you what I did recently for the bedroom do-it-all setup. I got a pair of Adam T5V speakers, and I drive them with a Yamaha 10 channel mixer which has:

  • 1/4" stereo in from my Helix LT for guitar and bass practice
  • RCA stereo in from a TV streaming box for general viewing and music listening
  • Stereo in from a Windows laptop via the mixer's USB input
  • Bluetooth stereo in by using the laptop as a BT receiver (yep, there's a free app for that!)
  • A couple of mics via XLR for karaoke and voice practice
  • And there's a 1/8" cable for any phone or other device that wanders by (though, it's either this input OR the USB input, not both)

With this setup I get great general listening quality and I can mix together almost any combination of sources. If I want to play an instrument along with music from a streaming service, I can. If I want to mix in audio from some music practice app on my iPad, I can. We are even doing singing lessons via Zoom and I can send the mixed audio from the desk over USB and into Zoom, so we sound great to the instructor. And the Adam speakers are champs, they handle it all at volume levels which are more than adequate for the bedroom. 

 

Now, you need Bluetooth input and probably won't have a laptop parked by your speakers like I do... but there are gizmos to add BT to a mixer, and there are mixers with BT built in. 

 

Anyway I love this setup... hope this gives you some new ideas. 

 

 

mixer.jpg

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