Home theater speakers to PC?

[Arwanell]

i just found an awesome deal on some home theater speakers

but it's only speakers, no central unit

could i connect them to my PC? 

because they are 600W and that would be awesome

 

I'm asking because i don't know what connectors those speakers have and what do i need to connect all of them to PC

 

speakers are from Philips HTS3538/12 set

[ZetZet]

You need an amp and that's it. But since they are 5.1 you will need a fancier one.

 

there are cheaper ones on ebay, but I don't know how to pick a good one so I'm not even going to try and do so.

[Patrickkd]

if its the entire set you will need a home theatre amp if its just the two you can any amp you want.

you could use something like this http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TDA7492-Two-Channel-Digital-Audio-Amplifier-Board-Class-D-Amp-Board-50W-50W-100W-/171358964040?hash=item27e5ca4948:g:xzwAAOSwBvNTnUTr

to run a pair of speakers until you can afford a more decent amp. You can even use an old psu to run it as long at it has a 10 amp rail

 

Proper big speakers sound awesome and if they are a good price you should totally go for it!

[Arwanell]

You need an amp and that's it. But since they are 5.1 you will need a fancier one.

 

there are cheaper ones on ebay, but I don't know how to pick a good one so I'm not even going to try and do so.

 

 

if its the entire set you will need a home theatre amp if its just the two you can any amp you want.

you could use something like this http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TDA7492-Two-Channel-Digital-Audio-Amplifier-Board-Class-D-Amp-Board-50W-50W-100W-/171358964040?hash=item27e5ca4948:g:xzwAAOSwBvNTnUTr

to run a pair of speakers until you can afford a more decent amp. You can even use an old psu to run it as long at it has a 10 amp rail

 

Proper big speakers sound awesome and if they are a good price you should totally go for it!

i just found out the connectors are like this: http://www.faltboot-hobby.de/philips/3538h.jpg

not the normal cables...

[Patrickkd]

OK that box is the amp so you don't need anything expect a simple cable to go into the two white and red jacks on the right of the box and then into your PC. 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-5mm-Plug-Male-To-2RCA-Stereo-Audio-Cable-AUX-for-iPod-1-5M-/221079105033?hash=item3379576e09:g:8k0AAOSwo6lWFdHs

plug one end it the amp and the other into your PC, select the audio input on the box and enjoy the better audio.

[Arwanell]

OK that box is the amp so you don't need anything expect a simple cable to go into the two white and red jacks on the right of the box and then into your PC. 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-5mm-Plug-Male-To-2RCA-Stereo-Audio-Cable-AUX-for-iPod-1-5M-/221079105033?hash=item3379576e09:g:8k0AAOSwo6lWFdHs

plug one end it the amp and the other into your PC, select the audio input on the box and enjoy the better audio.

yes i know, but the problem is, that guy is only selling the speakers

[Patrickkd]

If they are just the speakers than speakers will just have wire on them (that's what the speaker connects on the box are for a strand of wire) you can use them with any amp including the one I suggested

most speakers connect with bare wire just like those ones they have no special plugs. 

[ZetZet]

i just found out the connectors are like this: http://www.faltboot-hobby.de/philips/3538h.jpg

not the normal cables...

that is normal cables.

[Arwanell]

If they are just the speakers than speakers will just have wire on them (that's what the speaker connects on the box are for a strand of wire) you can use them with any amp including the one I suggested

most speakers connect with bare wire just like those ones they have no special plugs. 

with this? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TDA7492-Two-Channel-Digital-Audio-Amplifier-Board-Class-D-Amp-Board-50W-50W-100W-/171358964040?hash=item27e5ca4948:g:xzwAAOSwBvNTnUTr

how?

 

that is normal cables.

they are just wires, all the amp's i'm looking at have some sort of cables

[ZetZet]

with this? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TDA7492-Two-Channel-Digital-Audio-Amplifier-Board-Class-D-Amp-Board-50W-50W-100W-/171358964040?hash=item27e5ca4948:g:xzwAAOSwBvNTnUTr

how?

 

they are just wires, all the amp's i'm looking at have some sort of cables

wrong amps you are looking at then. Normal speakers have only wires and normal amps receive those wires.

[Arwanell]

wrong amps you are looking at then. Normal speakers have only wires and normal amps receive those wires.

okay i might just buy used Philips central unit from ebay

 

do you think that this one http://images.philips.com/is/image/PhilipsConsumer/HTS2500_94-IMS-en_IN?wid=1250&$jpglarge$

could power these speakers? http://images.philips.com/is/image/PhilipsConsumer/HTS3538_12-RTP-global-001?wid=1250&$jpglarge$

 

they both have the exact same connectors

[ZetZet]

okay i might just buy used Philips central unit from ebay

 

do you think that this one http://images.philips.com/is/image/PhilipsConsumer/HTS2500_94-IMS-en_IN?wid=1250&$jpglarge$

could power these speakers? http://images.philips.com/is/image/PhilipsConsumer/HTS3538_12-RTP-global-001?wid=1250&$jpglarge$

yes. Speakers don't care, the only thing that can happen is you won't get all the volume you could get with a more powerful amp, but most likely you won't notice a thing.

[Arwanell]

wrong amps you are looking at then. Normal speakers have only wires and normal amps receive those wires.

all the amp's i saw in my country have this: http://i.imgur.com/VohFNY9.png

[ZetZet]

all the amp's i saw in my country have this: http://i.imgur.com/VohFNY9.png

that's inputs, not speaker outputs...

[Arwanell]

that's inputs, not speaker outputs...

ah, i get it

but most of them are likr this http://i.imgur.com/0wTCGiN.png

[ZetZet]

ah, i get it

but most of them are likr this http://i.imgur.com/0wTCGiN.png

 

same thing

[Arwanell]

 

 

same thing

ah, nice, so this is basically for 8 speakers? not 4?

[ZetZet]

ah, nice, so this is basically for 8 speakers? not 4?

no idea what that is, but it's 4 speakers. black one is negative, red one is positive for each speaker.

[Arwanell]

no idea what that is, but it's 4 speakers. black one is negative, red one is positive for each speaker.

hm.. so I can't connect all 6 

[Donk Quixote]

First 600w means nothing in terms of quality.  Those are probably not very good, however If you've never had surround before than you will be super impressed even with crappy speakers.  HTIB (home theater in a box) speakers tend to sound bad.  However the best audio upgrade in my life was my first cheap as HTIB upgrade from TV speakers.  Every other upgrade if feels like I'm chasing that dragon.

 

That amp is meant of connecting 2 separate set of stereo speakers (AKA zones), but because you can you can play both zones simultaneously you can use that receiver to get 4.1 sound.  This is assuming that your motherboard has the right outputs (if it only has a mic in and headphone out then probably not, but you can get something like this).  You can get 5.1 or 6.1 if you add a cheap amp like a Lepai 2020.  But it's a cumbersome set up.

 

The best way to do it is to get a proper 5.1 home theater receiver.  In the US they go for a song if they don't have HDMI.  Just last week I saw 2 really old ones at the thrift store for $20.  Then just connect your motherboard to the receiver via SPDIF.  If you motherboard doesn't have SPDIF then you need something like that external sound card I mentioned before.

[Arwanell]

First 600w means nothing in terms of quality.  Those are probably not very good, however If you've never had surround before than you will be super impressed even with crappy speakers.  HTIB (home theater in a box) speakers tend to sound bad.  However the best audio upgrade in my life was my first cheap as HTIB upgrade from TV speakers.  Every other upgrade if feels like I'm chasing that dragon.

 

That amp is meant of connecting 2 separate set of stereo speakers (AKA zones), but because you can you can play both zones simultaneously you can use that receiver to get 4.1 sound.  This is assuming that your motherboard has the right outputs (if it only has a mic in and headphone out then probably not, but you can get something like this).  You can get 5.1 or 6.1 if you add a cheap amp like a Lepai 2020.  But it's a cumbersome set up.

 

The best way to do it is to get a proper 5.1 home theater receiver.  In the US they go for a song if they don't have HDMI.  Just last week I saw 2 really old ones at the thrift store for $20.  Then just connect your motherboard to the receiver via SPDIF.  If you motherboard doesn't have SPDIF then you need something like that external sound card I mentioned before.

thank you very much for helping

 

yes, i intend to do that, buy a used theater receiver

but, you think some old receiver that had 100-300W will be a good choice for those 600W?

they are from 30-70€ here

and why do these things have hdmi?

 

 

P.S. Can i connect the receiver to my PC with this? http://www.hdcabling.co.za/images/3.5mm_to2x_RCA_PC_audio_card_sound_cable.jpg

[Donk Quixote]

The 600w is pure marketing.  It does mean something, but you also have to look at ohms and sensitivity and other things, it gets a little complicate.  But the bottomline is most HTIB speakers, including those, can probably be run with any HT receiver.

 

HDMI carries both audio and video signals.  In the olden days the highest quality video signal was with component cable (which is 3 seperate cables) and the highest audio was SPDIF or coaxial digital.  So if you have a video game system, a cable box, a DVD player, and something else you had over 20 cables connected to your receiver and TV.  Now that everything has HDMI its just 4 cables connected to the receiver and 1 to the TV.  You can see why someone will want to upgrade just for the HDMI inputs, and why the ones without HDMI are so cheap now.

 

That cable is for stereo.  For 5.1 surround you need a SPDIF/Toslink cable.  If your motherboard doesn't have a SPDIF out then you need and external soundcard like the one I linked before.