Stereo Speakers with 3.5mm jack to Rpi headphone plug Problem

[niam]

So I have a rpi 3b+ and picoreplayer installed on it. Everything is working fine when I have normal headphones inserted into the rpi headphone jack.
Now I have a stereo speaker pair that i connected to a 3.5mm jack. When i plug this in the rpi, the volume is really low. Now I can see in the squeezelite settings that the max audio level is 4db.
How can I change this? Or should i change another setting? Or is this just not possible and do i need a dac? I'm new to this so any help is greatly appreciated!

[mooblie]

It would appear your speakers have no audio power amplifier in them.

Sounds like you need to add an audio-dac-hat: but ensure it's one WITH ITS OWN audio power amplifier, to drive those speakers, like this:

https://thepihut.com/collections/ras...qaudio-digiamp

You may also need to change the physical connectors between the speakers and the hat, as well. And a beefier power supply.

[niam]

Thank you for the quick reply and information Mooblie! I only have a pair of speakers with a positive and negative terminal. I wired them in stereo to a 3.5mm jack, but I can take that apart. What do you mean by needing to change the physical connectors? Just want to know how to wire the speakers to the Dac? I'm also using a waveshare lcd, is it possible to use the Dac together with the LCD?

[Apesbrain]

May be easier to get a small stereo amp such as a Lepai to go between the RPi analog out and your passive speakers.

[mooblie]

Just want to know how to wire the speakers to the Dac?

See the product's pictures I linked to: that dac's output uses two pairs of green screw connectors for the speaker outputs - to connect to bare wires - one pair of bare wires ( + and - ) to each speaker.

I'm also using a waveshare lcd, is it possible to use the Dac together with the LCD?

Unfortunately not (or not easily anyway) as the dac and lcd both use the same 40-way connector on the Pi. Might be better to go with Apesbrain's suggestion: just get an external power amplifier, whose input is driven from the existing Pi's headphone socket, and use that amplifier's outputs to drive your speakers: this sort of thing:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LEPY-LP-2020A-3A-LP-2020A-Amplifier/dp/B00C2P61FO/

...although do get one with a mains plug to suit your country. What is your country BTW?

[Labarum]

May be easier to get a small stereo amp such as a Lepai to go between the RPi analog out and your passive speakers.

Well you have been offered two options - a hat with a small power amp in it or a small free standing power amp between Pi and speakers. There is a third option: active speakers that have built in amplifiers. They could be cheap computer speakers

https://www.amazon.co.uk/pc-speakers/b?ie=UTF8&node=429889031

or small studio monitors.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=studio+monitor+speakers&ref=nb_sb_noss

It depends on your budget and what sort of sound quality you are hoping for. It's not worth going too far up market as the analogue from the Pi won't justify that - but it can sound great.

There are studio monitor speakers with their own dac and a USB input - they go from cheap to very expensive.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=USB+studio+monitor+speakers&crid=KW6LEX4LEKBE&sprefix=usb+studio+monitor+speakers%2Caps%2C61&ref=nb_sb_noss

Depends what you want.

[mooblie]

+1 vote for Labarum's suggestion from me !!

[niam]

Wow, didn't think I would get such great help so fast! Ive been struggling to set everything up for the past few weeks. Maybe I should have asked on here earlier. Anyway thanks again all.

Only problem that i forget to mention (sorry) is that I have a fairly small space to put the speakers and amp. the lepy amplifier is already too big. I'm using two 5cm speakers now. Ive added a screenshot. I'm from the Netherlands btw

[niam]

So I ended up bying these:

https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B00544XKK4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A17D2BRD4YMT0X&psc=1

I'm gonna see if I can take them apart and put the parts in my object.

[Labarum]

So I ended up bying these:

https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B00544XKK4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A17D2BRD4YMT0X&psc=1

I'm gonna see if I can take them apart and put the parts in my object.

I hope that approach works for you. Having seen a drawing of your project, another way is to keep the speaker chassis you already have and add a tiny stereo amplifier - just a chip on a board - between the speakers and the 3.5mm jack on the Pi. If the amp works well enough of 5v you may be able to take that power from one of the USB sockets on the Pi by cutting a USB lead.

On Amazon UK there is plenty choice.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=stereo+Amplifier+Module&crid=1K9CR20RKDEB7&sprefix=stereo+amplifier+module%2Caps%2C66&ref=nb_sb_noss