Any suggestion for off-the-shelf speaker driver for use with teeny4 audio board?

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edsut

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Hi,
I have to put together a quick audio project that drives a speaker directly.
I've used the Teensy4.1 successfully on a different audio/usb project, so
I'd like to use Teensy4.x and the audio shield if I can...
Has anyone driven a speaker directly and if so, any recommendations
on a quick/easy-to-use board (adafruit/sparkfun/etc..) that could
be used to allow the audio shield to directly drive a single speaker?
Thanks,
 
Using line-out with an amplifier and speaker will certainly work. If you want simplicity, and you don't need to fill an entire room, you can get various speakers that are made to plug into the headphone jack. There is nothing to solder, and you just have to connect the 3.5mm cable to the headphone jack. Many of these speakers have a battery, and I find it best if you run the speaker off of the battery, and recharge it later, rather than trying to run it on 5v power.

I've seen them under different names, that describe the physical appearance of the speaker:

Note, for charging, some of these speakers don't use a standard USB micro-B or C cable. It looks like an old USB mini-b, but I'm not sure. In any case, be sure to keep the cable for charging with the speaker.

Alternatively, for mono sounds (or hook up two for stereo), Adafruit makes a Stemma Speaker that includes an amplifier. You just need to hook up 3 wires, one to the line-out signal, one to ground, and one to 5v/VIN:

My primary focus is for props that I carry around, so for me, portability is more important than volume.
 
Yup, i've used normal PC speakers. It works good.
But _never_ connect their GND to the Teensy GND. It can destroy the shield, as it uses a virtual ground for the headphone output.
 
Yup, i've used normal PC speakers. It works good.
But _never_ connect their GND to the Teensy GND. It can destroy the shield, as it uses a virtual ground for the headphone output.

Good point. I mostly use the Stemma speaker for Teensy 3.2/3.6 where I have a built-in DAC, and I don't use the audio shield.
 
Thanks for the responses!
I'll post back with whatever I end up using just for future reference...
 
I like using spdif (SPDIF3), pin 14 on the Teensy 4.1. I have that going to an ordinary red led (with 470 ohm resistor) and glued onto a sliced open plastic protective end cap of an optical cable, providing a snug optical in to the cable and great line-out rca. A box like (Optical SPDIF to line-out) can be $5 from amazon. Then I like using a headphone amp after that, but you could send it to a line-in on something else. I also enjoy using the Teensy as a sound card, sending audio via USB to the computer, that gets it into the computers sound system. Before that I was using the MQS output with a RC filter and a dollar amp, it was okay except some low volume high pitched squeal. It was okay, but SPDIF3 is my best friend on the teensy 4.1!
 
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