Hi

I am not sure if there’s a better community to posting this in.

Looking for a portable speaker kinda like the JBL Bluetooth speakers that are everywhere. Except it needs to have an aux in because I am an incorrigible dinosaur. Bonus if it’s water resistant. Please and thanks xoxo

  • Soapbox@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’ve got a “808 Hex” speaker I bought on a whim almost 10 years ago that is incredible. It is Bluetooth or line in, has a barrel jack DC wall wart, or it takes 8 AA batteries. I use rechargeable AAs. Its less convenient to charge than speakers with integrated batteries, but it will likely last forever because it doesn’t have one.

  • solrize@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    They exist, you just have to look at specs of ones that you like. You can also get an analog to bluetooth adapter and vice versa. You don’t say whether you want a big speaker or a small one, or what your budget is. That could help. I guess the adapters need power, which isn’t so great for portability.

    I know that power tool companies make some job site speakers with aux in, that run on tool batteries. They are on the large side though.

    I just have a dinky little one, idk what brand, but it was cheap and suffices for personal listening, and has both 3.5mm and bluetooth inputs. It has an internal battery so I guess I’ll have to dismantle it to replace the battery someday. Be careful of internal batteries regarding BIFL. I know some of the older bigger ones used 18650’s inside and that was attractive. I didn’t buy one though.

    My phone has analog output (I made sure to choose a phone that has that). In principle it should be possible to forward bluetooth audio in to analog audio out, or route the bluetooth input to the phone’s internal speaker, but I haven’t looked for an F-droid app that does this.

    Keyword to look for in portable speakers is “aux”, referring to the analog input. A quick search just found this, which looks sort of cool and BIFL, if the 2600mah battery capacity refers to an 18650 inside:

    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1750016-REG/sangean_wr_7wl_wood_cabinet_mini_bluetooth.html/specs

  • thisbenzingring@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    i have a Anker soundbar that has a aux plug that I use as my home server speaker

    it’s got Bluetooth but I just use it with a audio cable and a usb for power

    it’s years old, still kinda kicking it but the battery isn’t very long lasting anymore

  • methodicalaspect@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Do the JBL ones not come with an aux jack anymore? My JBL Charge 3 from early 2017 has one, as does the JBL PartyBox On-The-Go I picked up dirt cheap last year.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’ve got a Tribit Maxboom and it’s great. Water resistant, line in plus Bluetooth, has a handsfree button (triggers Siri on iPhones) and volume up/down, plus a bass boost mode that uses more power.

    It doesn’t drive as much sound as my portable guitar amp, but for a battery based speaker, does pretty well. If you buy two of them, they’ll figure out how to work together to provide surround sound, otherwise a single one will play stereo audio to fill the area.

    Had it for around 6 years and it still holds a charge like the day I bought it (I usually need to charge it every couple of months).

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I would not try to buy a product with a built-in battery for life. If you want a battery-powered speaker and want to keep it for a long time, I’d go for something that has standardized, removable batteries.

    EDIT: It looks like a lot of the products out there (a) are Bluetooth, which I don’t know if you want or not (but I wouldn’t consider that something that will be a buy-it-for-life feature either, since Bluetooth has steadily seen protocol change over time and I doubt that twenty years down the road, the state-of-the-art in Bluetooth will be what it is today) and (b) have built-in lithium batteries. What you might consider doing is getting a radio with a built-in speaker with aux-in, as it’s easy to find those with removable batteries and without Bluetooth.