Audio noob trying to make a working vintage boombox based off of the old Atari 720 arcade game

processedmeat

Active member
Joined
Jun 25, 2015
Messages
122
Reaction score
56
Location
San Dimas, California
Hi all, was gonna make a working 3d printed vintage boombox based off of the old Atari 720 arcade game marquee. I'm not an audio guy so was wondering if you could help me with the design. I'm not looking for high fidelity but if it is something that can be easily implemented to improve the sound, would appreciate some pointers. I'm going to 3d print it so a lot of things can be easily implemented. I was going to use a pair of 8" GRS Full Range speakers that are pretty cheap on Parts Express for the main speakers.
  1. What would these openings, circled in red, used for in the real world? Venting? Or is there a tweeter or other speaker behind there?
Screenshot 2025-08-12 130051.png

2) Would you build inside the design, enclosed chambers to isolate each of the large 8" speakers? Or would it not make a difference. I saw in some diy boombox designs, people would isolate each speaker with some interior walls.

3) Would you put polyfill in the open interior spaces inside?

4) Anything else you would recommend?

Thanks!
 
Fun project!
A box that vintage absolutely would've had a tweeter behind those cool little grills.
If you port and pack that with some kind of fill it will definitely sound better.
Have an idea what you will use for crossovers?
What will the player in there be?
Actually going to build a casette deck into it?
 
1. Should be a tweeter. For a boom box, just something real simple would be fine.

2. Those 8" GRS full range speakers are really big. They are great replacements/upgrades for pinball cabinet speakers. They need at least 1 cubic foot enclosures each. Good speakers, but probably not the best for a boom box application, really overkill.

For a project like this, I'd look at one of their speaker kits that already has all the components included (amp / power adapter) and can connect via bluetooth.

 
Fun project!
A box that vintage absolutely would've had a tweeter behind those cool little grills.
If you port and pack that with some kind of fill it will definitely sound better.
Have an idea what you will use for crossovers?
What will the player in there be?
Actually going to build a casette deck into it?
After thinking about it some more for the first iteration at least, I'm just gonna go with full range speakers and just have fake 3d printed tweeter so I can skip the crossover (hopefully this is true????). It would be most useful for me for it to be a bluetooth device as I've given away all of my cassettes over the years, so I'm planning on having a illuminated fake cassette that looks like it's being played when there is music on.

Thanks for the reply!
 
1. Should be a tweeter. For a boom box, just something real simple would be fine.

2. Those 8" GRS full range speakers are really big. They are great replacements/upgrades for pinball cabinet speakers. They need at least 1 cubic foot enclosures each. Good speakers, but probably not the best for a boom box application, really overkill.

For a project like this, I'd look at one of their speaker kits that already has all the components included (amp / power adapter) and can connect via bluetooth.


Thanks for the advice and recommendations!

I'm actually going to make the form factor of the boombox more like those taller "ghetto blasters" so from my mockups 8" speakers seem to look really good on it. And right now those speakers are really cheap on Parts Express. One reason for me doing the project was I had a bunch of leftover electronics just sitting around in my workshop so I have most of those things in the kit.
Screenshot 2025-08-14 092400.png
 
Back
Top Bottom