My son leads a troupe of roving amateur jugglers/acrobats who perform indoors and out year-round and wanted a portable PA to help pull in and hold a crowd. It needed to be loud enough to be heard across a park or on a busy street, have clear and punchy bass, run on a rechargable battery, and be able to be carried by the smallest member.

We tried various plastic boomboxes and arrangements of computer speakers, which either sounded lousy, were too weak or cumbersome, had low battery life etc.

I made this rig around mid-winter and although a little on the heavy side, has worked out great. Internal dims are 20.75 x 12.25 x 10.25, with a 3" dia port 2.5" long, so the Alpha 8s share just under 1.5 cu ft. There's a 1.5 amp charger and a 7 amp gel cell inside and the tape deck (with input jack) is just mounted in the front baffle. The FM antenna broke off right away but hasn't been missed. It's a very punchy little rig and will crank for 5 hours or so before the battery starts to fade. The detachable power cord has been lost a couple of times and replaced by robbing one from someone's old PC. It's usually thrown in the back of somebody's car with the unicycle, batons, tools, torches, clothes etc.

Those are the 87 cent PE piezos by the way; they're fine for this use but don't put them in your Studio 1s.

John