My old wren speaker just died - fixable? options?

[zeedre]

Hi peeps, My wren bluetooth speaker seems to have quit accepting bluetooth connections. Tried resetting everything I could but it doesn't blink like the manual says. Wren is sadly gone so no tech support.

Some questions:

• Any idea if this is fixable?
• If its not fixable, can I gut the electronics and replace with something - the device has some decent speakers so shame to toss
• If not even that, what do you guys suggest for living room blue tooth. I'd be good with 2 speakers if they were connected or 1 if it sounds good.

Appreciated

 

[swechsler]

Does your speaker have an AUX input? If so, you could an an external Bluetooth receiver. If not, I'd say you're probably out of luck. Bluetooth speakers generally include a lot of signal processing to sound the way they do. Using an external amp would probably sound awful.

If no AUX, and you want to replace, give us some more info: How much space do you have for the speakers/electronics, how big is the room, how much are you willing to spend, does it need to be portable, would you be willing to consider a component system with a separate Bluetooth receiver (as above) if it would greatly improve the sound.

 

[zeedre]

Oo it does have an aux port. Ill see if that still works.

I was somewhat hoping there would be such thing as a 2 speaker blue tooth setup but I'm not seeing much.

The room is 20x25 or so. Doesnt have to be loud but quality is key. I was noting the klipsch one as an option. 250 is probably as high as I'd go. I probably have 1 x 2ft for the control. I could have space for small speakers - not too obvious.

 

[mgosdin]

There are dozens of Dac / Amp combos with Bluetooth pair one of those with a inexpensive set of small speakers and you should be good to go. $250 is more than adequate.

Mark Gosdin

 

[mgosdin]

Bluetooth equipped small digital AMP & DAC from Amazon, $60.

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Au...53505011&rnid=386442011&s=electronics&sr=1-24

Small speakers from Amazon, $100.

https://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-T...ers+wired&qid=1615377255&s=electronics&sr=1-4

Speaker Cables Amazon Basics 12 Feet, $18 X 2 = $36.

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics...ics+speaker+cable,electronics,572&sr=1-3&th=1

So for about $196 from Amazon you can have a quite nice little Bluetooth setup, with separate speakers and cables you can put the speakers just about anywhere you want in your 20' x 25' room. And it's Amazon so returns aren't normally an issue.

Mark Gosdin

 

[swechsler]

Oo it does have an aux port. Ill see if that still works.

I was somewhat hoping there would be such thing as a 2 speaker blue tooth setup but I'm not seeing much.

There are, but you have to buy them separately. Some BT speakers allow you to configure them to play as stereo pairs once you add a second. But @mgosdin's suggested system is a better idea IMO, which is what I was getting at in my previous post. That amp's rating of 50W/channel is a bit on the optimistic side, but even if it's only 20W/channel (a more reasonable estimate) it should play more than loud enough. There are plenty of other options which would give you good sound at similar pricing (I'd probably just buy an inexpensive roll of speaker wire and cut it myself), but his solution is an easy one. Plus, in the future you can add an inexpensive subwoofer to fill in the bottom octave.

 

[zeedre]

Yup, it does make sense.

Tks Mark for that list. Is fossi audio a pretty reputable brand in this space? Any others to recommend - especially ones that dont look like they got time jacked from radioshack? Thers a few with an industrial uno board look for a fraction of the price - probably get what you pay for at this pricepoint tho.

Probably cant go wrong with polk at this price. Tks for pointing that one out as well.

 

[swechsler]

That's basically the world of ChiFi. I personally have never delved into it, but one thing you can use to judge the quality is by the power supply that comes with it. The power supply that the Fosi comes with is 24V, 4.5A, which is pretty beefy. Remember that the total power output can't be greater than the total power input. This amp is rated at 50W x 2, but the max power input that it's capable of is 108 watts. That sounds reasonable, but no amp is that efficient, which is why I estimated 20 watts/channel RMS. Could be as high as 40, but there's not that much difference between 20W and 40W in terms of perceived loudness.

 

[mgosdin]

Yup, it does make sense.

I tried to make my recommendations as simple as possible using good quality components that don't break the bank.

I don't have any experience with the Fossi Amp, but I do have experience with ChiFi Chip amps and Tube equipment. @swechsler is 100% correct that you should look at the power supply's ratings as a guide. Chip Amps are usually rated at outrageous power levels - sort of like car audio - so I always take them with a large dose of salt.

The Fossi Amp should produce 20 Watts with good clear sound and be able to drive the Polks to neighbor annoying levels. Again both the Fossi & Polk were listed as Amazon's Choice picks and those are usually pretty good.

By all means look around there are a LOT of possible options that you should be able to get into for $250.

Mark Gosdin

 

[zeedre]

My kids will have access so annoying the neighbors is a distinct possibility! Tks for the recs!