Photo courtesy of Voiding Warranties
January 5th, 2009 – I don’t have any old iPods kicking around, but if I did, this would be an awesome mod to do. Jordan Horwich from Voiding Warranties, shows how he used the shell from two iPods to make some sexy desktop speakers.
He puts 2.5 inch speakers into the shell, along with an on/off switch, 1/8 inch mono jack, and a small amp (which needs to be battery powered) to boost the volume. It’s a great mod, with great execution.
If I were making these speakers for myself, I might change a couple things. I would permanently wire a stereo cable to the pair of iPods so that I couldn’t lose my cable. This would also lessen the chance of the input jack breaking since it eliminates the component completely. This also means there are less components which saves money.
I would also remove the amp circuitry since the speaker probably isn’t going to sound so great stuffed into such a small and enclosed space anyways. This means that there is no battery, no amp circuitry, and no switch. It’s obviously not going to be as cool or elegant as Jordan’s mod, but it’s a lot cheaper. Wait, not cheap…inexpensive. It’s also a whole lot easier, which helps when, like me, you are not an electronics expert. Oh, also it’s probably not a good idea to try it on your iPod Nano. It looks like a mod for first generation iPods only.
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Leemon
oh man, i have an old ipod! i think dave still uses it sometimes but if not i could totally do that except i only have one =( and that’s not a 1st gen in the picture, that’s like a 2nd generation one. Notice it has the wheel not play function buttons and wheel which is what i have. Original baby!
Jan 7th, 2009
Reply to “Turning old iPods into desktop speakers”