Like most people, you probably own a portable MP3 player by now. These devices are great when you’re driving or jogging. But, what if you want to play some tunes while you’re working in the yard? Or maybe, like me, you travel quite a bit and would like to listen to music in your motel room without using headphones? What if you have one of those portable DVD players and would like a pair of speakers with a little more kick? It was for these reasons that I decided to build a Notebook Speaker System. Why a notebook? Well, I wanted something that would be flat and reasonably compact. If necessary, I could put it in my briefcase along with my laptop. So, with requirements in hand, the quest began.

The first thing I did was to tear apart a couple of sets of cheap computer speakers to see what parts they used. For this exercise, I sacrificed a set of Dell speakers and a pair of house-brand speakers from Micro Center. Let me note that according to the spec sheet, the Micro Center speakers are rated for 100 Watts total maximum output (PMPO). I’m pretty sure that if I pumped 100 Watts into these speakers they would burst into flames. Both sets of speakers contained small circuit boards with amplifier chips. The Pro Sound speakers were built around an 8-pin TDA2822M from STMicroelectronics. This device can pump about 1.3 Watts into an 8 ohm speaker. The Dell amplifier board was built around TDA1517P which is manufactured by the company formerly known as Philips (now called NXP). This class B device can push about 3 Watts into a pair of eight ohm speakers.

What? You don’t tear things apart to see how they work?

The Pro Sound 2000 speakers are built around a TDA2822M. This is an STMicroelectronics device.

The Dell speakers are built around an NXP TDA1517P.