I use this little Bluetooth amp to play music and podcasts in the living room

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Originally published at: I use this little Bluetooth amp to play music and podcasts in the living room | Boing Boing

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Thanks Mark. It may have been reviewed here before because I have it in my shop now. (I find your recommendations useful frequently!) It works like a dream, syncs with my phone in seconds, driving some book case speakers to all the volume I need even on those dance party evenings with lots of power tools running!

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I miss the Chromecast Audio. Needs separate amplification, but is nice not needing an active connection with the phone for streaming.

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I wish there were a thing just like this but powered by battery not mains.

I’ve searched before, but no luck.

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If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, if you can find an old Airport Express it makes a wonderful little audio streaming device (don’t bother with the Wi-Fi features as they are hopelessly outdated). It even supports TOSlink. I have a first gen one that I have plugged into the wall and connected to a pair of speakers and LAN. When I want to play something on the speakers, I just AirPlay my audio to it. It works great for what it is. Since it doesn’t use Bluetooth, it has superb audio quality.

Apple made three generations – the first two generations (A1084/A1088, and A1264) that were discontinued in 2012 that’s about the size of a MacBook power brick, and a newer one (A1392) that was discontinued in 2018 that’s about the size of an Apple TV HD. The power brick size one works great and can be found really cheap on the secondary market (like in the <$30 range).

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It uses 15-24v DC so I’m sure you could cobble together a battery pack setup. There are several 24v batteries on amazon, unfortunately some cost as much as this amp.

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There are lots of projects equivalent to this at the diyaudio website. You can buy TPA3116 boards with bluetooth for around $15 on eBay, add speaker and RCA terminals if you need those instead of screw terminals, and then add a battery if you like. Of course, you’re not going to get 100WPC.

Here’s a D-amp that is currently running our main stereo system (usual receiver is awaiting repairs). I threw it together in 2 hours. The actual amp board is quite a lot better than the TPA3116, so the whole thing cost me maybe $20, excluding the power supply but including the little terminal board (soldering it up is what took the actual time). It could run off a battery, though it might need a buck converter (another $5) to bump voltage up to the 18v this board needs. (I think the TPA3116 usually only needs 12v, I don’t know why the Nobsound wants 16v.)

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I want an off-the-shelf product that works out-of-the-box, not a project I have to tinker with (not least as I do not have the skills or experience necessary so it would be time-consuming and risky).

But thanks for the pointers. (And I don’t need 100w.)

I did find these but both have been sold out for ages (and I don’t especially like the form factor but that’s secondary). The maker is an artist who, it seems, also stumbled upon a requirements and did something about it, but it seems more of a side-project than a business. The original mono version was a Kickstarter project in 2016 (click the link on the product page to find out more about the product).
https://paulcocksedgeshop.com/collections/all-pieces/products/the-vamp
https://paulcocksedgeshop.com/collections/all-pieces/products/the-vamp-stereo

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I have something similar but even more tiny. Cost about 30 quid, is smaller than a ten pack of cigs and lives on top of the fridge so I can listen to stuff while cooking. It’s great.

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Dayton has been selling a little battery-powered t-amp for many years; it has a good reputation, but I think the chipset changed some years back:

The problem with battery power is getting enough power for the speakers to not sound strained. The very best portable powered speakers, for example the "minirigs’ made by Pasce in Bristol, are carefully designed with the enclosure, amp, and drivers mated to optimize sound and efficiency. If you are looking for something to drive a set of speakers you already own, it gets harder.

That said, as mentioned above you can always buy an amp (like the one recommended here) with a 12 or 16v power jack and plug in a suitably powerful power bank. You just need a power bank that is designed to power a laptop or portable projector, so it can supply enough power.

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Totally agree. Mine’s still kicking. Loved that thing. Will just add it to this setup for convenience. Would be nice if there was a wifi version of this box.

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Purchased. Thanks Mark!

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