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Saber Cherry
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Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:55 pm

In short - how can I get audio from a stereo miniplug to analog speakers? Possibly including a computer in the middle?

In long -
I have a Nintendo DS and 3DS. They have pretty crappy internal speakers, but sound a lot better when I plug in something to the 3.5mm stereo out socket - for example, headphones. But, headphones cause physical discomfort after a while and the cord can snag on things. I can also plug a long extension cable from my speakers into the DS/3DS, but the torque from the cable is similar to the weight of the device itself, and thus disruptive.

I have a wireless mouse that has a tiny, maybe 2g dongle that sticks into a USB port on my computer. It's actually a horrible mouse which does not work more than 8 feet from the computer - made by Gigaware, FYI, so don't buy those - but the motif of little tiny things that plug into little tiny sockets and work over bluetooth, or whatever, seems like exactly what I want.

Has anyone encountered and solved this problem?
 
ludi
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:03 pm

Cheapest and easiest way is to buy an extension cable that includes the correct jack for the Nintendo side and a 1/8" male stereo jack for the computer side, then plug it into Line Input. Set the Windows volume control options to accept a Line Input and then reproduce the results using whatever audio output device is connected to the computer.
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:15 pm

@ludi - He's trying to eliminate the *cable*.

@Saber Cherry - Bottom line: Not gonna happen, since the stereo mini-plug is not capable of providing power to a wireless transmitter. Any such device would need to have its own power source (battery or AC adapter), thereby defeating the point of eliminating the weight of the cable. I think you're just going to have to live with the torque from the cable. Maybe you can strap the cable to your upper arm or something, to minimize how much it pulls on the DS. Or sit on the floor to reduce the length of cable hanging from the DS.
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SonicSilicon
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:20 pm

There are Bluetooth audio transmitters made to plug into smartphones and digital audio players. I have no idea how good any of them are in terms of audio quality, latency, weight, or pairing.
You may also want to look at FM transmitters, but they generally have fairly low quality, even when less than a yard away from a receiver.
This seems like a topic that may have already been discussed in the Echo Vale sub-forum.

I'll repeat jbi!'s concern that you'll have to deal with weight with any solution. I was thinking of Velcro attached to the underside of the system and the transmitter.
 
ludi
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:31 pm

just brew it! wrote:
@ludi - He's trying to eliminate the *cable*.

Oops :oops:

In that case, yeah, kind of hard to do. I've played with wireless audio transmitters before but the transmitting device needs some sort of power source. Usually this is either USB or a power adapter.
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Saber Cherry
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Fri Mar 08, 2013 1:09 am

SonicSilicon wrote:
There are Bluetooth audio transmitters made to plug into smartphones and digital audio players. I have no idea how good any of them are in terms of audio quality, latency, weight, or pairing.


Latency, I don't care about, since it's mainly music that's interesting. But I'll have to look into those (particularly if anyone on the forum has actually tried one and liked it! cough cough).

I realize that a stereo plug does not provide sufficient energy for a wireless device, but I was hoping, maybe, there was something amplified by a mere button-cell... it's not just the torque, but also the risk of my dog walking across the cable and ripping it out, or whatever. He likes to snuggle at my feet, which tend to be in a direct line between my chair and my speakers.
 
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:47 am

Saber Cherry wrote:
I realize that a stereo plug does not provide sufficient energy for a wireless device, but I was hoping, maybe, there was something amplified by a mere button-cell...

I suppose that's a possibility. While I'm not aware of such a device, it's conceivable that it exists. The main stumbling block I can see is that getting sufficient bandwidth to stream high quality audio may require more power than a button cell can reasonably provide for an extended period of time, so the battery life is probably gonna suck.

At least you can get name brand button cells for as little as 20 cents each in bulk if you know where to buy them. (Which makes the $5 that places like Radio Shack charge all the more ridiculous.)
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ludi
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:18 pm

Well, this is closer. Definitely have to specify "transmitter" when searching, though, there are about ten million receivers designed to work with devices that can already transmit Bluetooth.
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Fri Mar 08, 2013 1:23 pm

ludi wrote:
Well, this is closer. Definitely have to specify "transmitter" when searching, though, there are about ten million receivers designed to work with devices that can already transmit Bluetooth.

That's actually pretty slick. Provided it actually works as advertised, and is lightweight enough, it might be exactly what the OP needs.
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vargis14
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Re: Wireless Audio Help - Miniplug to Speakers

Fri Mar 08, 2013 1:51 pm

I highly rec getting yourself a jaybyrd Bluetooth transmitter along with the jaybyrd sp2 bluetooth headset. I have the headset and it work fantastic with my ipad2 and iphone 5...sound quality is fantastic along with battery life and range.

The headset costs 99$ and 49$ or so for the transmitter that i sent back since it would not work with the iphone5...it is supposed to make the sound better but they sound fantastic without it. Also a 1/8" BT transmitter would work well with one of those compact but robust sounding bluetooth stand alone speakers.

Also i would like to note that i have seen my Jaybyrd headset under a different name for 40$ Looks very much like a rebranded Jaybyrd.
The headset is great for working out also since it fits securely to your head and is sweat proof. Also you can take phone calls with it since it has built in Mic.
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