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Weird speaker hookup question.

post #1 of 3
11/20/06 at 5:58pm
Thread Starter 
I just listened to a pair of astonishing computer speakers (M Audio StudioPro3 Monitors). They have a regular mini jack input on the front and a RCA L R (2 hole) input on the back. Can I hook these up to a small FM table radio by using the "headphone out" jack on the FM radio to the mini jack on the speakers? Also, could I hook up a FM tuner (unamplified) directly to the RCA jacks on the back? The speakers have their own internal amplifiers. Is the signal that comes out of a computer, tuner, cd player, headphone out jack etc all the same level?

Here is the link to the speakers if it helps you figure out my question.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...ndex=0#gallery
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post #2 of 3
11/20/06 at 7:10pm
Basically yes, you can - which goes for both questions. Although the phone-out to line-in is theoretically not so ideal, as a headphone output rather expects to drive a headphone load (~ 16 - 600 Ohm) and not a line-level load (xx kOhm). But it'll work nevertheless.

Regarding the signal question, practically all home hifi components with line outputs deliver some 1 to 2 V (usually 1 V for older analogue components (tape recorders, fm tuners...), 2 V for all that newfangled digital stuff (cd players, dvd players/recorders...)). With portable devices, you can usually only expect some 0.3 - 0.7 V on the line-out. Headphone outputs vary a lot more their output voltage range and, of course, should be able to provide a lot more current. So, when abusing a phone-out as line-out, to make sure that the input level isn't too high you might want to connect a regular line-level source before and then turn the volume control on the device with the headphone output only so far up that the achieved volume is approximately the same as with the line-level device.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
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post #3 of 3
11/20/06 at 8:42pm
Thread Starter 
Manfred, thanks for your very informative reply. Is the potential problem with the "headphone out" application because the headphone out signal is too STRONG or too WEAK? I got the impression it is too strong. This isn't important anyway, I really want these for the new Sangean HDT-1 tuner coming out and wanted to connect directly via normal RCA stero wires without an amp. From what you said, it sounds like that setup will work ok.
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