upgrading a laptop speaker with an IC amp?

[kyle harris]

First off i openly admit i am very ignorant. I apologise if i offend anyone.



Ive got an idea 100-ibd and the sound is abysmal.


I took it apart to find a single speaker


i do have some spare space where the old dvd drive used to be.



What i'd like to know, is can if i cut the two red / black speaker wires and attach some more powerful ones such as
GENUINE Lenovo ThinkPad x240 X260 Laptop Internal Speakers PK23000MSY

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-Lenovo-ThinkPad-x240-X260-Laptop-Internal-Speakers-PK23000MSY0/113495477693?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

and could i introduce an IC amplifier such as



https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detail/en/adafruit-industries-llc/2130/1528-1492-ND/5761279?utm_adgroup=&mkwid=ss1ASNP6s&pcrid=337174864969&pkw=&pmt=&pdv=c&productid=5761279&slid=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4NfYzeqF5QIVmK3tCh1iCQO5EAQYCCABEgLjX_D_BwE


or



https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detail/en/sparkfun-electronics/BOB-09816/1568-1278-ND/5762428?utm_adgroup=Evaluation+Boards+-+Op+Amps&mkwid=s5C1qPJYY&pcrid=259818302280&pkw=&pmt=&pdv=c&productid=5762428&slid=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4NfYzeqF5QIVmK3tCh1iCQO5EAQYBiABEgLbs_D_BwE


or



https://www.rapidonline.com/2-5w-2-5w-stereo-audio-amplifier-kit-519383




i found the hardware manual


https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/100-series/100-14ibd?linkTrack=Caps%3ABody_BrowseProduct&searchType=0&keyWordSearch=




it lists : 1.5 W speaker × 1




it would be really awesome if you have some tips or wisdom


thx

kyle

 

[sgrossklass]

I'd rather see whether you can't fit something more useful into the vacant drive bay (not sure whether they make any of these trays that'll house a 2.5" drive in this slimline formfactor, but maybe there's something to house an M.2 SATA SSD?), and get an external Bluetooth speaker with a line-in. You can get some pretty decent ones for... $50-ish or so? Those would give almost any laptop speaker a run for their money.

Laptop speakers typically have two factors working against them:
1. Not much surface area
2. Not much volume to work with
These are restricting both low-frequency response and efficiency. Your model must be particularly bad, as a review notes, "Its sound is one of the worst that we have ever had to listen to." For any speaker of a given area, you can always trade off between bass response and efficiency. Yours seems to be marginal in both respects.

Assuming you were to hack these Thinkpad speakers into there, you may end up getting sound that is less awful but still not remotely anything to write home about. And the difference between 1.5 W and 2.5 W really isn't much, that's a mere 2 dB. A lot of work for going from awful to just ordinarily bad.

I suppose this is for when you do not want to use headphones?

If you did want to use the internal amplifier (did I get this right that you said two sets of black+red wires?), you could run its wiring, in twisted pair fashion with a decent diameter, to some external passive speakers. You would probably be surprised how much of a racket you can make with 1 W into an 8" wideband speaker in a suitable cabinet... mind you, that would be a fair bit larger than the whole device. But even something 3" (8 cm), 2.5" (6 cm) or 2x 2" (5 cm) in size would constitute a fair bit of progress. Still not a very practical setup with a barely secured cable dangling out of the device, mind you, but it would be doable if you say speaker DIY is your thing and you have access to some woodworking tools.

Another potential DIY option to explore may be making a horn for the existing speaker. It would make things substantially louder at the very least, as it effectively makes the diaphragm much larger, and doesn't have to be that hard to construct. It worked splendidly for grammophones. An educational experience at the very least.