Speaker repair? Cable confusion.

[AltCode]

Hello! I just joined this forum, I'm hoping someone can help me. I'm not an audio person, nor am I in anyway a person who would be good at this. I'm just a girl trying to fix up some speakers for a friend.

I saw these outside of someone's house that had a sign that said "free, still works" so, naturally, I loaded them up and brought them home.

http://i.imgur.com/E2dr8.jpg

This is what Fisher ST-780s looked like a long, long time ago when they were new:
http://www.oaktreevintage.com/web_photos/Stereo_Speakers/Fisher_ST-780_Speakers_Web.jpg

They're Fisher ST-780s with a 15" woofer, two 6" midranges, and two 2" tweeters. Yeah sure, they're a little shabby- missing a few knobs and have tape/paper hiding some holes. The wood vinyl is a bit run down.

http://i.imgur.com/Ln4Eq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RxNHY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/FZmX9.jpg

I'm leaving the paper, since its sort of a solidified paper mache and I really don't want to buy new cones. The tape I'm thinking about replacing but I don't know. I'm going to be cleaning all the cones up and then painting them with a coat of Wet Look (black) to keep them safe and sound. As for the vinyl... I'm going to completely replace the outside with a darker wood pattern vinyl. I'm also going to get 4 new speaker grills for the midranges.
Now, all this is fine and dandy, I've managed to figure out this far on my own. Unfortunately, I've run into a problem.
I am going to need an amp to run this through, with a min of 30 watts. I want to connect these to a computer. I need cables. Specifically, I need whatever the heck these connect to.

http://i.imgur.com/Of0oK.jpg

Can someone please help me out here? I can do body work on these speakers all day but when it comes to wires/amps/computer connections I am dumb as a doorknob.
Thanks for reading, any help/suggestions would be appreciated.
-AltCode

[Hyfi]

All you should need is a USB cable, some Radio Shack Speaker wire and something similar to this

Topping TP30 Class T Digital Amplifier with USB-DAC 15 WPC 310-312 (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=310-312&utm_source=googleps)

a bit overkill for a computer but should sound nice if properly re-coned. Good old brand and you may be able to find more help over at Audio Karma where there are thousands of Vintage Enthusiasts and many that have these speakers.

[Poultrygeist]

I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeezing.

[Burchill]

Old lol

[Burchill]

They work at all and do they sound good

[sneakyimp]

I've tried twice now to post this but this silly forum requires 10 posts for me to provide helpful links. so silly.

[sneakyimp]

HERE'S the post without links.

I just made a lengthy post here but somehow lost it.

A trip in the woofer can cause you to lose bass response or can cause distortion or flapping noises in your music. Paper mache sounds a bit weak for that sort of repair. Don't hestitate to unscrew the woofer and tape it on both sides with sturdy cloth or duct tape -- something sturdy and very sticky. The key is to tape it as sturdily as you can and preserve the original shape.

The receiver posted by Hyfi is convenient because you can use a USB connector to hook into your computer. You may have issues with software drivers though -- or perhaps difficulty figuring out how to configure your computer. Some hardware manufacturers neglect to write drivers for Macs, others for windows. Sometimes its tricky to route your audio to a USB device and get good results.

The speaker wire connectors use good old fashioned speaker wire. You strip the rubber from the ends of the wire (using wire cutters with a stripping notch -- otherwise it can be tricky to strip the wire without cutting the ends off over and over again). Then you push down the lever and push the bare wire in the hold and let go of the lever. Make sure you pull the old bits of copper wire out first. Also be sure to connect the red side on your amp to the red connector on the speaker --- red to red, black to black. The speaker wire (which is actually two wires) usually has a stripe on one of the wires to make this easier.

As for amplifiers, you could just go for one from newegg like a YAMAHA RX-V371 5.1-Channel AV Receiver (q.v.)

Or if you are into vintage look/sound, then there's a Fisher MC-2500 on ebay.

To connect your computer to this amplifier (which is also FM receiver) you would just need an adapter like this one:
6FT 3.5mm Mini Plug to RCA Hook Computer To Stereo 6 FT: Electronics (link redacted)

In my experience, the adapter approach can be kind of hard on the audio jack on your computer/iphone/ipod/whatever but it's very simple. Make sure you turn the amplifier off (or at least way down) or you can hurt your speakers/amp when unplugging stuff.