Marshall bluetooth speaker FRFR + guitar mod

[Lysander]

My search for a compact FRFR for home noodling took long enough until i realized: hey, why not use a Bluetooth speaker for the job? Good ones are flat enough, loud and inexpensive.

So i ended up buying a mint-condition used Marshall Acton III for the job. This is one of Marshalls new novelty Bluetooth speakers (yuck...), but it's actually of surprising good quality: well built, quite full sounding for its size, balanced, and can be pushed surprisingly loud without speakers farting. Serves the purpose wonderfully for home modeller use, and i suspect it might even sound better than cheaper dedicated alternatives such as Headrush's FRFR-Go.

Bluetooth audio has very high (~50ms) latency on this device, but what interested me is that it has an 3.5mm AUX in. Signal still goes through a simple DSP, but wired latency is reportedly ~1ms. I haven't bothered to measure it myself yet, but i cannot sense any sort of latency when plugged in via a cable, to the point i suspect that figure is low enough to just be measurement error.

What sucks is that... there's no 1/4" input, which is a bit weird for a Marshall product. So, i just hacked my own

 

[Lysander]

The mod is very simple: the AUX jack is on a separate small board, which connects to the main board via a 3-wire cable. I simply drilled a hole on the best place (aesthetically) i could find in the back, mounted a 1/4" jack, then wired it in parallel to the original, so both inputs can serve as AUX.

It also meant the new input sits closer to the mains jack than i'd normally like, but everything's well insulated and there's zero noise/interference.

I could've done this directly in the main board, but the AUX daughter board has some basic protection and filtering circuitry, so i tapped the new input there, and covered it with some epoxy (which decided to goo down just as i was taking the photo )

My brilliant decision for where to put the input jack meant i had to cut a small protuberance from the enclosure, but other than that, it all went flawlessly. Whole mod took about 45mins total.

And yeah, it all works beautifully Been playing my HX Stomp through this thing, and it sounds really rich and full overall, specially for a speaker this size; it's a very enjoyable experience. It won't fool anyone into believing they listen to a Neumann monitor, but turns out these little Marshalls are pretty popular for a good reason. And they look the part!

 

[Chocol8]

Nice! I now use a Fender FR-10 with Archangel V3 for the same purpose. Your solution is a bit more compact and cheaper.

 

[Lysander]

Nice! I now use a Fender FR-10 with Archangel V3 for the same purpose. Your solution is a bit more compact and cheaper.

A "real" FRFR was on my sights for a long time, but ultimately i just wanted something as compact and good sounding as humanly possible. This thing won't keep up with a drummer thou

 

[Chocol8]

This thing won't keep up with a drummer thou

if I find a drummer in my living room, I am not going to try to keep up, I would be chasing him out!

I have a CLR for keeping up with drummers in other locations, so there is no logical excuse for the FR-10 purchase. Don’t tell my wife though.

 

[Whizzinby]

Badass. Those speakers look cool as hell.

 

[Fireproof]

Man that is too cool. And like you said - the looks of the Marshall is perfect for this application. You have your tiny modeler int a tiny amp making pretty decent guitar tones. Big win.

 

[laxu]

Interesting to see that it has two tweeters and one woofer. I thought it would have two woofers based on the size. Maybe I need to look at what my first gen Marshall Acton looks like inside.

Personally I'd rather just use a 1/4" -> 3.5 mm adapter, but it's cool to see this modded!

 

[Lysander]

Interesting to see that it has two tweeters and one woofer. I thought it would have two woofers based on the size. Maybe I need to look at what my first gen Marshall Acton looks like inside.

AFAIK Actons are all the same inside: triamped, with 30W for the main driver and 2x15W for the dual tweeters.

It's a weird setup, but seems to works very well - and also means Marshall did not just slap their logo on some third-party Chinese OEM product.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Nice job.
How is the stereo image with it?

 

[Lysander]

How is the stereo image with it?

There IS some stereo imaging, which is odd coming from such a little box. It's probably a combination of the dual tweeters and some DSP magic.

It does a passable job, as long as you're sitting in front of the speaker.