[eyeangle]

Hi,

This is my first post here so I'm not sure that this is the best place to ask so feel free to point me in the right direction.

I got a free pair of old Sanyo speakers from my grandparents to use with my new editing setup and connected them to the PC via this adapter:


But they were very quiet at full PC volume so someone mentioned I get an amp because my sound card doesn't have enough power to run them properly. So I bought the Lepia LP-269FS from here:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=310-304&AID=1457483&PID=5567334&SID=skim23608X823435Xa359b76f59fe58a6f14a958ba41b41d8

I plug the speakers directly into the output on the back shown here:


Then I plug the AMP into the PC via mini headphone shown here:


The front of the AMP is set to AUX and looks like this:


The problem is even with the AMP and PC volume set to max, only a tiny bit of sound can be heard if I have my ear right up close to the speaker.

Can you please help?

Thanks

[eyeangle]

The Sanyo speakers look like this and they work if they're connected directly into the PC without going via the amp, but they're not loud this way.

[Letitroll98]

I moved you to the Starting Block circle which is more appropriate for your thread, and will likely get you more answers. 

You need to hook up your speakers to the black and red speaker connections next to the RCA inputs, the ones with the spring loaded connectors.  You won't be able to do that without snipping off the ends and using the bare wires.  After snipping off the ends, strip a little of the insulation off, about 1/2", twist the bare copper a little tighter than it is, use the wire with the stripe in the black (negative) terminal and the plain wire in the red (positive) terminal.  Push on the lever and the hole will open up to accept the wire, let go when the wire is in place and the spring will clamp down on it.  TURN THE VOLUME DOWN, you have it way up now after trying to use the line level outs, which are milliamps in output.  Also move the bass and treble controls to 12 o'clock, the amp will deliver all the bass and treble you can use by itself, you'll only need to move those controls a tiny bit off center to tailor the sound to your liking.

[srb]

The RCA output jacks are simply a pass-through of the AUX RCA inputs next to them.  They could be used to send the AUX signal to another amplifier that has its own volume control or a headphone amplifier with its own volume control.

They couldn't be used to drive a powered subwoofer however, because it appears they are just in parallel with the AUX input and do not vary in volume with the amplifier's volume control.

Steve

[eyeangle]

Great, thanks for your responses. I will cut the tips and connect the wires properly.

But for the future, could I have got a mini amp like this that outputs using the AUX cables so I wouldn't have to cut them?

[srb]

But for the future, could I have got a mini amp like this that outputs using the AUX cables so I wouldn't have to cut them?

Probably not.  Having an RCA speaker output is a possible invitation to disaster if one were to mistakenly plug the RCA outputs from a source component into them and send an amplified high wattage/high current signal back through the outputs of the source component.  Most amplifier speaker outputs are

1.  Binding posts (that can accept either bare wire, spade lugs or banana plugs)
2.  Banana jacks (that only accept banana plugs, like the Dayton Audio DTA-100a amplifier)
3.  Spring-loaded clips (that can accept bare wire or pins, as often found on the more inexpensive amplifiers)

Steve

[eyeangle]

Oh I see

Thanks for clarifying that

[eyeangle]

I thought I might add another question.

When I was stripping the wire, some thin threads of copper fell out as they were just too thin and brittle for me to handle properly, I was able to keep most of them but will this affect the sound quality? See below



I folded over the ends and then twisted them to make them thicker and sturdy.

[srb]

It's always nice to take advantage of the full gauge of the wire, but whether or not it would affect sound quality depends on how many strands the cable has and how many strands were lost.  It's kind of hard to tell from the photo, but the one on the left looks particularly bad.

Are you using an actual wire stripper as opposed to a knife or diagonal cutters?  Might want to try again with a decent wire stripper, and to help prevent a possible short circuit from something metallic that could come in contact with them, cut the length so that no more than say an 1/8" of wire is exposed beyond the connector.

Also I can't tell if your polarity is correct.  I see a blue stripe on the right hand pair but I can't see a polarity marking on the left hand pair.  Absolute polarity is probably not critical, but the speakers should be in phase so that both speaker's cones are both moving in the same direction at the same time, otherwise if they are out of phase, midbass and bass will be reduced due to cancellation.

Steve

[eyeangle]

Here are high res photos.





I used scissors to cut these wires but I might go and get some proper wire strippers and do a good job.

[srb]

Home Depot has a decent selection of very nice USA-made Klein strippers in the $10 to $15 range.

Although they make models with a single cutter jaw, they require some finesse as you can easily butcher wires with those as well.  The jaw blades are more of a V-cut as opposed to the perfect circular blade holes of the multiple hole type.

I prefer the multiple wire size hole type which are available in different sizes depending on whether you are working with larger house wire sizes or smaller electronic wire sizes, and are also usually either designated for solid wire or stranded wire.

With your desktop setup, I assume you have more than enough wire length, so you may want to take a small sample length with you to make sure the stripper you choose will do a perfect job on your particular wire.  Out of curiosity are the wires captively attached to the speakers or do they connect to the speakers with RCA plugs or terminals?

Steve

[thunderbrick]

SCISSORS????  You'd be a perfect candidate for the DIY Circle!   

Welcome aboard, eyeangle!  You into photo?   

[Kt77]

Here are high res photos.





I used scissors to cut these wires but I might go and get some proper wire strippers and do a good job.

Hi eyeangle,

I'd say tin the ends of your cables and add speaker tips from either Rat Shack or Monster. And finish it off with a little heat shrink. It would prevent the wires from oxidizing in the long run, as well as keep you from shortening out your speakers from stray wires touching one another or the chassis.

Regards,
O_o scar

[eyeangle]

Out of curiosity are the wires captively attached to the speakers or do they connect to the speakers with RCA plugs or terminals?

[richidoo]

You lost a good bit of strands, that will increase the resistance of the speaker wire, which will noticeably affect the sound, mostly low frequency clarity.

Welcome to AudioCircle. I hope you will stick around. We like pictures   and you are a good photographer! 

[eyeangle]

Hi,

I'm bringing up this post again because I'm thinking of getting a subwoofer or a mini subwoofer for this set up because these speakers don't produce enough bass even with the bass turned right up on the amp.

Where would I plug the subwoofer into? Would I have to again strip the wire from the subwoofer cable or plug it directly into my PC IO sound ouput? Would it cause a slight delay with the speakers plugged into the amp and the subwoofer plugged into the PC?

My PC sound output looks exactly like this:


Could you recommend a reliable subwoofer for around $50. I don't mind second hand either.

[JCS]

Without seeing the manual I can't tell if you have a sub out on your computer.  However, let me mention that since you are using a chip amp, you shouldn't connect to the sub using the speaker level inputs.  Chip amps not only are not common ground, the + and - speaker outputs are all 'hot' , so to speak. Connecting a chip amp to a sub using the speaker wire outputs can destroy the amp.

There are special cables available which turn the speaker level amp outputs into line level for connection to a sub, but the ones I have seen start around $80.

Cheers,  Jim

[srb]

You would have to consult your motherboard documentation, but typically the orange output jack is for both center channel and subwoofer.  If that's the case for your motherboard, a stereo 3.5mm phone plug to 2 x RCA male plug cable (like the one you are using for L/R output to your amp) would connect to that and whichever RCA plug is assigned to the subwoofer output would connect to the RCA line input on a subwoofer.

However, you would need to use the volume control on your computer and leave the amplifier volume control at a preset level.

$50 is a fairly low budget for a subwoofer, but you can often find something in that price range locally on Craigslist (buying one on eBay may or may not be a good deal depending on the additional shipping cost).

For an inexpensive new subwoofer you could get something like the Monoprice 8" ($57) and check what the shipping would be for your location (Monoprice shipping is usually pretty reasonable, $10 on this item for my location).
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10906&cs_id=1090602&p_id=8248&seq=1&format=2

There are other small desktop amplifiers that do have a subwoofer line out, but none that I have seen in the price range of the Lepai.

Steve

[eyeangle]

Here are the 2 pages of where my motherboard (Asus P7P55D-E PRO) manual talks about the IO sound:



I hadn't even thought about volume control. I see what you mean, it might not work because the PC volume would be controlling the amp and the sub, whereas the amp volume would just be controlling just the amp. So I could have the PC volume maxed out with the subwoofer blasting, but the speakers could be relativity low. I'd have to do some playing around with it, but could it still work?

That subwoofer, Steve, is great and in my price range, but unfortunately shipping to Australia is $120 on top of the $57.

Is it worth getting one of these speaker sets from logitech just for the subwoofer? Are they any good quality or should I go for something that specialises in sound products?
http://www.logitech.com/en-au/speakers-audio/home-pc-speakers

I don't mind spending between $50 - $100 because I do want to have them for a long time.

Jim, what is a chip amp? and why shouldn't I connect to the sub using the speaker level inputs?

There are special cables available which turn the speaker level amp outputs into line level for connection to a sub, but the ones I have seen start around $80.

Where can I find these cables, I might need one if I have problems with controlling the audio levels on the PC and amp.