The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Raspberry Pi & Dev Board => Topic started by: JamesRIves on October 06, 2017, 08:56:20 am
-
All, I'm working on a pi3 bartop, and I'm looking for suggestions for a simple speaker solution. Ideally, I'd like to locate a very small mountable speaker (no case) that simply plugs into the headphone jack, but I haven't been able to locate a decent small unit yet.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jim
-
Whats your budget?
Personally I usually go with this Lepai Amp (https://www.amazon.com/Lepai-LP-2020TI-Instruments-TPA3118-Amplifier/dp/B071FJF4FF/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1507295214&sr=1-4&keywords=Mini+Amp) paired with some 4 inch car speakers, the quality is great.
There are cheaper alternatives though.
-
All, I'm working on a pi3 bartop, and I'm looking for suggestions for a simple speaker solution. Ideally, I'd like to locate a very small mountable speaker (no case) that simply plugs into the headphone jack, but I haven't been able to locate a decent small unit yet.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jim
I don't think you will be able to plug in speakers in the headphone jack. You need an amplifier like the one suggested above. Or an amplified speaker (but that's a speaker with an amplifier integrated). I would go for a cheap TPA3116 amplifier board with a 12-24V power supply and some car speakers.
For amplified speakers look for some PC speakers (those are amplified). But mounting them is harder (uglier) most of the time.
-
I got some 3" speakers and a cheap amplifier board for the bartop I'm building but I do wish I got better sound out of it (especially more base). Would better/bigger speakers help or a better amplifier?
-
I got some 3" speakers and a cheap amplifier board for the bartop I'm building but I do wish I got better sound out of it (especially more base). Would better/bigger speakers help or a better amplifier?
Bigger speakers usually mean more bass as they can move more air. You can also add a small subwoofer and use a small 2.1 amplifier.
-
I used a set like this on my pi bartop, cheap and work great.
https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/mosfet-stereo-sound-amplifier-kit-for-arcade-machine-projects.html
-
Thanks for the suggestions everyone!
Jim
-
Il working on a Pi bartop too and ordered a 2x15w amp with line in and 12v power plug. As im waiting for the amp i have plugged my inch speakers (took the elements from 5.1 serie computer sounds system i was throwing to trash) with RCA-RCA. -> line in and the sounds work but with very low volume. So: you can solder a rca cable to both and plug it directly to Pi line in but get very low sounds.
-
I just got my hands on the new HiFiBerry Amp2. Hooked it up to a pair of 3W 8ohm 2" Speakers and I was completely blown away. So loud!!!! The little HAT is powered by a 12-24v Power Supply which also powers the Pi. But that allows it to output 60w of power. I'm going to do a video on it installed inside an arcade joystick soon if anyone is interested :)
-
Which amp you used, you have a link?
-
I just got my hands on the new HiFiBerry Amp2. Hooked it up to a pair of 3W 8ohm 2" Speakers and I was completely blown away. So loud!!!! The little HAT is powered by a 12-24v Power Supply which also powers the Pi. But that allows it to output 60w of power. I'm going to do a video on it installed inside an arcade joystick soon if anyone is interested :)
Does the highfiberry allow you to use its pins as the GPIO as if I was using the gpio pins on the pi itself?
-
I just got my hands on the new HiFiBerry Amp2. Hooked it up to a pair of 3W 8ohm 2" Speakers and I was completely blown away. So loud!!!! The little HAT is powered by a 12-24v Power Supply which also powers the Pi. But that allows it to output 60w of power. I'm going to do a video on it installed inside an arcade joystick soon if anyone is interested :)
Does the highfiberry allow you to use its pins as the GPIO as if I was using the gpio pins on the pi itself?
Depends: https://www.hifiberry.com/build/documentation/gpio-usage-of-hifiberry-boards/ (https://www.hifiberry.com/build/documentation/gpio-usage-of-hifiberry-boards/)
Only a few of the GPIOs are used by the HiFiBerry.
-
That sucks. Almost all of the pins are used for a gpio controller.
-
Yup, quite some are used for the AMP2:
GPIO2-3 (pins 3 and 5) are used by our products for configuration. If you are experienced with I2C, you might add other slave devices. If you a a novice, we don’t recommend this at all.
GPIOs 18-21 (pins 12, 35, 38 and 40) are used for the sound interface. You can’t use these for any other purpose.
GPIO4 is used to control the MUTE function of the power stage. Pulling it to low will mute the output.
But why use a Hifiberry. It's not that you will need high-end sound? I would go for a cheap amp like those Lepai's or TPA3116/3118 amplifier boards. And then use the analog out or when you use a HDMI>VGA adapter use one with analog out like these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1080P-HDMI-Male-to-VGA-Female-Video-Adapter-Converter-Cable-3-5mm-Audio/282551423127 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/1080P-HDMI-Male-to-VGA-Female-Video-Adapter-Converter-Cable-3-5mm-Audio/282551423127)
-
to throw another idea into the mix. I bought some usb powered speakers and hacked the casing off them. Then I just mounted the innards inside my bartop and the pi powered the speakers and the sound came from the included headphone jack...
-
For my build I did use a cheap amp but I was intrigued at the thought of being able to have a simple and clean setup. For future bartop builds I'll be using a removable connector for the gpio pins so that removing and installing the buttons is a one connection setup.
-
I use logitech S120 speakers in my cabinets. They are fairly cheap to buy and pretty good, sound good enough for arcade games at least. The speakers are the perfect size for common cabinet speaker holes. I carefully pop them open and save the mounting screws and reuse them to mount inside the cabinet.
(http://i66.tinypic.com/zwf1br.jpg)
-
I ordered a stereo amp from adafruit that was pretty cheap, but I havent tested it yet.
adafru.it/1552 (http://adafru.it/1552)
But since I need to add speakers, power supply, a pot to adjust volume, and a 3.5 mm plug audio cable to plug into the RPi out, it probably would be cheaper and a lot easier to just use some PC speakers, like oddlygeek suggested.