Raspberry Pi 5 Audio Amplifer

I am currently working 3D printed mini arcade machine and have bought the raspberry 5 for it and need some help on getting audio. My plan right now is to buy a audio HAT module that plugs into the raspberry pi 40-pin GPIO slot and the speakers are connected to that audio hat module I also then want to buy a amplifer board that has volume knob I wanted to know if I connect the amplifer knob with a 3.5mm jack that goes from the amplifer to the the raspbberry pi would that work and i will be able to use the knob for volume. hope this makes sense (The blue board is the WM860 audio HAT module that comes with 2 speakers)

If you make a drawing like: Raspberry Pi 5 - WM860 audio HAT - External amplifier And then I think you ask: Can I use the volume control on the "External Amplifier"? Then will the answer be YES. But remember that the sound level will also be controlled by "WM860 audio HAT" via the Raspberry Pi OS or eq.

Thank you and im guessing I would need to disconnect the speakers for the audio hat and strip and solder them to the amplifer otherwise the speakers wont work if I just leave them connected to the auido hat

That is correct. And if you uses the volume control in the OS you can skip the external amplifier.

A tip, there is some cool "USB Volume controllers", example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAY8OWnng_A Then you have a generic volume knob that can be used in Linux/Windows/MAC with no need to modify the "amplifier".