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Has anyone used a small 6V positive ground Bluetooth amplifier to power the original speaker in your car?
Currently, my radio is not working and quite frankly there is not alot on AM anymore. I know there are some expensive modifications to make the current radio conversion for FM/Bluetooth, but I thought I would consider this for the time being. I have seen some very inexpensive Bluetooth amplifiers than can be directly connected to the original speaker and a power source. First thought was using the 6 Volt power - would it be strong enough to power the speaker adequately?
I appreciate any feedback.

What I do is use one or two rechargeable blue tooth speakers paired with my cell phone, or any blue tooth player. This way you have better sound and can hide under seat, under dash, or? And no wires to run. Much easier. You can get blue tooth speakers that can be paired with each other.

What year car do you have?

Quote:

1940 120 Club Coupe

I would just hide a BT speaker somewhere. This is one of those things where if you have to ask how to do it, it will be more difficult than it's worth.

You need to determine if your original speaker has a permanent field magnet or an electromagnet field.
The '37 120 deluxe radio uses an electromagnet for the field, and the speaker will not work unless the radio is able to supply the electro-field magnet winding with plate circuit current, probably over 100 volts DC. If the original speaker has more than 2 wires connecting it to the radio, it likely has an electromagnet field. Permanent field magnet speakers became common after WWII. As for audio power, most car radios up through the 1950s had about 8 to 15 watts audio output power. Older home radios usually had an 8 ohm voice coil impedance. Modern stuff seems to favor 3.2 to 4 ohm impedance. If your original speaker is a permanent magnet design, it will probably operate with modern equipment, but it may not sound very good.

What TxGoat said. Unless you have the optional second speaker Packard sometimes called a guest speaker in those prewar cars, then your internal or front speaker is not likely to be able to work without the rest of the radio. Some if not all of the guest speakers appear to have had permanent magnet fields but even then you need the specs on that speaker to connect to a proper amplifier that would work the speaker without risk of damage or a distorted sound.

The far easier relatively low cost suggestion is get a bluetooth setup as was suggested and use your phone or another type bluetooth player/receiver to provide the music to the speakers. If you didn't want to worry about periodic recharging, most low cost powered speakers use USB level so you could get a 6v to usb buck converter. Wire that so it is powered thru the ign switch or use a separate switch so you can cut the power to the converter and turn the speakers off when not in use. Amazon has a fair selection of both speakers and buck converters.

Speaking from experience, you’re going to want to probably a two amp power supply for it. Many years ago when I had a 2004 Malibu, I took a spare battery powered but rechargeable Bluetooth speaker and actually disconnected the battery inside so that it would turn on and off with the car, but I powered it with a one amp car charger as was common place at the time. Having the speaker at a moderately loud listening volume resulted in clipping.