Help with RCA to Speaker Wire Connect

[VideoGuy]

I am about to finalize my home theater wire job. I had one question though about connecting my audio connects.

I have 30 sets of Right/Left RCA audio connections that I plan to use with video gear/audio equipment/etc. that will feed audio to my reciever or directly to my HiDef TV.

I ran 12 gauge speaker wire in my walls that needs to be patched now into the back of a Leviton Quickport jack.

It has an RCA connection on the front and back of the wallplate. I need to connect the speaker wire to the back side of the wallplate.

I saw some RCA solder type connections at a couple of stores, but they were not designed for 12 gauge speaker wire, and their instructions indicated two wires to connect to the jack(a positive and negative). Of course the speaker cable is only one cable per connection so I wasn't sure if I should solder the one wire to the main(middle) terminal and forget about the negative/ground wire---or is there a better connect I can use to get this speaker cable attached to my Leviton plate.

Thanks for any links to products that will help me out.

Paul

 

[jaxvon]

Do you have to use the Levitron plates? If you have a need for a combo RCA/Speaker plate, you can pick those up for a very reasonable price online or at your local Home Depot.

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/home-wiring.html

 

[BMXTRIX]

You may have issues using RCA connectors for audio. RCA connections were never designed to carry high power connections like speaker levels. This will cause a degradation in the signal and power that is being sent out to your speakers and is not something I would recommend.

While ANY solder type RCA connector will perform the task, not one will do it well as far as I know.

Instead, you may want to get some binding post keystone inserts that allow you to connect the bare speaker wire on the back, and use a banana plug on the front or connect wire directly.

Something like these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Keystone-Audio-Binding-Posts-w-Black-Band-White_W0QQitemZ5827240976QQcategoryZ32838QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[VideoGuy]

I am using the binding posts for my surround speaker connects. It is the RCA jacks I want to use for all of the A/V equipment connects that will be routed either to my receiver or my TV. There are RCA outs now on everything and I want to be able to plug them directly into an RCA jack on the wall.

I have already purchased a large order from leviton, so I am kind of stuck with that setup. I was just looking for that one connector, that will take my bare 12 gauge speaker cable and turn it into an RCA male.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[BMXTRIX]

I'm confused...

What are you using the 12 gauge speaker wire for? Something other than carrying speaker audio? If so, you may run into quality issues there.

If you are saying that you just have a plate full of RCA connectors, and you have coaxial cables running to the TV with RCAs on the end, and want to hook that up (no problem) then that is fine.

But, you will want to swap out a few of those RCA connectors with binding posts as well. You don't HAVE to - but you really should. Solder type RCA connectors are available all over the place online. So, you can solder your 12 gauge cable to an RCA connector.

And get horrible quality results because that's not what RCA connectors were designed for.

Bottom line: If you care about quality, then don't try to use RCA connectors for your speaker level connections. Get some binding posts.

The ones I linked to are keystone type inserts that should work inside your Leviton wall plates. The only time they shouldn't work is if your wall-plates have permanently mounted RCA inserts that are not removable.

If that's the case, I would cut another hole in the wall for the speaker connections then get a binding post only wall plate. Leave the RCA connectors separated a bit and use them for your line level audio and video connections.

I realize this isn't what you want to hear, unfortunately, it is the way the connectivity is designed.

 

[MDS]

Leviton sells binding posts that plug into the QuickPort as well. The last time I was at Home Depot, they had them in stock.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Note: If you just have a couple of those RCA connectors that you need to change, and they are bolted to the plate (as shown in your picture) you can pick up JUST the banana/binding post pieces for just a few bucks and have everything done!

http://www.partexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=091-1207

 

[VideoGuy]

Being very much into video (hollywood editor type)I assumed that when I ran all my cables, I used Quad RG6 for all my video needs, and I ran audio cable(speaker cable) for the audio needs.

Yes I used the binding posts with the speaker requirements which i have already done, but maybe I made a big mistake in not making everything RG6.

I want to plug my DVD player, my VHS deck, my IPOD, etc etc into a jack on the wall that will then go directly to a corresponding jack at the back of my receiver or TV. Of course all of them are RCA type connections, so I bought alot of RCA Leviton connections.

I did figure out about the RCA compression jacks that I can use on the quad cable to get the video side of things working, but maybe I screwed up with the audio side.

Now I am left with RCA connectors to a 12 gauge cable that I need to run Left/right audio from all these machines. What options do I have to make it work? Should I try to solder RCA on the end of the speaker wire?

HELP!!!!

Paul

 

[markw]

There's "line level" audio and then there's "speaker level" audio.

That 12 gauge wire is fine for "speaker level" audio runs but for any other "line level" audio runs (that are generally terminated with RCA jacks), you should really use coaxial cable.

The reason being that that "line level" signal will be amplified before it's "speaker ready" and is susceptible to RFI/EMI interference, which coaxial cable minimizes. Amplifing a signal that had RFI/EMI added to it amplifies the bad efffects of the RFI/EMI contamination as well as the signal. ...think if it as amplifying a noisy antenna signal. The signal is amplified along with the noise. You wind up with a strong, noisy signal instead of a weak, noisy signal.

"Speaker level" signals don't go through additional amplification so EMI/RFI is not really a factor.

 

[BMXTRIX]

...I ran audio cable(speaker cable) for the audio needs.

Yes I used the binding posts with the speaker requirements which i have already done, but maybe I made a big mistake in not making everything RG6.

Now I am left with RCA connectors to a 12 gauge cable that I need to run Left/right audio from all these machines. What options do I have to make it work? Should I try to solder RCA on the end of the speaker wire?

If I understand you correctly:
1. You ran speaker wire to your speakers, and they are hooked up fine.
2. You ran RG-6 to your display for output from your video devices - and this is fine.

3. You ran speaker wire to your line level inputs on the TV and are now wondering how to put RCA ends on them. This is an issue.

I'm a bit confused as to whether you are using a surround receiver. This is typically the case and your VCR, DVD, etc., would be located about 12 inches from your receiver and while video may run straight to the TV, audio would just use one foot interconnects (often digital) to connect to the receiver.

If the audio you are trying to connect is an unamplified signal, coming out of the red and white RCA jacks on the back of your (for example) VCR. Then, you are correct in thinking that 12 gauge cabling was not the correct type to run.

If it is next to impossible to put a coax cable in place, then you will definitely want to try to solder RCA connectors onto the 12 gauge cable, and hope you have enough wires run. You also need to pray that there is no noise in your home that will mess up your audio signal. Speaker cable is designed to carry a high powered signal. That power helps to keep noise off the line and out of the speakers. With line level audio, which is what you want to connect, there is hardly any power there and any interference or noise can be relatively easily transferred to the speaker cables.

Unless they are shielded - which they probably aren't.

Yuck, not what you want to hear and I'd love to say 'No problem, just do...' and have your problem fixed. Pick up a couple of inexpensive RCA solder on ends, and spend a bit of time soldering. You can run line level audio over the cables with no problem. But, the quality of the final sound may be compromised. Significantly. Be ready for that potential.

 

[VideoGuy]

If I understand you correctly:
1. You ran speaker wire to your speakers, and they are hooked up fine.
2. You ran RG-6 to your display for output from your video devices - and this is fine.

3. You ran speaker wire to your line level inputs on the TV and are now wondering how to put RCA ends on them. This is an issue.

I'm a bit confused as to whether you are using a surround receiver. This is typically the case and your VCR, DVD, etc., would be located about 12 inches from your receiver and while video may run straight to the TV, audio would just use one foot interconnects (often digital) to connect to the receiver.

If the audio you are trying to connect is an unamplified signal, coming out of the red and white RCA jacks on the back of your (for example) VCR. Then, you are correct in thinking that 12 gauge cabling was not the correct type to run.

If it is next to impossible to put a coax cable in place, then you will definitely want to try to solder RCA connectors onto the 12 gauge cable, and hope you have enough wires run. You also need to pray that there is no noise in your home that will mess up your audio signal. Speaker cable is designed to carry a high powered signal. That power helps to keep noise off the line and out of the speakers. With line level audio, which is what you want to connect, there is hardly any power there and any interference or noise can be relatively easily transferred to the speaker cables.

Unless they are shielded - which they probably aren't.

Yuck, not what you want to hear and I'd love to say 'No problem, just do...' and have your problem fixed. Pick up a couple of inexpensive RCA solder on ends, and spend a bit of time soldering. You can run line level audio over the cables with no problem. But, the quality of the final sound may be compromised. Significantly. Be ready for that potential.

That's it in a nutshell. I hope I can salvage the audio end of things with the solder job. My inexperience in the audio side of things may have fowled up my wire job. Thanks to all for the help. I will solder and keep my fingers crossed. I assume I would solder straight to the middle part of the jack and leave the ground/shield part unconnected.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[jaxvon]

Actually, I would solder one wire to the center and the other to the ground.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Yeah, you will need signal and ground for each signal. That's why I was wondering if you had enough wiring in place. Left = two wires, Right = two wires. Pick a color...

 

[HiJon89]

I'm running into a similar problem, I have an Onkyo TX-SR503 receiver. I plan on using headphones almost all of the time because my parents room is next to mine and they always complain about it being too loud But for once in a while I may want to use speakers so I'm just going to pick up a super cheap set like the Logitech X-530 for about $50 and it's 5.1. The problem is, each speaker has 1 RCA connector for input, and the output on my receiver has a positive and negative post. If I cut open the RCA cable connected to the speakers it will have both a positive and negative wire right? If so, I planning on cutting the RCA cables coming out of the speakers and soldering on speaker wire which would run to the receiver. I was hoping someone could tell me how well/if this would work, thanks