Quick Speaker Connection Question

[aville44]

Im going to split this question into 2 questions, just to make in more understanable.

1) I have an xbox 360, that is currently connected to 1 set of speakers(that you would use for a computer, nothing special). I want to buy another set of speakers just like the one i have now. So thats 4 speakers total. How would i connect the speakers together?

2)Also, i would like these speakers to play the sound on my tv. My tv is pretty basic. All it has is AV inputs and thats about it. So is it possible to somehow maybe open my tv and do it that way? Or maybe some other way that i dont know about?

heres the speakers i have now: Altec Lansing Stereo Speaker System for iPod and PC, BXR1120

Your help would be greatly appriciated. If you have any questions for me about my tv, speakers, or cords i have now, i'll be more than happy to answer you the best i can. Thanks in advance!

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

A couple of questions for you:
1. Before we start talking about taking your TV apart - which TV (make and model number) do you have? I want to check the available connections. Even if you can't feed audio out from the TV, there are certainly ways to pull to do this.
2. Do you have a cable box or satellite receiver, or are you watching over-the-air TV?
3. For the Xbox, do you want to the second set of speakers to play the same audio as the first set (i.e. you'd have two front right speakers and two front left speakers), or are you trying to get surround sound from the set up with four speakers?

Thanks.

Adam

 

[BMXTRIX]

For the speakers, you can use a RCA splitter or a 1/8" mini stereo splitter...
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10401&cs_id=1040107&p_id=2050&seq=1&format=2
or
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10401&cs_id=1040109&p_id=3531&seq=1&format=2

At some point you may want to consider going to an actual surround system, but I would guess that if you are buying $20 speakers that you have a ways to go before we can certify you an Audioholic.

The only real way to get audio out of your TV, short of taking it apart, which I wouldn't recommend, is to use a headphone out jack, or to use an external tuner for the TV. Typically a cable box, but you can get a VCR with a tuner in it which will work as well.

 

[jamie2112]

I want a video of you tearing your tv apart to hook up speakers LMFAO right now.....Do you have a cable box hooked up to your TV?

 

[aville44]

As for jamie2112... if i do take my tv apart ill make sure to get u a video. believe me it'll be a youtube hit. haha.

Heres the answers to the questions you had:
1.) My TV is a General Electric (GE) 19TVR62
2.) We have basic Cable TV. I dont think we have a cable box for the tv, but we do have a modem for the internet. So im not really sure about the cable box.
3.) As for the speakers... it doesnt really matter. But i would like to have it were i have to right speakers and two left speakers.

Also, i would like to do this with as little wire clutter as possible. Is there a really cheap way to do it wirelessly? (if not then PLEASE dont answer this question). haha. yeah... im cheap. i guess you could call me a "cheap audiohalic" But thats not bad... save money were ya can

 

[Adam]

From what I can tell, your TV has a headphone jack on the front of it. If that really is the case, then you certainly don't need to take apart your TV to make this work.

Your Altec Lansing speakers will plug directly into that headphone jack. If you want two sets of those speakers plugged into the same source (Xbox or TV), then you just need a y-splitter cable for the headphone jack like this one. You would plug both sets of speakers into the female connectors on that cable, and then plug the male end into the headphone jack on the TV or whatever you are using to connect to the Xbox.

If you want to have both sets of speakers hooked up to both the Xbox and the TV, then you'll need another splitter (inexpensive, but potentially more problematic) or a switch box. Before going into those details, let us know if that's what you want to do.

Adam

 

[aville44]

yeah man that sounds good. so what exactly do it need?

 

[Adam]

yeah man that sounds good. so what exactly do it need?

1. Two sets of Altec Lansing speakers. Each set has it's own 3.5mm stereo headphone jack that needs to be connected to a source.

2. A 3.5mm stereo jack y-splitter. Just as example, you can get it in cable form (linked above) or as a shorter adapter like this.

3. Plug both sets of Altec Lansing speakers into the y-splitter.

4a. Optional: a switch that allows you to choose between two different 3.5mm stereo jack inputs. Several are available, with this one for $17 being just one example.

4b. Optional: instead of a switch, you could also just get a y-splitter like this one. The downside to this option is that sound from both the Xbox and the TV will be fed to the speakers at the same time if you have both of them on.

5. If you got either of the options listed in 4a or 4b above, plug the splitter from #2 into either the switch box or the other splitter, and then connect the switch box (or other splitter) to the Xbox and to the TV. If you didn't get either of the options listed in 4a or 4b, then you would have to manually disconnect the splitter mentioned in #2 from either the TV or Xbox and then plug it into the other one in order to switch between the two.

Make sense?

 

[aville44]

ok. im gonna try it out. if i have any questions ill be sure to ask u. thanks

 

[Adam]

Hey, you're more than welcome. I'd sure like to know how it works out for you, even if you don't have questions. If you think about it and have time, please stop back by and give us an update. Thanks!

 

[aville44]

yesterday i was trying to get the sound from my tv to play through my speakers. i havent bought the new set of speakers yet, i was just messing around with the stuff i already have. i plugged a splitter into my tv's headphone jack. from that i had an av cable. then i had an 3.5mm Stereo Male To 3.5mm Stereo Female Y-Cable(or something like that) going to the AUX port on my speakers. But it wouldnt work. All the cables were good, all plugged in right. All i was getting was a buzzing sound. What did i do wrong?

 

[Adam]

Quick question: what type of "av cable" did you have connected between the splitter (plugged into your TV's headphone jack) and the Y-cable (plugged into your speaker's AUX input)?

The issue could be any of the items in the chain: TV volume setting, TV headphone output, splitter, A/V cable, Y-cable, AUX input on speakers, speaker volume setting, and/or (and this isn't mean to sound insulting, as it applies to all of us) you.

Some things that I'd do to troubleshoot the issue:
1. Try turning the volume up on the TV to see if that gives you anything (I'm assuming that the TV's speakers get shut off when you plug something into the headphone jack).
2. Figure out if the headphone jack on your TV actually works. If you don't know that it does, you could plug a set of headphones into it to check it out, or you could plug your speakers directly into it.
3. Figure out if the AUX input on your speakers actually works. You could plug something that you know should work into the AUX input.
4. Figure out if all of the cables are actually working. If the headphone jack works and the AUX input works, try removing some of the splitters/cables between them - assuming that you have the right cables to directly connect them.

Just some things to get you started.

 

[Phil Taylor]

yesterday i was trying to get the sound from my tv to play through my speakers. i havent bought the new set of speakers yet, i was just messing around with the stuff i already have. i plugged a splitter into my tv's headphone jack. from that i had an av cable. then i had an 3.5mm Stereo Male To 3.5mm Stereo Female Y-Cable(or something like that) going to the AUX port on my speakers. But it wouldnt work. All the cables were good, all plugged in right. All i was getting was a buzzing sound. What did i do wrong?

I have the same Altec Lansing speakers that I use for my laptop and they sound GREAT for the price. I actually didn't even realize they had an AUX input (thanks for the heads-up BTW) but mine does indeed work. As a quick test I simply plugged a pair of headphones into the AUX input and tapped on them and the speakers produced a confirming tap in response (yes - headphones can be used as a mic).

I'm guessing that you either had a bad cable or that your TV headphone jack isn't working. Follow the troubleshooting steps above by Adam and you will find the actual culprit.

 

[aville44]

heres the type of av cable im talking about(i call it an AV extention cord, thats what i use it for anyway) http://www.antonline.com/p_AV20301-06-NX_269461.htm . The headphone jack works fine with headphones. Shoot maybe it is me. haha

 

[Adam]

heres the type of av cable im talking about(i call it an AV extention cord, thats what i use it for anyway) http://www.antonline.com/p_AV20301-06-NX_269461.htm .

That's not what I was expecting. Not that it won't work, but it's not what I expected based on the other cables/splitters that you mentioned.

Would you mind also putting up links/images of the other cables/splitters that you are using? It might be something in how you have them put together.

Thanks.

 

[Phil Taylor]

heres the type of av cable im talking about(i call it an AV extention cord, thats what i use it for anyway) http://www.antonline.com/p_AV20301-06-NX_269461.htm . The headphone jack works fine with headphones. Shoot maybe it is me. haha

OK - so we know your TV headphone jack works (I'm guessing the headphone jack you refer to is on the TV) - what about your AUX input on your speaker? Since you have headphones - plug them in the AUX input, turn the volume all the way up and tap on the earpiece. You should hear a faint confirming tapping sound (as there is no pre-amp to boost the relatively low output of the headphones) and you will probably have to place your ear close to the speaker but it should be there. If you do hear a response/tap then you know the issue is somewhere between the TV and the AUX input.

 

[aville44]

1. the first thing is something like a Y-splitter. but its output is for AV Cables.

2.plugged into that is this but it doesnt have a video cord on it, only 2 audio cords.

3. i have a cord thats like a Y splitter, accept its a cable. My AV Cable(#2 above) is plugged into that, and this cord goes into my AUX port on my speakers

sorry i couldnt find all of the stuff online

 

[aville44]

OK - so we know your TV headphone jack works (I'm guessing the headphone jack you refer to is on the TV) - what about your AUX input on your speaker? Since you have headphones - plug them in the AUX input, turn the volume all the way up and tap on the earpiece. You should hear a faint confirming tapping sound (as there is no pre-amp to boost the relatively low output of the headphones) and you will probably have to place your ear close to the speaker but it should be there. If you do hear a response/tap then you know the issue is somewhere between the TV and the AUX input.

when i tapped on the earpiece their was a low tapping noise, kinda like when u tap on a microphone

 

[Adam]

Perhaps these details aren't that important, but when troubleshooting, I like to know that I have the full picture. So, are the connectors on your cables/splitters like the ones shown below (ignore the length of the cables...just focus on the connectors)?

1. Plugged into the TV headphone jack:

2. Plugged into the cable/splitter from #1:

3. Plugged into the cable from #2: The one that you linked from antonline

4. Plugged into the cable from #3:

 

[Phil Taylor]

when i tapped on the earpiece their was a low tapping noise, kinda like when u tap on a microphone

That's exactly what you should have heard. You say the "splitter" plugged into your TV is for A/V ... and that the cable you're using does not have a video cable ... so I'm wondering if your splitter is of the "tip, ring, ring, sleeve" type - like is it a breakout cable for a DVD player or some similar device with one video and two audio outputs? If so it's probably not contacting the proper points in your TV's headphone jack which would result in improper audio signals output to your speaker system. The proper headphone type audio Y will have a mini plug with "tip, ring, sleeve" connector.