Any good solutions for two radios on one external speaker?

[troyboy162]

I just did a fair amount of googling and there does not appear to be any rear solutions for this. There are some great $220 mixers/amps and talk of using small transformers for isolation, but neither are a good solution. Are any of you using anything?

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[bdichristina]

Are you talking audio or communications? If for example you are looking to connect the external speaker port from both a CB and a VHF radio together into one speaker, you will need to install an "A/B" switch in the speaker such that you are only broadcasting one radio at a time. If you run them both at the same time, the signal from one radio will cancel the signal from the other, as the to two amplifier circuits would each be expecting just an 8 ohm speaker on the other end of the wire. The signal that did reach the speaker if any would be garbled. In this situation, if you don't have room for two external radio speakers, you might consider making or buying a box to fit the space you have and install 2 smaller speaker drivers in that box. You can wire them separately, each for a single radio. I hope this helps!

 

[Lynn]

Just to tag onto what bdchristina said, I seem to recall a post around here that made a good argument for using separate speakers. Especially with two slightly different locations. Makes it easier to tell which radio is receiving.

 

[4x4junkie]

Just to tag onto what bdchristina said, I seem to recall a post around here that made a good argument for using separate speakers. Especially with two slightly different locations. Makes it easier to tell which radio is receiving.

Agreed.

Maybe the use of smaller speakers can help you find more places for them.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Does it need to amplify?

If you just need a passive mixer, it's not complicated. Something like a simple balancer circuit would do the job. The values might need to be tweaked to dial in the right volumes, but not much. Maybe up or down a couple of ohms on the loads and maybe 100 ohm pot.

 

[troyboy162]

Yes id like to hear my CB and Ham radio at the same time on the same speaker. I run two speakers now and there would be
no confusion with one since the two speakers i have sit side by side. If it sounds good its ham and if it sounds like crap its CB lol.

Thank you daveindenver! That looks like exactly what i need to free up some space!

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[troyboy162]

just a update but I have researched alot on the passive mixers thanks to daveindenver. I really have two problems with my truck. Two speakers taking up room and when the AC is on or the windows are down I cant really hear what people are saying even with the volume all the way up (yes the speakers I use are eham reviewed as "loudest.."). Mixers would get rid of one speaker but not fix the volume. So I looked at amped speakers...30 bucks and too large to fit anywhere in my crowded cockpit. Not to mention they all have some auto sleep mode that misses the first word of a sentence. So long story short I'm spending some more money to pump the CB, Ham, tablet, and phone through the car stereo.

This is a hard choice since I'm a cheapo, but it looks like I can get alot of benefits for the time and money investment. I'll try to come back with a write up but it will be a couple months.

 

[pugslyyy]

That should be a nice solution - I imagine the stereo will auto-mute for CB/HAM the same way it would for GPS?

I'd be interested in seeing how you do this, I'd like to have something similar.

 

[troyboy162]

Ive seen where thats possible and pretty awesome. Im still trying to figure out home much extra money that would be. For a cheap solution i think i can use potentiometers to insure the cb and ham are louder then anything else. The only reason that would work for me is is dont ever play my music loud so a little higher volume from the comms should be ok.


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[pugslyyy]

Hmm, so you have a separate amplifier and are going to mix stuff into it? preamp out / CB / tablet / phone ?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Using a small line-level mixer into an ACC input on a car stereo would be a good solution. Why have the stereo and an amp'd speaker fighting when you can leverage what's already there?

 

[troyboy162]

Dave's got it again. My stock head unit used to have a stock CD changer under it. I'm researching if I can use this now dormant input to the head unit and add a Aux in line. I havnt seen where it has been done yet on this particular radio but I would imagine its possible. If not then a new head unit is in order (cheapo with Aux in. I am not a audiophile by any means)

The trick I'm reading is that I am dealing with different level outputs. The ham radio and CB are outputting a signal with enough strength to drive a small speaker where the phone and tablet are meant to drive ear buds/headphones. The aux input should be able to handle a pretty broad spectrum without issue, but attenuating the Ham and CB sounds like the best thing to do to balance things out. Having this attenuation adjustable should be the key to keeping them a little louder then the rest of the inputs at any given volume level on the stereo. This also gets rid of my bluetooth - Fm gizmo living in my 12v outlet.

It should be a fun project for the most part. I loose the ability to just keep the radios on with the truck off for long periods of time (stock radio would drain battery alot faster), but that really hasn't come in handy more then once in 3 years. Hearing the radios while driving has been a on going problem.

 

[pugslyyy]

Ah okay I misunderstood, I thought you were doing something that would allow you to continue to listen to the CD/turner/whatever. Just bypassing it with the AUX input is simpler - though I believe that impedance matching is going to be an issue for you, as well as dialing each input signal level down to nominal 'preamp' levels. It's going to be pretty easy to overdrive that input!

Something like this?

http://www.amazon.com/ROLLS-MX41b-Four-Channel-Mixer/dp/B00102XUX6

 

[troyboy162]

I agree its going to be very easy to overdrive things. I have read alot of other peoples experiences and I have read Ham radios plugged in directly to AUX inputs by keeping the volume low on the Ham. I have also read about 2.7k resisters on the outputs of ipods. I bought 10k pots and 1k resisters. I think I will be able to get the Stereo inputs like my phone and tablet down to where they need to be, but the CB and Ham may need some bigger resisters. I'll try to mess around to get it ballpark close and report back on the values I used.

I am also most likley feeding this input to the Cassette audio points inside my radio. I'm not sure how that will affect things in the resister values needed.

That mixer you posted is nice. I hope to make something for about half that price and more tuned to my set up.

 

[Utah KJ]

I used one of these to route signal from my sat radio, cb and ipod into the aux input of my Jeep radio. It uses signal-sensing switching and can be set up for first 2nd and 3rd priority. Offroad, I would listen to my sat radio and when there was something on the CB, I'd hear it through the Jeep speakers and then it would switch back to Sat radio after. You can set levels for each input so everything is balanced. I used to work for the company and my Jeep was my company vehicle.

http://www.jlaudio.com/cl-ses-car-audio-system-expansion-98114

If your radios do not have a low-level signal out for an external speaker, you can use these to knock the signal down before going to the switcher:

http://www.pac-audio.com/productDetails.aspx?ProductId=780&CategoryID=28

In fact, if you didn't want to go as far as using the switcher, you could use an SNI-35 on each radio and Y the outputs to an amplified speaker (or your cassette adaptor.... yeesh). The signal will be isolated and the SNI-35 has built-in pots for level control so you can balance them. The SNI-35 is rated for 50 watts input.