Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Speaker Wire

Id have speakers in my wall in two rooms and on my deck that are run with regular stranded speaker wire. I'd like to connect these to my Digital Receiver so I can listen to the free On Deman music.

How can I connect speaker wire to the normal "Audio In" connection on the back of my receiver box - I think its called an RCA connector on the back of the box? Im assuming it can be done with some sort of connector?

You don't connect the speaker to the audio in, you connect it to the audio out of the receiver.

You need to buy some RCA plugs. The outside part of the RCA is usually positive (+) and the prong is negative (-). You need these 2 signals to properly work the speakers.

You need these:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062472&cp=2032058.2032231.2032280&allCount=314&fbn=Cable+type%2FPhono+%28RCA%29+plugs+%26%23038%3B+jacks&f=PAD%2FCable+Type%2FPhono+%28RCA%29+plugs+%26%23038%3B+jacks&fbc=1&parentPage=family

Ah, right, Audio In. But you got the point.

Ok, thanks. This is the right direction.

Question: "The outside part of the RCA is usually positive (+) and the prong is negative (-). You need these 2 signals to properly work the speakers."

- What do you mean? My speaker wire is two wires, I assumed I would connect one each to its own RCA plug? No?


Now that this seems possible, I will diagram may master plan :-)

no, your connector will have 2 pins, on for each strand on the wire. on terminal is positive and one is negative. one cable = on connector

hmmm, that makes more sense now.

I'm a little confused here...

-- What's the make & model number of the digital receiver? Does it have speaker outputs? Connecting your speakers directly to the RCA "line level" audio outputs of a satellite or cable receiver won't work. There needs to be an amplifier between them, or the speakers must have built-in amplifiers.

-- How many speakers? Depending on how many you have, you may not be able to connect them to one amplifier. Each speaker presents a load to the amplifier. When you add speakers, you increase the load. As few as three on each channel can overload the amp. Posting the make & model of the speakers will help.

You could be saving yourself some headaches if you post the makes & models before you pull out your soldering iron. Many receivers (with built-in amplifiers) have spring or compression terminals for speaker outputs, not RCA jacks.

In any case, each speaker cable has two conductors. If they aren't different colors, one of the conductors will either have a stripe on it or it will have a ridge or raised line in the plastic. Generally the lighter color (or striped, or ridged) is positive. It's not critical which one gets connected to the positive terminal, but it is important that all of them are wired the same way. Striped conductors commonly connect to the red terminals, and plain conductors connect to the black terminals.

If you solder the conductors to RCA plugs, the lighter/ridged/striped conductor goes to the center pin (positive) and the other conductor goes to the shield (negative).