Bluetooth Speaker

This one was really satisfying to make, as it brought a few things together to solve a real problem. Some background…

A few years ago I made this cigar box bluetooth speaker but was not happy with it. The amp I used is not particularly good, and tends to highlight the mids and has almost no bass. This made it terrible for music…but not terrible for speech.

At one point I had wedged this amp into a Bose nightstand radio that was intended to hold an iPod, figuring the Bose speakers would make it sound better. They did not. The speakers and amp went back on the shelf for a long time. I figured I would never use the amp since it was so low quality.

I am on conference calls for work much of the time. I typically use headphones, but have never found any that were comfortable enough to wear for long stretches of time. So I would constantly change them out. Then one day it hit me…could I reuse this crappy amp to make a bluetooth speaker? The amp could put out a decent volume, the Bose speakers were small enough. All I had to do was 3D print a box to put them all in.

I found a model on Makerworld that fit the bill, printed it and jammed all the components into it. The result was pretty nice. The speakers are loud, fit just under my laptop stand and stay out of the way.