Speaker Cables

[danny tay]

Ok, I have just bought some garden speakers, however I expected to plug them into my iPod, they arrvied this morning and as it turns out, I have an issue. The speakers (http://tinyurl.com/gardenspeakers) have bare wires. I know that the wires are supposed to be attached to a stereo, positive and negative and all that, but as I said, I wanted to link these speakers to my iPod. I am tech savy, so I can attach bannana plugs or whatever if needs be but I dont actualy know what to do in this case.

What I had thought was maybe, getting these cables and converting them through adapters or whatever to RCA, the I can convert from RCA to 3.5mm jack. But I dont want to blow any connections, I realy have no idea if this would work, and if it would what I would need to do it.

So overall: They are 20watt speakers, I want to get from plain stereo wires with no plugs too RCA, does anyone know if this is possible and if so how I can do it?

If its not possible, does anyone have any ideas of what I could do? Other than just plugging the wires into a stereo.

Thank You.

[markw]

Even if you manage to attach the bare wires to a 3.5 mm mini-stereo plug, they still won't work.

You need an amp between your player and the speakers. That "20 watt" rating is what they can handle, not what they put out.

You can certainly buy an amp, and that's another discussion entirely, but, IMNSHO, for the sake of simplicity, you're better off buying a boom-box with an aux input or, if you have an Ipod, one with a built-in dock.

[02audionoob]

How about something like this (Sharper Image LP115BMS)...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2710/4534759032_12dd307147_o.jpg

[danny tay]

Hmmmm, it says on the box I can attach Bannana plugs :/ What are these? Could I use these to do sumat to get me there?

[markw]

Hmmmm, it says on the box I can attach Bannana plugs :/ What are these? Could I use these to do sumat to get me there?... and plug them into the fargin' amp you're gonna need to make them work!

[JoeE SP9]

Welcome to AR danny tay.

You need an amplifier or a receiver to power the speakers. You plug the iPod into the receiver or amp. You then connect the speakers to the amp or receiver. Only speakers that are "powered" will run directly from your iPod. The 20 Watt rating is for how much power they can handle. Speakers by themselves don't have power, they use power.

I'm not sure what you mean by "tech savy". Being computer literate is not "tech savy".

[danny tay]

I'm not sure what you mean by "tech savy". Being computer literate is not "tech savy".
Ok, I understand now. Thank You

And tech savy means generaly quite good with any kind of tech, knowledge or technical terms and can pick most things up fairly easily. I know about most audio stuff I have just never had to deal with this kind of thing before. Tech savy means to me a better than average knowledge but not expert by any means.

[danny tay]

Just realised, one more thing. Dont know if anyone is actualy going to know this, but seeing as it seems Im just going to have to plug these speakers into my stereo, does anyone know if I were to extend the cables from the speaker is there a certain distance before the signal deteriorates?

Currently the cables are 10 meters long and I can easily exted them but like I said deterioration, I dont want to make them 20 meters long to find out the signal is gone after 15m.

[E-Stat]

Ok, I have just bought some garden speakers, however I expected to plug them into my iPod, they arrvied this morning and as it turns out, I have an issue.
My suggestion would be to buy an inexpensive "T amp" which uses an 1/8" stereo input like that of an iPod. It can be run on batteries as well. It should have plenty of power.

T amp (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-380)

Good luck!

rw

[poppachubby]

. I know about most audio stuff I have just never had to deal with this kind of thing before.

So using an amp to power speakers doesn't fall under "most audio stuff"?


does anyone know if I were to extend the cables from the speaker is there a certain distance before the signal deteriorates?

Mr. Tay, you would lose a bit of fidelity, but not to the levels you are thinking. Firstly, for the lengths you are running, you MUST use 10 or 12 AWG cable. Secondly, if you are using a typical receiver or amp at 20+ watts you should be fine. If you decide to employ a T-amp, you could have some issues over distances like 20 meters.

You know, I just set my mother up with a similar issue. She wanted something "portable" and for her gazebo, located far into her yard. I simply bought her a decent Sony portable walkman and a decent Ipod style dock. I put her adaptors into a power strip and mounted it to a piece of wood for convenient moevment. For her, it's loud enough and easily transported.

[danny tay]

Thanks for all the help guys. My final solution is that I have mover my stereo inside my house so that its closer to the window. I may add another 10m of cable to the speakers so I can mover them further down the garden. I am going to play the music by attaching my laptop to my stereo and use my ipod touch as a remote connected to the wifi.

[johnbatista]

hello,
I also had this problem and thanks for sharing it solution thanks.

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[Geoffcin]

Hey Johnbatista;

I'm removing the commercial link in your sig. Sorry, not allowed.