Convert speaker wire to 3.5mm connector

[Eagleevil]

I am wanting to hook some computer speakers up to an old receiver I have. There are 2 front speakers, 2 back and a center and 3 plugs for them. The receiver has two speaker wire terminals on the back of it that I can use.

I basically want to know if there is a way I can hook up a female 3.5mm connector to some speaker wire to make them work decent.

At the moment I have tried it with a mono plug instead of a stereo one and it wort of works, but of course only one of the speakers for that plug works. I figured I would ask on here to see if the stereo one might work or not since I believe there is more wires that come off of it...

I don't really have the money to buy new equipment, that is why I am wanting to just find a way to hook these up for now.

 

[Adam]

First, you can hook up your computer speakers to your receiver. It's a question of how. To help you out better, would you let us know which computer speakers you have? I'm having trouble envisioning exactly what it is that you trying to do.

 

[Eagleevil]

The computer speakers I have are Logitech Z-640 speakers.

 

[Adam]

Okay. I'm almost with you. The Z-640 set has a built-in power amplifier and is generally hooked up to 5.1 analog inputs (that are combined into three minijacks).

You can connect speaker wire to RCA plugs, and you can also cut off those plugs on the speaker wires and plug them into your receiver. However, before doing that, I'd like to ask you: is it your intention to not use the amplifier inside of the Z-640s?

EDIT: One other thing - what receiver do you have?

 

[Eagleevil]

My intention is that have the receiver hooked to my computer and then have the speakers hooked to the receiver. This is partially so I can use the radio on the receiver and so I have better control of the volume and what not, along with the ability to use tapes if I so please and what not.

I don't really want to modify the speakers any at all cause at some point they will probably be hooked back up to a computer and hopefully still operational that way.

The receiver is a Rotel RX-500.

If there is speaker wire to RCA plugs then shouldn't it be pretty easy to just have speaker wire to what I want?

 

[Adam]

I refreshed my memory on what a "3.5mm connector" is. I was thinking that you were talking about RCA plugs, but instead you were talking about what I called "minijacks." The three 3.5mm connectors (minijacks) that are on the Z-640 that you'd normally connect to your PC sound card are for low-level signals and should NOT be connected to speaker wire terminals because you could easily blow your speakers and maybe even the amp in the Z-640s. I thought that you were talking about connecting the speakers (that have wires with RCA plugs on the ends of them) directly to the receiver.

Your receiver is a stereo receiver, so you won't get the benefits of surround sound by hooking up the PC speakers to it. That said, I'd suggest one of two things:

1. Instead of sending a signal from your PC to your receiver, I'd do it the other way around. You could connect a cable like this (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0205608) - doesn't have to be that one, just like it - between the "Tape Monitor - Out" RCA jacks on your receiver to the minijack line input (perhaps, "microphone") on your PC. That way, you could keep the Z-640 system hooked up to your PC like always, but run radio or tape signal to the PC from the receiver when you want to.

2. Create two wires that go from female RCA jacks to bare speaker wire, hook the bare speaker wire into the speaker wire connectors on the receiver, and hook the RCA jacks into the RCA jacks on the front left and right speakers. This will allow you to power the front left and right speakers from the receiver. However, assuming that you have a tape deck hooked up to the receiver, I don't know how you're going to hook the PC up to the receiver. According to the owner's manual for the Rotel, you only have a tape deck input and a phone input - and you do NOT want to hook the PC into the phono input because that input is amplified more than other inputs.

I suggest the first option. Do those make any sense? Hopefully that wasn't too cryptic. If so, let me know.

Adam

 

[Eagleevil]

Ya, those options make plenty of sense. Just curious, with option 2 if I split the RCA connection and hook the left front and back into one terminal and the same for the front and back right, would that cause problems and possibly over load the terminal or something like that?

 

[Eagleevil]

Oh and I forgot that the speakers came with a little box that goes from two of the minijacks to two RCA plugs. Just curious on that too, does that still have them put out that low level signal and would be bad to use that way as well?

I am just wanting to learn a little more, not really trying to find more options then the 2 you gave right now.

 

[Adam]

Just curious, with option 2 if I split the RCA connection and hook the left front and back into one terminal and the same for the front and back right, would that cause problems and possibly over load the terminal or something like that?

That's a good idea and a good way to get some "surround" sound, and it shouldn't be a problem at all. Your Rotel should be more than capable of powering two of those little speakers through one speaker connection. A lot of speakers have more than one cone to power (two or three cones, usually), and your speakers just have one cone apiece - so connecting two of them to each speaker wire terminal is kinda like connecting a two-cone speaker.

 

[Adam]

Oh and I forgot that the speakers came with a little box that goes from two of the minijacks to two RCA plugs. Just curious on that too, does that still have them put out that low level signal and would be bad to use that way as well?

According to a site that I found for the Z-640 package, that is a stereo RCA to dual stereo mini adapter that is usually used to connect it to a video game console. So, yes, it converts a low level signal from one type of plug (RCA) to another (minijack). It also splits the signal - from one set of stereo RCA plugs to two stereo minijacks. What that little box does is allow you to connect the left/right RCA audio output from something (as examples, a video game console or the "Tape Monitor - Out" on your Rotel) to one or two of the minijacks of the Z-640. I'm assuming that someone would connect the minijack for the front left/right speakers and could also connect (along the lines of what you asked in your previous post) the minijack for the rear left/right speakers. The front and the rear speakers would be the same signal. In that situation, you'd still be powering the speakers using the amplifier inside of the Z-640 sub and would control the volume using the knob on the center channel.

If you wanted to just hook up your speakers to your Rotel (but you wouldn't have a PC audio signal without another splitter) you could connect the minijack for the front left/right speakers on the Z-640 to that box, connect the minijack for the rear left/right speakers to that box, and connect the left/right RCA outputs ("Tape Monitor - Out") from the Rotel to the RCA inputs on that box using an interconnect cable. You'd still plug the Z-640 sub into an electrical outlet and use the controls on the center speaker, but your source would be the Rotel so you could listen to radio or tapes. Not your best option at this point, probably, but just wanted to let you know something else that you can do.

 

[Eagleevil]

So the the RCA plugs on the little box still have the low level signal then? and shouldn't be hooked up to the speaker wire terminals? You may have answered this, but I reread that a few times and couldn't seem to find out for sure.

 

[Adam]

So the the RCA plugs on the little box still have the low level signal then? and shouldn't be hooked up to the speaker wire terminals? You may have answered this, but I reread that a few times and couldn't seem to find out for sure.

No, don't hook the RCA plugs in the little box to the speaker wire terminals.