Portable speaker for all music players

Make a really easy speaker

Step 1 Parts

you need:

a speaker (you can get them from tv's, jukeboxs, and more)

ipod head phones

wire cutters

soddering iron

sodder

Comments

[geo526468]

For those of you doing this with a large speaker i recommend making an amp of some sort so you don't blow out your ipod or mp3 player and render it useless.

[thedownsmeister]

It is impossible for you to blow out your ipod by connecting a headphone jack to an unamplified speaker. The only thing that would happen is your battery would drain faster than normal because it's trying to drive a much larger speaker. I do agree that this won't work that well without an amp, though; you can see that in my first comment.

[thedownsmeister]

Hey everyone, this might not be working because there is no amplifying circuit between the output (your ipod) and your speaker (the speaker you ripped out from something). If your speaker is any bigger than about 1" across you will need an amplifying circuit even with the volume turned all the way up as Derinsleep said. The ipod or any other music player will not have enough power to drive the speaker's movement, which creates the sound. I agree with JL2013; this instructable was very confusing and could have used some original pictures or video to help demonstrate what steps need to be taken.

[georion]

Roger Dodger !!!!!!!!! instead of worrying abut spelling--lets worry about if this will work !!!!!--great comment ,,thedownsmeister !!!!!!!!

[butterflycookies]

I connect a ton of speakers together and i need a small amplifier for them I gatta jack one from a cessite player or something....

[musick_08]

there is one at radioshack for about $25, idk how big it is, but i'm getting it when i get some money

[arikyeo]

 i doubt this is an 'ible. it just tells things we already know!

[wrongboi]

Some of you guys can't even spell solder, how embarrassing.

[BlondGuy101]

He's just spelling it phonetically, as per what I think must be the commonest American pronunciation. Chill

[cons11]

is there a word "commonest"?are you saying "most common"?

[BlondGuy101]

I did think that commonest is a real word, it is certainly common round my way. Most common probably would be the more correct though according to Henry Spooner's Ideal of English Grammar.

[LilPurpleCow]

Yeah, I don't get it. You connect earphones to a speaker, where does the mp3 go?

[JL2013]

cheap and affordable, but a little confusing

[thepaul1993]

did you say to use iPod headphones because they break, well mine are

[creative zen]

where can i get a soddering iron, what is a sodder, and how much would they cost?

[ivaneduardo747]

Buy one from Radio Shack (about 10 dollars or less) and follow this tutorial about soldering: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/solder.htm

[get to da parakeet]

The Easiest Definition For Solder. Solder Is Electric Glue.

[ivaneduardo747]

Yeah, gluing with metal.

[fordman15243]

Molten metal! >=D

[TheMadTinker]

You can get a soldering iron at your local electronics store (think Radio Shack). Solder is a metal alloy with a fairly low melting temperature used to connect wires and other electronic components.

[gilleseg]

I think he was making fun of the fact that sodder doesn't exist and that the guy who made this used that word instead of solder...

[poop11346]

good eye lol

[mai109]

I'm sorry, but all i can say is "DUH!"

[Airgodman]

Will it work with any mp3 plyer? What if you're trying to make speakers that are already portable bigger?

[sadunpererarules]

dont you need a power supply of some kind? otherwise the sound would be extremely soft

[Sk8erCk4Life]

So you can't just take a pair of ear phones and cut them in half and use the plug and solder it to a speaker? And if you add like a fifteen foot audio wire, wouldn't you have to use a battery compartment on there so that the sound has enough energy to go through.

[Holden_vy_s]

If you connect it directly to the speaker, the sound produced will be very quiet (depend on the size of the speaker.)

[n0ukf]

A battery doesn't amplify sound, you need an amplifier circuit for that, powered by a battery or other power source.

[thankyoudrivethrough]

(removed by author or community request)

[n0ukf]

Your english isn't any worse than his instructions ;)

[n0ukf]

MadBeaver, it's solder, not sodder. You need to be sure what wires you're using, because your earbuds are going to have 2 wires in each half, a ground and a (left or right) signal wire. One pair goes to shell and tip and one goes to shell and ring. Also, earbud wires are thin enough that you'll lose some signal to wire resistance when driving a lower impedance speaker. That's why some people use "monster" cables, a larger cable than necessary hoping to get the most sound from the amplifier to the speaker with minimum voltage drop in the cables. This won't affect you since the mp3 player's built in amplifier doesn't supply enough output power to drive speakers.

[cfpalmguy]

I did this but i used two speakers in a series and it didn't work as well as i was hoping. This is an awesome project to do with the pocket Altoids can amp the speakers are weak unless you amplify them.

[xxfoxracer9xx]

what i find easier to do instead or trying to use headphones and tear them apart (because headphone cable is fussy and not easy to work with) is to go to radioshack or whatever and get a headphone plug and just solder that up and than solder the wires to the speaker

[leevonk]

you seem to be using the words amp and speaker as if they're the same thing. An amp amplifies the power of an audio signal so that it's powerful enough to power large speakers. A speaker is just a speaker. If you try to connect too large of a speaker to an ipod without an amp you will get no sound out of the speaker (the ipod will not be able to supply enough power to make the speaker move).

[Wonderground]

No, it will make sound, on the speaker above it would most likely give out a decent amount of volume for personal listening.

[leevonk]

yeah, I'm just saying, a 'speaker' is not an 'amp'. You cannot do this instructable with any speaker you find. Bigger speakers will need an amplifier to amplify the audio signal. An amplifier requires a seperate power supply (like a battery or wall transformer).

[evanwehrer]

I can hook up 2 large speakers to my iPod with no amp that I wired myself and its loud.

[xxfoxracer9xx]

it has to do with passive and active speakers with passive speakers u need no outside power with active speakers u need an outside power source. Also it has to do with the amount of watts the speaker needs to "move" lets say u have a 20 watt speaker and connect it to the ipod it will be loader than a 200 watt speaker u connect to it. hopefully this clears up some confusion

[azice]

Is there any color cordination? Where can i get speakers?

[cdubnbird]

i can't get my speakers to hook up to my headphones. i've tried with three different headphones and two different speakers. 1. i-pod headphones with one green wire and i red wire both in the same strand. 2. cheap headphones with one blue wire and one copper wire, and on the other strand one red wire and one copper wire. 3. cheap headphones #2 with one red wire on each strand and 6 smaller grayish shiny (steel?) wires on each strand as well. I have tried every configuration of wires on both portable 2" radio speakers and 1 3/4" singing card speakers. Each time I give it input coming from my i-pod mini. Each speaker plays fine when tested against a battery. And each headphone set plays fine when reconnected with the headphones. I'm frustrated as to why it won't work. Help?