Reusing 5.1 Speakers with 6.2mm connectors from THIB on third party 5.1 receiver/amp

[valid8]

Hi everyone, I'm looking to find a way to continue to use the 5.1 speakers that came with my now dead Phillips 5.1 THIB system.
The speakers work fine, and I don't want to change them/throw them away...since the wires are also neatly tucked behind my living room mop boards and wall furniture. Seems more convenient to just swap the broken receiver and connect the speakers to it and replug the new receiver to everything else (TV, PS3/PS4, etc)
 
Problem here is I don't think there aren't any receivers that accept the 6.2mm Universal speaker connectors anymore, so how, (if there is a way) do i convert those square looking jacks in possibly RCA cables, so I can then plug them in a multichannel amp receiver like a Sony STR-DE685? Is it possible? Am I making sense here? Thanks for your time.        

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hi everyone, I'm looking to find a way to continue to use the 5.1 speakers that came with my now dead Phillips 5.1 THIB system.
The speakers work fine, and I don't want to change them/throw them away...since the wires are also neatly tucked behind my living room mop boards and wall furniture. Seems more convenient to just swap the broken receiver and connect the speakers to it and replug the new receiver to everything else (TV, PS3/PS4, etc)
 
Problem here is I don't think there aren't any receivers that accept the 6.2mm Universal speaker connectors anymore, so how, (if there is a way) do i convert those square looking jacks in possibly RCA cables, so I can then plug them in a multichannel amp receiver like a Sony STR-DE685? Is it possible? Am I making sense here? Thanks for your time.        

Do you know the Ohm rating for the speakers?

 

[cel4145]

Do you know the Ohm rating for the speakers?

+1

You can always cut the speaker connectors and use the bare wire with a modern receiver. They are just connectors. But in rare cases, these HTIB speakers might have unusually low impedance values that might not work well with just any receiver. If they are 6 or 8 ohm (most common), any brand name AVR should handle that.

So google your make and model Philips package and see what you can find out.

 

[valid8]

  Do you know the Ohm rating for the speakers?

 
 

+1

You can always cut the speaker connectors and use the bare wire with a modern receiver. They are just connectors. But in rare cases, these HTIB speakers might have unusually low impedance values that might not work well with just any receiver. If they are 6 or 8 ohm (most common), any brand name AVR should handle that.

So google your make and model Philips package and see what you can find out.

 
 
Here is a snapshot of the back of the receiver where the 6.2mm jacks would go:
 
http://i.imgur.com/dSeyqmS.jpg
 
@cel4145 they are just a tad lower...4Ohm for Front-R, Front-L and Rear-R, Rear-L...and 8Ohm for Front-Center and sub-woofer...is 4Ohm to low? Any ideas/advice on an compatible AVR? possibly in the budget of 150€? thx  

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Here is a snapshot of the back of the receiver where the 6.2mm jacks would go:
http://i.imgur.com/dSeyqmS.jpg
@cel4145 they are just a tad lower...4Ohm for Front-R, Front-L and Rear-R, Rear-L...and 8Ohm for Front-Center and sub-woofer...is 4Ohm to low? Any ideas/advice on an compatible AVR? possibly in the budget of 150€? thx  

You might be better off spending $100 for this 5.1 speaker set.
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=109&cp_id=10906&cs_id=1090601&p_id=8247&seq=1&format=2#description

 

[cel4145]

Here is a snapshot of the back of the receiver where the 6.2mm jacks would go:

http://i.imgur.com/dSeyqmS.jpg

@cel4145 they are just a tad lower...4Ohm for Front-R, Front-L and Rear-R, Rear-L...and 8Ohm for Front-Center and sub-woofer...is 4Ohm to low? Any ideas/advice on an compatible AVR? possibly in the budget of 150€? thx  

You won't find a receiver that will power the sub unless it's another HTIB receiver, and then it's designed to work with the sub and specific speakers that come with it. So might not be worth investing time and money in to try to find a budget 4 ohm stable receiver.

 

[valid8]

You won't find a receiver that will power the sub unless it's another HTIB receiver, and then it's designed to work with the sub and specific speakers that come with it. So might not be worth investing time and money in to try to find a budget 4 ohm stable receiver.

 
Hold on I think I'm missing something here...the original Phillips receiver had those Ohm specifications and the speakers are indeed rated 4 Ohm for the four satellites and 8 for central speaker and sub...but the price of the HTIB was around 200€ (of course in that price are included the 5.1 speakers plus remote control) back in 2008 or so...wich means receiver's quality should be around 100€, right? Thus a question naturally arises:
 
How come cheap commercial brand receivers can easily drive/power low impedance 4Ohm speakers while a Pioneer VSX-423-K worth 225€ at the moment on amazon.it, rated 6-16 Ohm on the speaker back panel, apparently won't be able to do so? What am I missing here?
 
Oh, and just to make things clear here...it's not my intention to use this setup to throw loud parties...I live in a frickin apartment with a 5.50 x 4.25 meters living room, and the volume on the old receiver when it was still working, almost never went above the 10 level on 50 scale.     

 

[cel4145]

Hold on I think I'm missing something here...the original Phillips receiver had those Ohm specifications and the speakers are indeed rated 4 Ohm for the four satellites and 8 for central speaker and sub...but the price of the HTIB was around 200€ (of course in that price are included the 5.1 speakers plus remote control) back in 2008 or so...wich means receiver's quality should be around 100€, right? Thus a question naturally arises:

How come cheap commercial brand receivers can easily drive/power low impedance 4Ohm speakers while a Pioneer VSX-423-K worth 225€ at the moment on amazon.it, rated 6-16 Ohm on the speaker back panel, apparently won't be able to do so? What am I missing here?

Oh, and just to make things clear here...it's not my intention to use this setup to throw loud parties...I live in a frickin apartment with a 5.50 x 4.25 meters living room, and the volume on the old receiver when it was still working, almost never went above the 10 level on 50 scale.

You can buy a $100 car audio amp that is 2 ohm stable and ones that are not. Buy it and see. It's your money. LOL

 

[valid8]

You can buy a $100 car audio amp that is 2 ohm stable and ones that are not. Buy it and see. It's your money. LOL

 
I don't understand your answer. We're talking about 5.1 surround AVR...

 

[cel4145]

I don't understand your answer. We're talking about 5.1 surround AVR...

You had said, "Hold on I think I'm missing something here." Amps are designed for what they are to do by the manufacturer. The car audio example shows that even a very cheap amp can be designed for even lower impedance. Other car audio amps are not designed for low impedance. Same with more expensive AVRs. I'm not an audio engineer, so I can't tell you what the tradeoffs might be in how they make their decision.

So maybe that Pioneer will work well; maybe it won't. You can try it and see.

 

[valid8]

Oh, I see; well I suppose you have a point on the car amp example...wasn't aware of that, but searching and reading through audio related forums, as far as I could understand on the whole impedance issue, it's more about not stressing to much the receiver with high volumes and/or also setting it to low impedance mode or things like that, if the difference is only 2ohm between the speakers and receivers. I will give it a try nonetheless. Thanks for the advice. 

 

[cel4145]

That's why I would rather have a receiver rated for 4 ohms. If it doesn't work right at all, it will shut off on you when you start to turn it up. If it does work, it will make the receiver run hotter, which may not be great for the other electronics in the receiver since heat is the biggest killer.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hold on I think I'm missing something here...the original Phillips receiver had those Ohm specifications and the speakers are indeed rated 4 Ohm for the four satellites and 8 for central speaker and sub...but the price of the HTIB was around 200€ (of course in that price are included the 5.1 speakers plus remote control) back in 2008 or so...wich means receiver's quality should be around 100€, right? Thus a question naturally arises:
How come cheap commercial brand receivers can easily drive/power low impedance 4Ohm speakers while a Pioneer VSX-423-K worth 225€ at the moment on amazon.it, rated 6-16 Ohm on the speaker back panel, apparently won't be able to do so? What am I missing here?
Oh, and just to make things clear here...it's not my intention to use this setup to throw loud parties...I live in a frickin apartment with a 5.50 x 4.25 meters living room, and the volume on the old receiver when it was still working, almost never went above the 10 level on 50 scale.     

 
As the Philips receiver and Philips speakers are are designed and built by Philips, Philips can built them to be just good enough to work with one another, and not have to spend another penny to manufacturer them, more then they have to.
The Philips receiver has to dedicate a lot of amplifier power to drive the sub-woofer, so Philips makes four of the speakers only 4-Ohms so they require less power and are easier to drive.
If Philips had shipped the sub-woofer with it own amplifier and made the 5 other speakers 8-Ohm speakers, it would have provided better audio quality, but would have greatly increased the selling price.
.