I got an old thrift store radio clarion cd player to go into my old pickup. I figured out how to get it to turn on, but when hooked up to speakers it produces very little sound.
I figure it must need an amplifier to go between the head unit and speakers. It would be nice if I could Bluetooth it with my phone.
Anyone here know of a two channel amplifier with Bluetooth. The radio predates all fancy stuff like mp3 and is from 1995.
I have never done a cd player, definitely learning, any help appreciated. 
I'm intrigued as to how you hooked it up to speakers. All I can find on that head unit is that it has no internal amp and is designed to be hooked via RCA cables to an external amp.
There are bluetooth enabled amps available. Search motorsports or motorcycle amps as they are more likely to have that feature.
I mean, if your going for a Bluetooth amp, just skip the head unit?
RevRico said:
I mean, if your going for a Bluetooth amp, just skip the head unit?
Yup. Your talking about putting a whole lot of work into using this particular head unit. Its not worth it.
i like the cheap Boss "mechless" units myself. Bluetooth, normal amplified setup. I also really like that they have standard basic "equalizer", front/back, left/right, bass, treble.
like this. https://a.co/d/esxG8Kh
That is however a seriously cool period piece if you want to go for a Radwood style build over time. It does need an amp, and finding a working amp from a similar time might be a challenge. I would look for old Rockford Fosgate or Phoenix Gold amps from the mid to late 90's. You can run one of the cigarette lighter bluetooth radio adapters to get sound to your head unit cheaply.
Ok, I took an old rca cable and spliced it to ground and hot side on speakers. It did produce just enough sound to piss me off. I couldn't imagine this being groundbreaking. I am dumb with this stuff.
The radio lights up and works fine I had to make pin connectors because it uses a weird 8 pin plug, no harness available. I found something I think will work to amplify sound but was curious if anyone here know about this stuff.
Was looking at something like this.
https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Amplifier-Adapter-Wireless-Channel/dp/B072JJNSLX/ref=asc_df_B072JJNSLX/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198071850684&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2736393338864794722&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1013581&hvtargid=pla-368227921918&psc=1#
This car audio amplifier (Pyle with Bluetooth) would probably work better and be more likely to function after a few weeks in a vehicle.
Most of the amplifier boards and small amps like the one you linked are very power hungry and work best on input voltages well above what a car electrical system puts out. It will make noise more than a 4v pre-amp output like your headunit has, but not much more.
A car audio amp will have a more vibration resistant build, a larger heatsink, and the correct RCA style inputs so you can just run off-the-shelf cables from your headunit to the amp.
This plus a basic amp install kit (power cable (eight gauge or better) with a fuse at the battery end, and a clean connection to ground), will work much better than that desktop amp you linked.
Ok, so I gotta use one of the big nasty ones. The goal is just to have a working radio which fires two speakers. I figure if I can get another year outta this truck before it dies, at least I can listen to tunes. The factory radio is half dead.
Thank you for the input, will order something later today. With no radio, no dash trim, my truck is no fun. I figure the smart thing to do is just get a new radio with all the goodies, but being dumb precludes the easy button.
There are plenty of bluetooth amps. Assuming you have factory speakers? If so, you only need about 10w per speaker, but 20w would give you more flexibility. Since we don't know the wattage rating of the factory speakers, more is sometimes better since you can always turn the gain/volume down on the amp.
I have this one in my house to run my patio speakers. It bluetooths to the home theater and powers two little speakers on the porch. It comes with a 12v power supply brick, so you could just cut off the plug and hook it directly to a switched power source. It's only about the size of two decks of cards so it's easy to stuff somewhere. Set the volume on the amp to about half or 3/4 and you're golden.
It sounds like you tried to drive a speaker with a pre-amp output per your comment on "rca cable to speaker and I could barely hear it".
I'm with the other folks; spend around $50 on a new head unit with Bluetooth already in the thing and study the wiring diagram for that unit. Come back with questions. Sell the Clarion.
It will never work was the motivation I needed, spliced a computer speaker in and it works kind of but picks up a bunch of static and noise especially from my led headlights. Gonna refine the speaker setup, pretty ghetto, matches my truck. 
