How about this? Carrying the Megavox, or any other portable soundset, with an internal battery will always be troublesome due to its weight. Especially long harinams or Ratha Yatras take a toll on the carrier of the sound set. You could put the sound set on a wheeled cart, or in my case on your back to make it more comfortable. I still haven’t decided what is a more convenient; a cart or a back carrier…

But i set out to mount the sound set on the back. I needed a sturdy rucksack or something else to serve as a basis. I decided that a baby carrier (with a metal racking) would be the best for my purposes. I bought a second hand baby carrier (Hema Rugdrager) and took it apart so i was left with only the backside. Sorry for the baby

The Ingredients

• 1 Megavox or any sound set (35 mm hole)
• 1 baby carrier
• 35 mm tubing
• 1 extra 12V lead-gel batterij
• wiring, switch + plugs
• nuts & bolts and metal plates
• two creative hands and lots of tools

Creating the contraption
The Megavox has a standard speaker mount hole of 35 mm, so i needed a tube of 35 mm to mount on the baby carrier. I found this in a local vacuum cleaner shop. They sell tubing of 35 mm width and 500mm long. I bought 2 pieces that fitted together and attached it to the baby carrier. Since the tubing would need to hold the weight of the megavox (6.9 kg incl battery) i made sure it was connected securely. The bottom end rests on the baby carrier and is secured by a bolt. The upper part was fixed with one large bolt and a metal screw. The tube was fixed in a slight angle compared to the baby carrier. In that way the weight will be properly balanced when the sound set is mounted on top. (Something that proved to be very necessary!).

On the bottom of the baby carrier i fixed a metal plate. On top of this “platform” will be the battery compartment mounted. The Megavox has an internal battery, but i decided to take it out to decrease the weight and to stabilize the contraption. I’m adding also a 2nd battery to increase the playing time, and this battery does not fit in the megavox. The weight of both batteries (3+ kg) will be a counterweight to the megavox on top. From some scrap metal i made a metal housing for the batteries and mounted a battery switch. Electric wiring was put inside the tube up to the megavox. Here you can see the wires from the tube and from the megavox. I did not drill a hole in the megavox. When the screws from the metal battery retainer are removed (see our battery replacement article) you can use these holes for the wiring.

I removed the internal battery from the megavox. To keep all the wires original and intact i connected the extra wire to the internal battery wire as you can see from the photos. This extra wire leads outside of the megavox and has a plug to connect to the carrier down to the battery compartment. Since i did not change any of the original wiring i can charge both batteries simply by using the battery switch. When i don’t use the carrier i can reinstall the internal battery and remove the extra wiring easily to restore it. In that way i don’t mess with the 6-year warranty that comes with the megavox.

The first time i put on the carrier i still had the internal battery inside the megavox. It was very unstable and i tended to tumble over with the megavox. Since the megavox is mounted on the tube using only the speaker stand mount hole i was afraid that it might pop out. So i secured the megavox with a big bolt. For this i needed to drill a hole in the base of the megavox. This is the only adjustment i had to make. I don’t think it will void the warranty.

After the first try i decided to take the internal battery out. With the batteries on the bottom of the carrier the contraption was more stable. The carrier needs to be strapped tightly around the waists and upper back to improve the stability. The whole weight will be held by the waists, as it should, so your back will be spared. After tightening it to my back i tried it again. It has quite some weight but i think it will OK. Although it looks quite silly i think it will serve its purpose on queensday. I don’t think this is suited for a smaller harinam! The megavox might also be too loud for that. We don’t want the police to stop us!

Field tests @ Queensday harinam
During Queensday i had the opportunity to test my contraption. As you can see from the photos the contraption worked very well. I discovered a design flaw. The battery switch is mounted on the outside of the casing. So a few smart people pushed the switch to turn the sound off. So next time i will remove the switch or cover it properly. Secondly some drunk guy try to stop me during harinam. He grabbed the contraption by the metal tubing. I must say that he could have easily pulled me down to the street since the contraption is already heavy (around 12 kg). So better not be around angry and drunk people

I walked around with this thing for 3-4 hours and it was a heavy toll on my back. Be sure to share the burden and ask others to also carry it around for some time. The following three days i had some serious back problems.  But then again, i am quite a thin guy.

And also be sure to wear earplugs!!!! The megavox is very close to your poor ears..

I was happy to attend the Ratha Yatra Festival in Dublin last sunday the 13th of Sep. I visited Dublin for a “tourist” tour and was suprised to find out a Ratha Yatra was planned. Amazing mercy from Krishna. The Ratha Yatra Festival in Dublin starts at Parnell Square and ends at the Park @ Stephens Green. The festival was wonderful with Mahavisnu Swami and many others. I made some photos, particulary from the soundsystem they used. The sound was not placed on the festival cart but was placed on a stroller. It was running on a 12V big battery. They used a 12V – 220 V converter to power a powered speaker and probably a wireless system. The singer was using a wireless headset so i presumed it was also mounted on the stroller.

Overall it looked like a nice contraption. The sound was clear but since it was mounted on a cart and very close to the ground the sound did not travel far. The music party moved sometimes quite far from the cart and then you could not hear the chanting anymore. Also people who were pulling the cart were not singing that much because of that. I suggest that the Dublin Rath organization could place the sound system on top of the cart in the future. In that way everybody can hear the chanting and will sing along. The big cart has enough place to store the soundsystem so that is no obstacle. Or they might consider buying the Megavox portable sound system!!!

In 2008 i reviewed the Anchor Audio Megavox Portable Soundset. Because our traditional Queensday Harinam in Amsterdam is about to happen again on april 30th i was pondering how to extend the battery life of this sound set. Although the battery life is already excellent (almost 6 hours, volume 50%) i needed more. The harinam lasts at least 8 hours so i need some extra juice. You can read my coming article about that soon.

If the internal battery is getting older and the capacity has decreased you could change it. The battery inside the megavox has the following specs according to Anchor : 12 V 5.4 Amp (Leoch DJW-12). But when i opened the megavox there was a different battery inside : PowerSonic PSH-1255F2-FR, 12 V 6.0 Amp (www.power-sonic.com). The dimensions are the same with 90x70x102 mm (HxWxD).

Anchor created a nice guide to replace the battery yourself. You can visit their  blog or watch the slideshow.  I have listed the necessary steps below with photos.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 7

Step 7

Step 8

(Copyright Anchor Audio)

I have recently updated my review of the Megavox Pro and added some more insights and photos. Also i extended the review to include some direct competitors of the megavox. So go ahead, read it again

• Review Megavox Pro

Anchor HBM-60 Headband mic

The supplied headband microphone that comes with the Megavox Pro is not really sturdy and when you move a lot the microphone moves up and down. Secondly the whole headband construction is really flimpsy. So i set out to replace the headband mic.

The wireless receiver (WBM-6000) uses a 4-pin mini XLR male plug for the microphone input although only 3 wires are used to power the mic. I don’t know the reason why Anchor Audio uses a 4-pin plug, but this certainly limits the available headband microphones that can be connected. And also the wiring is different than most other plugs, so you need to be carefull.

So i went on internet and found this headband microphone from monacar that uses a 4-pin XLR plug. I could buy it from a local dealer in the Netherlands since Monacor does not sell to end customers. The price was 125 euro. When i received it by mail i tried it out for a quick test to see if it would work on the receiver. It didnt…. Be

Monacor HSE-130 Headband mic

carefull what you do here because when the wiring is different it could fry the microphone. So i needed to change the wiring of the 4-pin XLR plug on the headband mic. I e-mailed Anchor audio to find out the wiring schema of the WBM-6000 and also found the wiring schema of the Monacor mic (HSE-130) (see images). Then i resoldered the wires to the correct positions (see image below). Afterwards i tested the microphone and it worked!. I was really impressed by the sensitivity of the monacor mic compared to the supplied headband mic. It really picks up your voice more clearly and more loudly.

Here are some instructions with photos to show you how to do it:

Open the mini-XLR plug and locate the wiring of your HSE-130. It should be like this :

Wiring of the HSE-130 Headband mic on the Belt Pack

The wiring of the WBM-6000 Belt pack is different as you can see from this image:

Wiring of the WBM-Belt pack

So to get the HSE-130 working on the WBM-6000 belt pack we need to change the wiring:

HSE-130 -> WBM-6000

- The powersupply wire (on pin 4) needs to be soldered on pin 3

- The Audio in wire (on pin 3) needs to be soldered on pin 2

- The Mass (ground) wire (on pin 1&2) needs to be soldered on pin 1

Rewiring from HSE-130 -> WBM-6000

So with this guide i hope you can change your headband microphone for another type. I attached the wiring schema files for your conveinance:

• Manual of the Monacor TXS88HSE Wireless Belt Pack
• Wiring schema of the Anchor Audio WBM-6000 Wireless Belt pack