I’m aware how much I’ve been slacking when it comes to keeping up with new posts. I keep working on too many different projects at once and none of them get done. I thought if I got a quick little mod or two done, then maybe I can get back on track. Maybe some tunes will get me back into the groove.

I just so happened to have a pair of really nice Bose speakers sitting around and no receiver to wire them too. I felt this was a bit of a crime so I decided to do something about it.

I have a pretty basic iPod dock / radio that I’ve been using for an alarm clock for some time. It worked well enough, but I felt it could be better with really nice speakers. Though there was an AUX IN jack, there was not output other than the built in speakers. With a few alligator clips and some speaker wire I was able to correct that oversight.

It was a pretty simple process. Three screws towards the front let me remove the faceplate giving me the access I needed. Just following the two wires from each the left and right speakers let me identify the leads I needed to splice into.

With the wire stripper on my tiny leatherman tool I was able to push back the insulation and expose about 1/8 inch of metal on each wire.

I bundled my alligator clips together with a simple knot and attached them to the appropriate leads. Of course its best to keep them color coded to avoid confusion.

For the sake of neatness I used my Dremel tool to cut a small notch in the case. This let the clips dangle neatly out the side and allowed the case to fit back together nicely.

After that it was a simple matter of wiring up the speakers with speaker wire. I was a bit worried I would put too much of a drain on the built in speakers, leaving the whole setup far too quiet. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, however. It was much louder than I expected. There didn’t seam to be any loss at all, and it sounded great coming from those old Bose speakers.