Help with some speakers

[bob saget]

Well, I recieved some speakers when a friend was moving out. They are panasonic 2-way speakers. Input: 100W (Music), 50W (DIN). Model SB-AK20

They are not connected to anything and there is a small wire coming from the back of the speaker. It is actually 2 wires wound around each other. Red and Black (dont know if that makes a difference). The wire is cut. So I have 2 speakers. Both with a cut wire from the back. Is there anything i could do to make them work. I do not know a whole lot about home theater/speakers.

Thanks

[einstein_314]

Ummm, well you could plug them in.....and make sound come out of them? That's probably what I'd do. I mean, I suppose you could always make a coffee table out of them, or maybe a nice end table. But my first instinct would be to use them as speakers....

Just strip the wires back a bit and plug them into a audio reciever...and voila! sound!!

[Bman212121]

Yea you should be just fine using them. The red wire would be the positive + side, and the black the negative - side. You can just grab another chunk of wire and twist them together to extend the wires if needed. The best idea would be to open up the speaker and resolder new wires, but that would probably be hard to do, so twisting will suffice.

What I'm seeing is that they are 6 ohm speakers, so it might be a little harder to match up. You can probably run them at 8 ohms, but you'd want to use less wattage. I'm guessing that something like 35W @ 8 ohms would probably work well and not blow the speakers. Basically if you have a 6 channel reciever, you could set it so that they are recognized as small speakers. (hard to say what you've got though) What would you be using them for anyway?

[crainger]

*EDIT*

Original post would have been a whole lot funnier if it were for the legitimate posts above.

[Bman212121]

Originally Posted by einstein_314

Ummm, well you could plug them in.....and make sound come out of them? That's probably what I'd do. I mean, I suppose you could always make a coffee table out of them, or maybe a nice end table. But my first instinct would be to use them as speakers....

Just strip the wires back a bit and plug them into a audio reciever...and voila! sound!!

Maybe he's never dealt with audio before or just had speakers with RCA ends?

[Bman212121]

Originally Posted by crainger

*EDIT*

Original post would have been a whole lot funnier if it were for the legitimate posts above.

Sorry buddy, I'm just guessing he was being serious because of where he put the thread and all. I don't mind funny comments but it is kind of mean if he is actually looking for help.

[bob saget]

Thanks guys

yea thanks einstein, haha, i kind of figured i can make sound come out of them.

I didnt know what the red + black meant though.

Would I need (have to have) a reciever? is there anything else I could use?

[bob saget]

Originally Posted by Bman212121

Yea you should be just fine using them. The red wire would be the positive + side, and the black the negative - side. You can just grab another chunk of wire and twist them together to extend the wires if needed. The best idea would be to open up the speaker and resolder new wires, but that would probably be hard to do, so twisting will suffice.

What I'm seeing is that they are 6 ohm speakers, so it might be a little harder to match up. You can probably run them at 8 ohms, but you'd want to use less wattage. I'm guessing that something like 35W @ 8 ohms would probably work well and not blow the speakers. Basically if you have a 6 channel reciever, you could set it so that they are recognized as small speakers. (hard to say what you've got though) What would you be using them for anyway?

whatever I can so sound comes out.

No specific purpose.

[Monolyth]

Having wires like that basically means that a receiver or amplifier is required to power the speakers. Unlike PC speakers where there might be a power input directly on the speaker the power must come from an external source. Some PC speaker systems come with a sub-woofer containing a control panel on the back where satellite speaker wires must be hooked up to receive power+audio signals.

You must be careful not to push too much power to the speakers otherwise you will blow the drivers. Check the specs on your receiver/amplifier & your speakers to ensure they will work. Higher wattage on speakers in comparison to your receiver/amplifier is fine. Lesser wattage could lead to problems if you aren't careful though.

Hope that answers your question.

[Bman212121]

Originally Posted by bob saget

Thanks guys

yea thanks einstein, haha, i kind of figured i can make sound come out of them.

I didnt know what the red + black meant though.

Would I need (have to have) a reciever? is there anything else I could use?

Yes and no. Generally when someone mentions a reciever, they are talking about a device that can tune in stations, input various types of connections, and an amplifier which is used to output the sound. Any device that can amplify the sound would work, like a reciever, a car radio, an amplifier, or a Hifi speaker system. (Basically all the same thing) Generally a reciever is usually what someone buys because it is the most common item for home use. You can buy just an amplifier, but chances are you can get a reciever with all of the extras for not a lot more and it is easier to find.

Let's say you wanted to use them with your computer. You would need to hook up some type of output to get the sound to them, the most common is the 3.5mm headphone jack. The signal needed to produce the sound is there, but it is a very low power signal. (Somewhere around 3W or less) For those speakers to be able to reproduce sound, they need more power in order to move the magnet in them. So you would hook up the computer to some type of amplifier, which will take the signal and make it stronger. The amplifier outputs a strong enough signal to the speakers to move the magnets properly and produce the sound. The biggest thing is making sure that you don't give them too much power or it will blow the speakers.

Hope some of that helps.

[bob saget]

great answers guys. I appreciate it. Now i know what I have to do

Thanks again.