help with speakers

[peibolrz]

I have some speaker's that i want to connect it to my pc, but the problem is that you do not have a normal jack to just plug in, you have this: (photo) 

[peibolrz]

Note: i think that the first step is to connect two wires (like in the photo)  to the black and red "thing" (i don't know how to called it,  sorry) that is in the speaker

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

u can just strip a pc jack cable and connect it properly :v + and -

[......]

you will probably need to use some sort of amp as they are passive speakers

[peibolrz]

Just now, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

u can just strip a pc jack cable and connect it properly :v + and -

Really?  So you can strip a jack and separate the strip cable to the positive and negative?

[peibolrz]

Just now, ...... said:

you will probably need to use some sort of amp as they are passive speakers

And if i don't use it should be a problem? 

[Danny_UK]

You need an amp

 

[peibolrz]

Just now, Danny_UK said:

You need an amp

 

If i don't have an amp will not work properly? 

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

5 minutes ago, peibolrz said:

Really?  So you can strip a jack and separate the strip cable to the positive and negative?

yeh if it works it works, my soudncard has an amp inside it and it could run that thing easily, not all can tho could be that the volume would be way too low and then ud need an amp or u dont hear anything at all ^^ hehe ive done it with my soundcard somtimes tho

[......]

a standard pc output will be line level so if it works it will be very quite

 

[peibolrz]

1 minute ago, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

yeh if it works it works, my soudncard has an amp inside it and it could run that thing easily, not all can tho could be that the volume would be way too low and then ud need an amp or u dont hear anything at all ^^ hehe ive done it with my soundcard somtimes tho

So if i buy a soundcard i could use it or will still be problems? 

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

3 minutes ago, peibolrz said:

So if i buy a soundcard i could use it or will still be problems? 

no u can just try it first and see if it works, if it doesnt output anything or the volume is way too low then u need to get an external amplifier :v

 

i used to just strip a 3.5mm jack into + and - . connect it to huge ass pioneer speakers and they workd just fine o,o

[peibolrz]

The thing is that i have this speakers laying around and to give it a use and have better quality than the integrated speakers of the monitor i want it to plig in to my computer

[peibolrz]

2 minutes ago, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

no u can just try it first and see if it works, if it doesnt output anything or the volume is way too low then u need to get an external amplifier :v

 

i used to just strip a 3.5mm jack into + and - . connect it to huge ass pioneer speakers and they workd just fine o,o

Ok i will try it,  i really apreciate your time, thanks! 

[peibolrz]

I have strip an earphone and rolled up with the speaker then connected to my phone and play music,  but it doesn't work, any recommedations? @valkyrie lenneth @......

[spwath]

You need an amplifier. 

[serguzzle]

9 hours ago, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

no u can just try it first and see if it works, if it doesnt output anything or the volume is way too low then u need to get an external amplifier :v

 

i used to just strip a 3.5mm jack into + and - . connect it to huge ass pioneer speakers and they workd just fine o,o

Yeah, that's because you have pretty efficient huge ass pioneer speakers with a low impedance. Headphone jacks might be able to output 1.5 -- 2 W power. That's enough to make most speakers make some noise, although to get to reasonable listening volumes/appreciable headroom for entertainment on most speakers you need >10 W.

 

The ports on the speakers and on the outputs of amps are impedance-matched so as to not damage the output circuits or the speakers themselves -- your 3.5mm cable jacks are absolutely not matched to them. Please... don't just recommend that people fuck with electronics in ways that have worked for you, when you're literally basing everything off your own experience, and aren't really sure how it works. People can get hurt that way or mess up their hardware for some reason. Real blind leading the blind situation.

 

8 hours ago, peibolrz said:

I have strip an earphone and rolled up with the speaker then connected to my phone and play music,  but it doesn't work, any recommedations? @valkyrie lenneth @......

What you have are banana plug or speaker wire terminals on your speakers, because they're what's called passive speakers. You pump power into the terminals, which make the speakers produce the sound. Sound coming from a 3.5mm cable is analog signal, which means there's power in it as much as there's data -- but there's not a lot of power. So what you usually do is connect your 3.5mm cable, or RCAs (they're effectively equivalent, although RCA is better about signal loss), to a speaker amplifier. You can get them from as little as 20 bucks, although I'd strongly recommend against doing that -- you'll get something based off a Lepy amp at that price, which has issues with shorting potentiometers. For about 40 bucks you can get a great SMSL amp, plug your signal from your headphone jack on your phone or from your PC into it, and you can buy (or make your own) speaker cables (look up speaker wires) to connect the amp output to the speakers.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

11 hours ago, peibolrz said:

I have strip an earphone and rolled up with the speaker then connected to my phone and play music,  but it doesn't work, any recommedations? @valkyrie lenneth @......

not all soundcards have a strong enough output to run 4ohm speakers if it doesnt work thats all u could have tried really , u need an amp in that case.. the speaker requires too much juice to run it off 3.5mm power alone ( else it would work ) dead end in this case

 

just bcoz my soundcard runs it doesnt mean all will, mine can run 4ohm speakers off the bat but it has a built in amplifier also :v

 

simple said, if it cant even output enough juice to even sound up the speaker, ur out of luck trying that method , get an amp :v

 

3 hours ago, serguzzle said:

Yeah, that's because you have pretty efficient huge ass pioneer speakers with a low impedance. Headphone jacks might be able to output 1.5 -- 2 W power. That's enough to make most speakers make some noise, although to get to reasonable listening volumes/appreciable headroom for entertainment on most speakers you need >10 W.

 

The ports on the speakers and on the outputs of amps are impedance-matched so as to not damage the output circuits or the speakers themselves -- your 3.5mm cable jacks are absolutely not matched to them. Please... don't just recommend that people fuck with electronics in ways that have worked for you, when you're literally basing everything off your own experience, and aren't really sure how it works. People can get hurt that way or mess up their hardware for some reason. Real blind leading the blind situation.

 

What you have are banana plug or speaker wire terminals on your speakers, because they're what's called passive speakers. You pump power into the terminals, which make the speakers produce the sound. Sound coming from a 3.5mm cable is analog signal, which means there's power in it as much as there's data -- but there's not a lot of power. So what you usually do is connect your 3.5mm cable, or RCAs (they're effectively equivalent, although RCA is better about signal loss), to a speaker amplifier. You can get them from as little as 20 bucks, although I'd strongly recommend against doing that -- you'll get something based off a Lepy amp at that price, which has issues with shorting potentiometers. For about 40 bucks you can get a great SMSL amp, plug your signal from your headphone jack on your phone or from your PC into it, and you can buy (or make your own) speaker cables (look up speaker wires) to connect the amp output to the speakers.

just so u know quite a few soundcards have built in amplifiers and they will work just fine with 4ohm speakers without damage also the 3.5mm headphone jacks are different from the normal jacks

 

also for short testing purposes only it cannot damage the jack at all and the maximum output for a 3.5mm jack

 

also the amount of power delivered through the 3.5mm varies from soundcard to soundcard, and if u have set it to 100% it wont output anything more then that, if it doesnt work proper with the speaker it doesnt,  some speakers do work fine and they wont damage the card at all

 

putting too low voltage through an electronic device cannot damage it, only overloading can do that ,  also since the 3.5mm has a limit of how much it outputs ( it wont output more then that amount no matter what )   thats what ur just limited to , running it at a constant 100% will damage any soundcard in the long run

 

short said, aslong u use the 3.5mm jack for output purposes only it wont harm it ( unless u run ur soundcard at 100% capacity 24/7 )

 

 

 

 

[serguzzle]

3 hours ago, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

just so u know quite a few soundcards have built in amplifiers and they will work just fine with 4ohm speakers without damage also the 3.5mm headphone jacks are different from the normal jacks

 

also for short testing purposes only it cannot damage the jack at all and the maximum output for a 3.5mm jack

 

also the amount of power delivered through the 3.5mm varies from soundcard to soundcard, and if u have set it to 100% it wont output anything more then that, if it doesnt work proper with the speaker it doesnt,  some speakers do work fine and they wont damage the card at all

 

putting too low voltage through an electronic device cannot damage it, only overloading can do that ,  also since the 3.5mm has a limit of how much it outputs ( it wont output more then that amount no matter what )   thats what ur just limited to , running it at a constant 100% will damage any soundcard in the long run

 

short said, aslong u use the 3.5mm jack for output purposes only it wont harm it ( unless u run ur soundcard at 100% capacity 24/7 )

For short testing purposes the jack nor thee speakers would probably be damaged -- but someone who doesn't know what they're doing could still damage something in the process, or just waste money damaging a cable they shouldn't be cutting, etc. because you're like "yeah dude just strip it and connect one to + one to -" and they don't know better than you.

 

And here's the thing, to be totally blunt, you have no idea what you're talking about. 3.5 mm jacks are by definition headphone jacks: other common analog connectors you come across day-to-day are 1/4" jacks that go on guitars etc., 2.5 mm jacks that may go into headphones in removable cables, and RCA coaxial cables.

 

The only reason your soundcard 3.5 mm cable can drive your speakers at all is because it's the same analog signal, just at a relatively low power. Amplifiers amplify the 3.5 mm analog signal and push them through 75 ohm cables, impedance-matched to speaker systems. But with a soundcard, the cables don't match: this induces electrical reflection at various nodes of the system, which can damage it over a long period of time. This is because the circuit is pushing power at a frequency up to 40 kHz, so while it isn't a radio system, it still has non-DC phenomena occurring. Speaker tolerances are pretty high so they should be fine, you're right, but the soundcard is a little more delicate. It's only egregious because 4 Ohm is an extremely low impedance for a soundcard.

 

This discussion is a waste of time. @peibolrz get a speaker amp, bottom line.

[peibolrz]

3 hours ago, serguzzle said:

For short testing purposes the jack nor thee speakers would probably be damaged -- but someone who doesn't know what they're doing could still damage something in the process, or just waste money damaging a cable they shouldn't be cutting, etc. because you're like "yeah dude just strip it and connect one to + one to -" and they don't know better than you.

 

And here's the thing, to be totally blunt, you have no idea what you're talking about. 3.5 mm jacks are by definition headphone jacks: other common analog connectors you come across day-to-day are 1/4" jacks that go on guitars etc., 2.5 mm jacks that may go into headphones in removable cables, and RCA coaxial cables.

 

The only reason your soundcard 3.5 mm cable can drive your speakers at all is because it's the same analog signal, just at a relatively low power. Amplifiers amplify the 3.5 mm analog signal and push them through 75 ohm cables, impedance-matched to speaker systems. But with a soundcard, the cables don't match: this induces electrical reflection at various nodes of the system, which can damage it over a long period of time. This is because the circuit is pushing power at a frequency up to 40 kHz, so while it isn't a radio system, it still has non-DC phenomena occurring. Speaker tolerances are pretty high so they should be fine, you're right, but the soundcard is a little more delicate. It's only egregious because 4 Ohm is an extremely low impedance for a soundcard.

 

This discussion is a waste of time. @peibolrz get a speaker amp, bottom line.

I have two speaker's as i showed in the picture, can you recommend me some amplifiers that are cheap but can hold the "power" of the two speaker's

 

Also can you say me in what i have to pay attention (what numbers, quality cerfications,  etc) that amp has, to know want i am buying and have the opportunity to research based on that parameters

 

Note: The cable i showed in the picture comes with the speaker and is to connect the speaker to the amp

[serguzzle]

I didn't notice your speaker cables in the picture. Yeah, you'll want to connect red on the speaker to red on the amp, etc. for hooking things up. It'll have a left channel and a right channel on a stereo amp.

 

There's a few things as a consumer to look at on a new amp. There's gonna be power, rated impedance, and the type of the amp. Rated impedance is not a huge deal since they're usually rated for 4-8 Ohm or so and most speakers you'll get are in that range. Headphone jacks are a bit of an extreme case because they're not made for something with such low impedance. Power delivery on them kind of sucks.

 

Power and amp type are important. Everything budget, unless you find an old receiver, is probably going to be a class-D amp. This just means it uses a electronic transistor circuit doing pulsed-width modulation of the sound. You can usually find the frequency response for the transistors in the amps, and it's pretty representative of what you'll find. I would highly recommend looking at a used electronics store or even a general used goods store, because lots of people let go of their Yamaha etc. receivers that they used in home theater systems. That's a good way to score a class A/B amp, which uses more solid-state amplification and is usually better in its amplification response. They're less efficient, but not obscenely so. They are pretty big though.

 

So, class-D amps built for your desktop or something like that. The cheapest one you'll find is a Lepy amp or something based on it. It'll look like this: https://www.amazon.com/Lepy-LP-2024A-Stereo-Amplifier-Supply/dp/B00ULRFQ1A. Don't get that one. The volume potentiometer has a known issue where it shorts out to something else on the board and the device power-cycles forever. It's also pretty shitty altogether for signal amplification, very low power, like <10 W.

 

From my personal experience (and I didn't delve into the super budget stuff for a really long time, I moved up to an SMSL SA50, which I got in the USA for $65. I could recommend the SA36, which is a tiny little 20 W amp that delivers like 12ish W. I like SMSL products a lot, although their high-power desktop amps have never worked well for me. Other than that, just look for something well-reviewed and don't get something based on the tripath architecture or something, or something that calls itself a class T amp. They're usually a copy of the Lepy base amp. I have two of those that I got years ago, sitting in my living room console as proof of my past mistakes.