X220 speakers mod

[as.nielo]

Inspired by the post linked on x220.mcdonelltech.com I decided to try it myself. I have ordered a pair of iPad mini speakers and succesfully replaced the stock ones. Now my laptop sounds much better and is a bit louder. I had to remove small plastic pieces from the laptop case to fit them nice.

Note, in x220 tablet speakers are below the screen, maybe in normal x220 it would fit without breaking anything. Just basic soldering skill required. Recommended

[sambaMW]

Could give more details on what you did? Link to the source and/or part number of the Ipad-speakers? Pictures?

[as.nielo]

I have used a replacement speaker available on ebay. I took no pictures of my mod and it is a bit different than what im writing here, I will elaborate on this later. Just basic soldering skill and soldering iron are needed. I have used Hakko 888D and very thin tip to solder the other end of wire but if you proceed with the following steps you should be fine with any soldering iron.

First you cut the wires attached to original speaker and take these small buzzers out. //uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201902 ... 24a0ec.jpg
Leave a few cm of wire from the plug side and the plug, you will need them later

Going to iPad speaker. There are two terminals (small “ears” , one of them you can see on the picture). //uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201902 ... 6afd2d.jpg

It is necessary to solder thin cables to both terminals, then the other end of the soldered wire can be twisted with the wires from original speakers. To fit the new speakers in position it was necessary to breake small pieces of the case. I don’t see any negative effect of it. I have used solid tweezers to take it out.

When the speakers are in position (left one should go a little bit under PCB with three buttons) //uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201902 ... bdf4c8.jpg
lead the wires nicely all the way to the plug (the black piece to the right of PCB) where the original speakers were attached to. Twist the new wire with what is left from old speakers and connect the plug back to its place. Remember to isolate your wires, any short may cause the sound not working until you power your laptop down and back on. There is no special requirement regarding speaker polarity, just remember to keep the left/right order. You are done.

The original assembly allows to use the original socketed plug, I have solderer the wires directly to where the plug is (by mistake I left not enough wire on the plug side). If you proceed with care it should fit nicely with the plug.

I have noticed the ipad mini 4 speakers have different connector, it’s better to go with the mini 3 and earlier for ease of soldering new wires. It may be possible to cut the iPad speaker to size that fits original assembly without breaking anything but my guess is they were made in such shape for a reason. I got mine for less than 10 GBP so it’s worth the chase - the sound quality and loudness are way better, comparing to stock speakers.

Good luck!

[EDIT] some spelling and some articles.

Pictures of actual mod:

“plastic” pieces I had to remove were here:

Solder job on the speaker side:

[WarMachine]

Hello,

My two X220s have a very bad and very tiny sound (never heard worse) and I would like to change the speakers. I plan to build a new support for the speakers and I would like to use the T430 speakers (the support will be made to accept those speakers as I don't want to modify the original support).

Do you know if the T430 speakers will be OK on the X220 (electrically, in terms of impedance) or must I choose other ones (I think I would choose T series speakers, T400/400s, T410/T410s ones)?

Thanks!

W.

[as.nielo]

IDK about other speaker mods but this one is really good. I keep using two iPad speakers since posting this and they sound like charm.


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