Amplifier & Speaker On The Cheap? Updated

[Chase Goldman]

Chuck.  Not sure what detector you plan to use your amplified speakers with, but if you are using the Equinox and have a way to fasten them to your suspenders or backpack straps as Doc mentioned, then the speaker (or speakers) can plug directly into your wireless headphones.  In that configuration, the headphones can be flipped flat an rest on your neck/shoulder and they act as a bluetooth receiver but with the low latency sound coming through the amplified speaker vice the headphone speakers.  I use a low latency bluetooth transmitter like the one below (about $29 US), that I can plug into the headphone jack of my GPX.  That way I can use the same wireless headphones for my Equinox and my GPX depending on which detector I am using at the time.  Works great.   I mention this because you can use a low latency APTX BT receiver/transmitter in lieu of the headphones as your receiver for your amplified speakers.  I don't see too many standalone BT speakers that also incorporate low latency APTX audio so they really do not work well for detecting.  Just some ideas for you to kick around as you figure out your detecting speaker configuration.

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said:

Chuck.  Not sure what detector you plan to use your amplified speakers with, but if you are using the Equinox and have a way to fasten them to your suspenders or backpack straps as Doc mentioned, then the speaker (or speakers) can plug directly into your wireless headphones.

Hugh, I think I get what you're saying.  But for the Equinox, why not just use the WM-08 wireless module which is even faster than Low Latency ABTX systems?

My intentions for use aren't so well crystalized.  I'm thinking desert hunting with a PI.  I could either plug right into the detector (wired) or (pretty sure this will work) use the Garrett Z-link wireless transmitter+receiver.  Note: the Z-link T+R has a built in amplifier, which makes the speaker's amplifier redundant/overkill, or daisy-chainable similar to Phrunt's system.

[Chase Goldman]

52 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Hugh, I think I get what you're saying.  But for the Equinox, why not just use the WM-08 wireless module which is even faster than Low Latency ABTX systems?

Good point.  The WM08 is a great external speaker port solution if you are solely using the Equinox.  Unfortunately, however, the WM08 is not universal so if I want to use the same wireless method on both my Equinox and GPX, then BT APTX LL is the way to go and that is why I mentioned the BT LL APTX receiver/transmitter module that I can plug into my GPX as a transmitter for the Equinox wireless headphones or as a wireless receiver for amplified speakers and that I can universally use with either the GPX or Equinox.  The Z-Lynk will work as well, but I am trying to minimize different systems so I have pretty much settled on the BT APTX LL universe as the wireless standard for my ML detectors.  And an added benefit is that BT APTX LL hardware is comparably significantly less expensive than dedicated proprietary solutions such as Z-Lynk and ML's Pro Sonic system.

[GB_Amateur]

UPDATE:  I couldn't find any amplifier settings/knobs and when volume knob was max I could hardly hear them on my Toshiba satellite with max gain.  By contrast, the built in speakers on the laptop were far and away much louder.  As best I can tell, these speakers are junk.

 

[MannyScoot]

I'm trying to figure out how to mount it on my detector .......

[Chase Goldman]

On 1/29/2020 at 4:56 PM, GB_Amateur said:

UPDATE:  I couldn't find any amplifier settings/knobs and when volume knob was max I could hardly hear them on my Toshiba satellite with max gain.  By contrast, the built in speakers on the laptop were far and away much louder.  As best I can tell, these speakers are junk.

 

I take it that you did have the usb plugged in for power.  I saw that they had many creative brand names including my fav "Feelglad" so not too surprised.  At least you were only out less than $10.