We've gotten some calls about out newest musical christmas controller, asking if you can use different speakers with the unit or add more speakers. You can use a different speaker, the stock speaker is 8 ohms and we recommend matching the ohms. The bottom of the controller unit has a speaker out that is has a phono plug (RCA plug) jack so you will have to either have a speaker cable with that type of connector or make your own like we had to do in our office.
I used a old guitar cable which had bad 1/4" plugs but you can use cable with a positive and negative wire (even just normal 18 gauge wire will work, but may not sound the best), I wired up a solderless phono plug to the wire (I recommend soldering the wires if you plan to use this cable for multiple seasons) and stripped the other end so I could clip it into the back of the shelf stereo speaker I was testing.
I tested out the stock speaker, just for a comparison of the sound quality, plugged in the new speaker and it worked like a charm. Not only was the larger speaker better sounded but louder. The stock speaker is by no means bad, but the better the speaker the better the sound quality of course.
The other big question we get asked a lot is if the unit has a Line out. A line out is used to send the audio signal to another amplifier source of some sort. This unit does not TECHNICALLY have a line out. I have not tried using the speaker out as a line out, and I do NOT recommend this method. The speaker out is a powered output, meaning, it sends the powered signal from the units amp to the speaker and is not like a Line out.
The simplest solution is to go to a electronic store or most department stores electronics sections have a Y splitter cable from your audio source. This allows you to plug the Y splitter into your mp3 player then one side of the Y you can connect to the controller unit and the other side you can send out to an separate external amplifier. So you have your signal coming to the controller to control the lights and the other signal powering a external speaker source.
I hope this helps clear the air about this new unit. Thanks! Click here to see the controller on the site.
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Zach