I’m looking for an FM receiver only that can connect to a discrete bluetooth speaker (plus wired is OK). Everything I’ve found online is a receiver with built-in speakers that can connect to another bluetooth source, i.e., phone or computer.
I’m trying to eliminate all the wiring I can, and radio is the missing component. I can, of course, stream from a station’s website, but that’s less convenient than just choosing a preset. Plus radio is there when wireless or the internet goes down.
One option would be to get a phone that has an FM receiver. Not all cell phones have it, but I know I’ve seen it in some phones. That would be from a true FM receiver as opposed to streaming the FM station over the internet. You could connect your speakers to that kind of phone to get FM radio on your bluetooth speakers.
Don’t know if I fully understand, are you looking for a box that 1) receives bluetooth signals AND 2) has a tuner AND c) connects to wired speakers (you say wired is OK above)? If this is the case, look at something likethis. I don’t know of any dedicated receivers that transmit to bluetooth speakers, the phone suggestion above is your best bet (although rare these days)
Thanks to both of you. Unfortunately I want bluetooth receiver-to-speaker. What I meant by wired OK is that it’s fine if it does both - even better, in fact, since that won’t run down the BT batteries.
I tried the FM phone app to speaker, but my current Android won’t do that. I thought it was because it’s an older model, but if you say that’s a rare combination I may be out of luck.
It’s my fate to be the only one who wants a particular thing.
Do a search for phones with FM. Not every phone will have the right hardware, so you’ll need the right model. But there are lots of phones which can receive FM. From this list, I see that there are a bunch of Samsung and LG phones that have FM. Some of those phones I know are sold as the cheapie phones you get when you join a prepaid phone service. I’m guessing you could pick one up in BestBuy or Target for around $50. I’m sure you could also find them on ebay. These phones will typically work just fine standalone without any phone service.
The problem is, at least with some phones featuring FM reception, that they use the headset wire as an antenna. That obviously won’t work with wireless audio.
It would solve his or her problem on the condition that the phone support diverting audio output to Bluetooth while something is plugged into the headphone jack.
I just realized that my own phone, a MotoG6, has FM support. Later tonight I’ll see if I can get it to play FM through the bluetooth speakers and post my results.
I was able to try it out with the FM tuner built into my MotoG6 phone and it works great. I had to plug in wired earbuds since it uses the wire as an antenna. The FM app itself had an option for where to send the audio: headset, speakers, or bluetooth.
If you end up going down this route and end up getting a phone expressly for this purpose, consider getting one that’s compatible with your current service. That way if your current phone breaks, you can easily activate this other phone as a backup.
I was thinking about these, but I also wasn’t exactly sure what you were asking for.
I have a transmitter exactly like this hooked up to my own unusual audio device (a weird thing called the “Seeburg 1000” that plays background music records all day long), and I can carry my spiffy Marshall speaker anywhere in the house without losing the connection.
This BT transmitter is one of those rare devices that actually does what it is supposed to do, very well. Mine is a Miccus model, but I’m sure that at this price point they are all pretty much the same on the inside.
Yup. AGPTek, for example, has several FM radios with BT for less than $30 on Amazon. I have a more expensive model, but it doesn’t work worth a crap without the headphones plugged in.
Thanks to all for your helpful suggestions. While poking around, I found this, which the nerds among us are no doubt familiar with but is a tiny game-changer for me:
What do you wish to know about it? It has nothing to do with Bluetooth; basically, it’s a dongle that plugs into your computer, and then by running some software you can make it receive and decode any kind of analogue or digital signal (subject to the limitations of the dongle like frequency range and bandwidth), not only FM radio.
An SDR device eliminates the need for a stand-alone radio altogether. It may not be clear, but this is for my home system. I’m also looking for the smallest footprint I can get overall. My PC is similar to this one.