So, I wanted to have some music but room is limited and so is my budget for such trivial things. I like the wake tower pods but I tend to fall over at least once a month and I could see me breaking one of those off mid-ride. And, with my tendency to get wet and muddy I did not want to spend any real money on an amp or controller to drive them. I have a G-Boom bluetooth speaker but it does not play loud enough and the battery is finite, add in the thing bouncing around and I gave up.
I was searching around and came really close to getting a "Marinemaxx" amplifier/controller since they can be had for around $80 and they get decent reviews, but my wife pointed at the 20 year old "pile-o-crap" in the basement that we had amassed over the last few decades and mentioned I should use some of that "Junk" instead. Ok, no way am I using a vintage alpine amp on my submarine so I needed to find a cheap way out.
So, I started looking at options on Ebay. I found that there exists a tiny amplifier circuit card with built in bluetooth that supposedly would do what I wanted it to do so I ordered one and kept my expectations low.
It arrived.
The TDA7492P with bluetooth! They claim 50W x 2... I hope we all know better and can just move along, after all this aint no classic Kraco! (Ok, that is sarcasm)
This thing has control buttons, bluetooth and a built in 2 channel amp and can be had for around $10 +/- depending on how long you want to wait for it. I paid $14 cause I was in a hurry and being a "High roller" I had that much cash sitting around....
Example listing.... TDA7492P 50W+50W CSR8635 Bluetooth 4.0 Audio Receiver Digital Amplifier Board CN | eBay
Anyways while I was waiting on it to arrive I found two pairs of old 6.5 woofers with huge motors on the back, these things were left overs from the last big sound system I had in the 90's and are possibly older than some members here. And, a set of tweeters still in a package... $8 worth of tweeters to be exact!
So, I got to thinking about glue and plywood and where do I have wasted space and here is what I came up with.
After I built this I hooked it up to my home receiver and I gotta say it sounded really loud. Kinda like a horn from a Klipsch. Bright and loud, not much bass, but a lot of sound.
Once the amp arrived I tested it by powering it with an old wall wart transformer that put out 12 volts at 3 amps, I have no idea what it was from, I have a collection.
I was really stupified by what I heard, LOUD. The board has two dip switches that allow you to adjust gains and I played around with it, seems to just increase the level of noise floor on the amp. I left it at default settings, but when I flipped the switches it played even louder. But, this is a cheap amp and with it powered up you do hear a bit of a hiss when you have no music playing. Pairing it with bluetooth was simple and painless, and once I power the thing off and turn it on again it pairs with my phone automatically.
So then installed it inside the box with exotic double sided foam sticky tape and connected the speaker wires to the phoenix connectors and ran one pair of 16 gauge wire to the battery and mounted it.
I traded out the speakers for a different pair from the "pile-o-crap".
I might add a passive radiator to get a little more room inside the box and maybe make a bit more bass.
I think this amp would work well inside a wake tower pod and drive a pair of them into oblivion! I just wonder how many really expensive "Soundbars" use this amp?
This has me pondering building other things...
I think it will work for a while, but I think I will try one of the amp cards that has a 3 channel output with a subwoofer output, and then build a cooler/drybox with two speakers and a sub for about $20. The problem with those are if you get the one with bluetooth it specs that you need 18 volts to run it, but if you drop the bluetooth you can run with 12 volts but now I have a headphone cord in my way...
But, as cheap as these are I might gamble that 12v will run it...either that or maybe I can step up the voltage first with a boost converter?
Add a sub channel with the cheap amp below!
TPA3116 100W+2*50W Class D Amplifier Board Bluetooth 2.1 Amplifier Board + Case | eBay
Stay safe!
I was searching around and came really close to getting a "Marinemaxx" amplifier/controller since they can be had for around $80 and they get decent reviews, but my wife pointed at the 20 year old "pile-o-crap" in the basement that we had amassed over the last few decades and mentioned I should use some of that "Junk" instead. Ok, no way am I using a vintage alpine amp on my submarine so I needed to find a cheap way out.
So, I started looking at options on Ebay. I found that there exists a tiny amplifier circuit card with built in bluetooth that supposedly would do what I wanted it to do so I ordered one and kept my expectations low.
It arrived.
The TDA7492P with bluetooth! They claim 50W x 2... I hope we all know better and can just move along, after all this aint no classic Kraco! (Ok, that is sarcasm)
This thing has control buttons, bluetooth and a built in 2 channel amp and can be had for around $10 +/- depending on how long you want to wait for it. I paid $14 cause I was in a hurry and being a "High roller" I had that much cash sitting around....
Example listing.... TDA7492P 50W+50W CSR8635 Bluetooth 4.0 Audio Receiver Digital Amplifier Board CN | eBay
Anyways while I was waiting on it to arrive I found two pairs of old 6.5 woofers with huge motors on the back, these things were left overs from the last big sound system I had in the 90's and are possibly older than some members here. And, a set of tweeters still in a package... $8 worth of tweeters to be exact!
So, I got to thinking about glue and plywood and where do I have wasted space and here is what I came up with.
After I built this I hooked it up to my home receiver and I gotta say it sounded really loud. Kinda like a horn from a Klipsch. Bright and loud, not much bass, but a lot of sound.
Once the amp arrived I tested it by powering it with an old wall wart transformer that put out 12 volts at 3 amps, I have no idea what it was from, I have a collection.
I was really stupified by what I heard, LOUD. The board has two dip switches that allow you to adjust gains and I played around with it, seems to just increase the level of noise floor on the amp. I left it at default settings, but when I flipped the switches it played even louder. But, this is a cheap amp and with it powered up you do hear a bit of a hiss when you have no music playing. Pairing it with bluetooth was simple and painless, and once I power the thing off and turn it on again it pairs with my phone automatically.
So then installed it inside the box with exotic double sided foam sticky tape and connected the speaker wires to the phoenix connectors and ran one pair of 16 gauge wire to the battery and mounted it.
I traded out the speakers for a different pair from the "pile-o-crap".
I might add a passive radiator to get a little more room inside the box and maybe make a bit more bass.
I think this amp would work well inside a wake tower pod and drive a pair of them into oblivion! I just wonder how many really expensive "Soundbars" use this amp?
This has me pondering building other things...
I think it will work for a while, but I think I will try one of the amp cards that has a 3 channel output with a subwoofer output, and then build a cooler/drybox with two speakers and a sub for about $20. The problem with those are if you get the one with bluetooth it specs that you need 18 volts to run it, but if you drop the bluetooth you can run with 12 volts but now I have a headphone cord in my way...
But, as cheap as these are I might gamble that 12v will run it...either that or maybe I can step up the voltage first with a boost converter?
Add a sub channel with the cheap amp below!
TPA3116 100W+2*50W Class D Amplifier Board Bluetooth 2.1 Amplifier Board + Case | eBay
Stay safe!
