Jbuds B-Flex Speaker works with the Pandora

[dgame]

Got this Jbuds B-Flex Speaker for my laptop and it works with the Pandora.

This thing is loud. It puts out a lot of sound.


With the volume turned all the way up the Pandora’s backlight dims with the beat of the music.


It has to be run through a hub as the “c-media usb headphone set” chip is a USB 1.1 device.


I use it with a mini 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub from dx.com (SKU: 7980 ) and no additional power supply.


So far I only get sound out of programs that use alsa and also allow changing of the audio output device.


Smplayer2 and Audacious work.


A mixer can be added to the Xfce taskbar to control the volume.


SDL programs can see the device but no sound comes out.


I probably need to set the default audio output device somewhere.


Since my preferred audio and video player already work I haven’t looked into this much.


Overall the Jbuds B-Flex Speaker is a convenient and portable way to get extra sound out of the Pandora.


Probably not audiophile sound quality but definitely louder and better than my standard laptop speakers and are much louder than the Pandora’s built in speakers.

 

[larry]

Does the Pandora automatically switch to using it when you insert it? And automatically switch back to the internal sound device when you remove it?

 

[TrashyMG]

If your back-light is dimming while at full volume you may be drawing too much current.. may need a powered USB hub to prevent possible damage to the pandora.

Does the Pandora automatically switch to using it when you insert it? And automatically switch back to the internal sound device when you remove it?

It will have to be selected once it's plugged in as the output device.. It's done all with the sound GUI just as easy as windows.., My guess when removed it will know to go back to the default device.. I have a USB sennhieser headset that works fine with the Pandora, I can give a check.


EDIT: Not as easy as I remember.. I swear I remember having an easy switch.. I got it working on select programs by manually selecting the USB headset.. Hmm..

 

[dgame]

Larry Hastings,


Currently you have to manually change the programs desired audio output device.


When I removed the USB speaker I had to set Smplayer2 and Audacious back to defaults to use the built in speakers.


TrashyMG,


The back-light is only dimming while at full volume and with particularly heavy music being played.


If I just turn it down a bit there is no flicker. So I would probably plug it in if I wanted to jam heavy music at full volume for a long time.

 

[DaMummy]

funny enough, i was just going to ask how to get sound output to usb on pandora so i can try my Fiio E7 amp

 

[gruso]

Not bad.


How does gameboy sound through that?

 

[ibisum]

I'd love to see a picture of the Pandora sitting on your desk with that thing sitting over the top of it .. I bet it looks rad!

 

[dgame]

Gruso,


I finally figured out how to make most SDL apps use the USB Speaker and with every Game Boy Emulator buffer underruns occur (ALSA lib pcm.c:7234snd_pcm_recover) underrun occured) and the sound crackles.


It works fine with normal GB but overruns like crazy with GBC. I also noticed that Audacious would sometimes underrun the buffer.


I searched and determined it is probably a limitation of the device or maybe the device driver. When it works it sounds good though.


UPDATE: I also have the newer B-Flex X-Bass USB Speaker and this one has no buffer underrun problems .

This one is larger, heavier, and has more bass. Emulators (With SDL) sound nice, as do movies, music, etc. No Problems.


GnGeo, Geometry Dust, gpSP, Temper, Mame4All, VVVVVV, Prison Break, Atari 2600, and DosBox EX all sound great.


I haven't figured out how to make some programs use the USB audio yet.


I haven't gotten things like PicoDrive, PCSX ReARMed, Mupen64Plus,or Angry [Avians] to use the USB audio.


torpor,


The new speaker is still USB 1.1 so it needs a USB 2.0 hub to work with the Pandora.


I actually modded a Griffin Smartshare USB so that it would hold the speaker behind the Pandora.


It was cool but I didn't like the idea of stressing out the Pandora's USB port with the weight of the speaker.


So now I use the USB hub as a stand (hub would be in place of the laptop pictured above and speaker is turned around)


The new X-Bass model looks very cool behind the Pandora when on the desk. Picture when I get hold of a camera.

 

[dgame]

Okay, both of the B-Flex speakers work with the same programs when using SuperZaxxon-B1 (2.6) OS.


I was having mixed results with Hotfix 7b1.


I rebooted the Pandora and the buffer underrun errors went away for the first application but would return.


VVVVVV would not output any audio.


This was with the non-X-Bass B-Flex speaker.


I updated to SuperZaxxon-B1 and now the non-X-Bass B-Flex speaker is a lot more stable.


Now they both sound great with Game Boy Color games.


The older non-X-Bass model sounds brighter than the X-Bass model.


While it does not have the bass of the X-Bass the non-X-Bass sounds louder overall.


The non-X-Bass is also about half the size of the X-Bass and thus it is more portable.


The experimental 3.2 kernel does not recognize the USB audio devices and "lsusb -t -v" Seg faults.