Speaker Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pete
  • Start date Start date
P

Pete

Hi everyone,

Forgive me if this is a dumb question. Is it possible to hook up a set of
"plain old 8 ohm speakers" to my pc. I am running xpsp2, and the speakers I
want to (maybe) hook up are a set of 100 watt bookshelf Pioneers
(S-HF21-LR). I seriously doubt whether this can be done without amplifying
the signal out of the pc via an amplifier or receiver somehow.

Please inform me if there is an easy "inexpensive" way to do this. Thanks.

Pete
 
Hi everyone,

Forgive me if this is a dumb question. Is it possible to hook up a set of
"plain old 8 ohm speakers" to my pc. I am running xpsp2, and the speakers I
want to (maybe) hook up are a set of 100 watt bookshelf Pioneers
(S-HF21-LR). I seriously doubt whether this can be done without amplifying
the signal out of the pc via an amplifier or receiver somehow.

Please inform me if there is an easy "inexpensive" way to do this. Thanks.

Pete
Click to expand...

It really depends upon the audio output on the computer. I had a couple of
computers which could drive into standard 8 ohm speakers; but others require
an amplifier between the card and the speakers.
 
You will need an amplifier with Line in or Aux input, a cable that has RCA
stereo jacks on one end and an mini 1/8 inch stereo plug on the other. Plug
the 1/8 inch plug into the line out of the sound card and the RCA jacks in
line in or Aux on the receiver. Hook up the speakers and your set....See
Radio Shack for the cable.
 
You are correct in that you will need to amplify the output for those
speakers. If you already have a standard stereo system with ability to have
auxiliary input, you can get a mini-phono plug to left and right channel RCA
(probably the input to the stereo system) plugs (Radio Shack or the like
have them.) Plug in the mini-phono plug into the speaker output of the
computer. Adjust the sound source for the stereo after plugging in the
input to the stereo, and away you go.

I saw a poor man's stereo system one day. The guy bought two 35 watt
monaural amplifiers from Radio Shack. Plugged in one channel of stereo from
his computer to each amplifier. Was able to adjust the sound output for
each channel very well with the volume controls on each amplifier.
Sometimes, whatever works for you.
 
Pete said:
Hi everyone,

Forgive me if this is a dumb question. Is it possible to hook up a
set of "plain old 8 ohm speakers" to my pc. I am running xpsp2, and
the speakers I want to (maybe) hook up are a set of 100 watt
bookshelf Pioneers (S-HF21-LR). I seriously doubt whether this can
be done without amplifying the signal out of the pc via an amplifier
or receiver somehow.
Click to expand...



Right. There may be some exceptions, but in general, the signal strenth
coming out of a computer is considerably too low to drive ordinary bookshelf
speakers without an amplifier.

Please inform me if there is an easy "inexpensive" way to do this.
Thanks.
Click to expand...


About 15 years ago I had an extra old pair of 8-ohm bookshelf speakers (I
think they were AR2s) I wasn't using. I bought an inexpensive used receiver
and hooked it up with the speakers to my computer. I had great sound
quality. If you have decent speakers that aren't otherwise used, you might
want to consider looking around on eBay (or elsewhere) to see if you can
pick up a cheap used amplifier or receiver and do the same thing,
 
Back
Top