I am cleaning and reorganizing my workshop over the coming holidays, and while I am at it, I would like to add a small stereo system so I can play a little music occasionally.
What I will have is a laptop PC which will hold the music, and I will output this through a player (where I can do any equalization I may choose), to a couple of speakers that I will mount high on the walls in the corners of my shop.
The speakers I have available are a couple off a small boom box (that the CD player has died), and I have a couple of speakers that came with a small home stereo system. These are not bookshelf speakers, but are more like came with a small home stereo system years ago. I don’t know anything about the specs on any of these speakers, but anyone who can answer my question may probably have a good idea as to the wattage on ohms and whatnot.
Obviously, you can’t power any of these speakers from a laptop audio output source, so I will need a small (cheap) stereo audio amplifier to boost the PC output and power the speakers. I am not looking for high volume or high quality sound - I just want something to decently power a pair of speakers without being worked hard to the point of distortion.
I am asking for advice and maybe some examples of a small cheap amp that would do this for me.
go to Goodwill and find on old mini system - $10, and you even get a tuner and CD player - just use the whole thing - splice in some 16 ga wire for the speakers (there is nothing special about “speaker wire” except the polarity is marked (stripe or one conductor is tinned and the other isn’t). For your purposes, the polarity is not going to matter.
Old extension cords make good speaker wire (if long enough).
I’ve been shopping for this type of thing, too.
Here’s what I’ll probably end up with: mini amplifier
It will need a 12VDC source and those power specs are certainly …um, speculative.
You can also play MP3s from a USB drive or SD card if wiring the PC audio is inconvenient.
May I present the Lepai LP-2020A+, the gold standard of cheap, high quality audio amplifiers. It works great out of the box, but if you want a little more oomph, you can get a better power supply. Parts Express also sells the Lepai amps.
Another alternative is small mini stereo receivers. These may be sold as “minisystem”, “executive” “bookshelf” etc. Mainly made by Yamaha, Onkyo and Denon. These have receivers that are basically like a standard stereo receiver except smaller and with less power. They usually come with a CD player which may be built-in or may be a separate device.
Personally I prefer the Yamaha Pianocraft systems and I have recently used one to power a pair of speakers for my computer.
Buying new they will probably be more than you want to spend, but if you look around on eBay and craigslist you might be able to find one cheap. They usually come with speakers so you could buy one and sell/discard the speakers, or buy one used without them.
Go vintage. Search craigslist for a vintage analog receiver. Can be had for $50 and up. Low power, and a nice warm sound. Search for Marantz, Technics, or Sansui. Sansui is a really good one to find, usually really cheap, and they actually made a good quality product.
As an example, here is a nice sansui amp for $100. (craigslist post, so it will go away soon)
My Technics SA-R230 receiver with built-in equalizer was $8 at Goodwill (it was missing its power cord - found 10’ down the wall for $1).
I still have my 1969 Sony receiver and TC-377 open-reel deck.
CD changers and VCRs and, increasingly, DVD players go for $5-$10; amps and receivers go quickly - the only reason the Technics was still around was the missing power cord. It uses a socket with one rounded end and one square end - a socket with both ends rounded works just fine.
And those cords are all over the place.