[person135]

I've been using 2.0/2.1 sets all my life, and so I only had to deal with 3.5mm audio jacks. Today I just ordered some bookshelf speakers (Pioneer SB22 by Andrew Jones), and I'm worried they might not have a 3.5mm jack built in. What kind of wires do I need to connect these to a 3.5mm jack? I want to order the pieces now so I can have everything when my speakers arrive. THanks!
 
Edit: Would an amp like the Lepai Tripath (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049P6OTI/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk) let me take full advantage of these speakers sound quality, or should I be looking at something better?

 

[fatcat28037]

Do nothing until the new speakers arrive, then you'll know exactly what parts you need. I did a little searching and couldn't find a picture of the rear of the speakers and the Pioneer product sheet is not helpful.  http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Speakers/Home+Theater+Speakers/SP-BS22-LR

 

[brhfl]

Quote:

Do nothing until the new speakers arrive, then you'll know exactly what parts you need. I did a little searching and couldn't find a picture of the rear of the speakers and the Pioneer product sheet is not helpful.  http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Speakers/Home+Theater+Speakers/SP-BS22-LR

Sure it is! It says on the product sheet that it has 5-way binding posts, 6Ω, 80W max, 85dB sensitivity. So, yes, OP needs a power amp, there's no way to connect a 3.5mm output at either line or head levels directly to these. The Lepai will work, and I would expect it would sound fairly good, but these speakers are not terribly efficient, so you're not going to want to try to fill a room using the Lepai. But you are going to need some kind of a speaker amplifier like that. As far as hookups, 5-way binding posts let you use speaker cable terminated in banana plugs (probably easiest), spade lugs (probably the worst), pins, or bare wire. The Lepai amp has the cheap little springy guys for speaker terminals, and will only really accept bare wire, and possibly pins (which seems dicy to me). 

 

[person135]

Quote:

Sure it is! It says on the product sheet that it has 5-way binding posts, 6Ω, 80W max, 85dB sensitivity. So, yes, OP needs a power amp, there's no way to connect a 3.5mm output at either line or head levels directly to these. The Lepai will work, and I would expect it would sound fairly good, but these speakers are not terribly efficient, so you're not going to want to try to fill a room using the Lepai. But you are going to need some kind of a speaker amplifier like that. As far as hookups, 5-way binding posts let you use speaker cable terminated in banana plugs (probably easiest), spade lugs (probably the worst), pins, or bare wire. The Lepai amp has the cheap little springy guys for speaker terminals, and will only really accept bare wire, and possibly pins (which seems dicy to me). 

I see, I might jsut get the Lepai for now since I only need them for my room, assuming they work with Banana plugs (which seem to be the easiest). But if I decide to move them to a larger room, let's say a 20x20 living room, what kind of amp/avr (under 50-100 preferably) would you recommend? Since I don't know much about these things, but I'm willing to learn, so you can just tell me the type of electronic equipment I should look up (I can do the dirty work - googling myself). I'm thinking about getting a 10" sub in the future too, if that affects your recommendation. THanks!

 

[brhfl]

Quote:

I see, I might jsut get the Lepai for now since I only need them for my room, assuming they work with Banana plugs (which seem to be the easiest). But if I decide to move them to a larger room, let's say a 20x20 living room, what kind of amp/avr (under 50-100 preferably) would you recommend? Since I don't know much about these things, but I'm willing to learn, so you can just tell me the type of electronic equipment I should look up (I can do the dirty work - googling myself). I'm thinking about getting a 10" sub in the future too, if that affects your recommendation. THanks!

The Lepai won't accept bananas, but if you have cable terminated in bananas on both end, you can always chop 'em off one end and use the bare wire. Or get cheap zip cord and use bare wire at both ends. I don't know too well the options available in this price range. To go up in room size, you'll be looking for something a bit more powerful into 6 ohms, though a lot of things will be rated for 8 ohms. Typically you want the amp's impedance rating to be equal to or below the impedance of the speakers you're trying to drive, but the discrepancy between 6 and 8 ohms shouldn't really matter much. I know there's a somewhat more powerful Dayton amp on Amazon in the sub-$100 range, that accepts bananas, I've never heard it myself, I just happen to know it's out there. You don't need some kind of crazy power monster - the speakers max out at 80W, so sticking to moderate power is fine. As far as what you're looking for, generally speaking, a 'power amp' is just the amp phase. Typically one set of inputs, one set of (speaker) outputs, and maybe there will be a volume adjustment. An 'integrated amp' has a volume control, and may have multiple inputs and a switch. If you're on a budget, one thing to do may be to look around Goodwills, yard sales, pawn shops, ebay, cl, whatever for old 70s/early 80s receivers. These are integrated type systems with a bunch of other stuff in them, notably an AM/FM radio that takes up nearly the entire front panel, maybe some goofy meters, probably some tone controls that you can hopefully defeat, probably a pretty decent headphone stage (possibly driven by the speaker stage). Stuff from that era tends to have a far better sound than a lot of the 'all-in-one' type systems we're used to today. Hopefully this made a little bit of sense.