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RCA to Speaker Wire?

post #1 of 12
5/8/11 at 10:30am
Thread Starter 
Alright, so I have these Bose speakers that only have inputs via RCA. I want to hook them up to my amp though with speaker wire. I stripped them and I found the wires that I needed. Just a couple questions about that...is this a good idea? I have heard that it can blow your speakers and that the sound quality is terrible. Also, is the prong of the RCA positive or negative? I'm pretty sure it's negative I've just heard both...thanks for the help in advance.
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post #2 of 12
5/8/11 at 10:35am
Those Bose speakers should only be plugged into the bass module, not directly to your receiver terminals. You can try it if you want though.
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post #3 of 12
5/8/11 at 11:49am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by afrogt View Post

Those Bose speakers should only be plugged into the bass module, not directly to your receiver terminals. You can try it if you want though.

Bass module? I am just plugging them into a basic amp with inputs for two sets of speakers. They are meant to be plugged in like that except that the amp only has inputs for regular speaker wire.
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post #4 of 12
5/8/11 at 1:15pm
I never heard rca to speaker cable connections. The signal between the two are even the same. Maybe you can tell what bose speakers you have.
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post #5 of 12
5/8/11 at 1:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Canute13 View Post

Just a couple questions about that...is this a good idea? I have heard that it can blow your speakers and that the sound quality is terrible. Also, is the prong of the RCA positive or negative? I'm pretty sure it's negative I've just heard both...thanks for the help in advance.

The prong should be negative and the outside wire should be positive. It should work fine. Keep in mind, we don't know which Bose spkrs you're referring to. If they were meant to be used with a bass module, then you may risk having the proper coils (crossover) to prevent excessive low signal from damaging these. If they're just ancient Bose with RCA terminals (like lots of speakers from back in the day)...you should be fine. Make sure you know which .
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post #6 of 12
5/8/11 at 2:15pm
I always thought pin was positive and ring is negative. Otherwise you would random shorts when digging around behind a device. But hey whoever designed them could have been schmuck like the guy who decided which was ring and tip for phones.
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post #7 of 12
5/8/11 at 3:19pm
It doesn't matter if you wire the speakers up out of polarity, it won't hurt anything. You'll just hear less bas if you wire it backwards. Try it both ways and see which sounds better.
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post #8 of 12
5/8/11 at 3:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Canute13 View Post

Bass module? I am just plugging them into a basic amp with inputs for two sets of speakers. They are meant to be plugged in like that except that the amp only has inputs for regular speaker wire.

What Bose speakers do you have? You never did mention the model. I haven't seen speakers that use an RCA input in a log while except on computer speakers.
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post #9 of 12
5/9/11 at 5:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bighick View Post

I always thought pin was positive and ring is negative.

You are correct.
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post #10 of 12
5/10/11 at 10:27am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for all the replies. The speakers are Bose Roommate II, and they are just ancient I think, the inputs are RCA. That's all, they are kind of all in one speakers I believe. And I was also asking this question because I was going to hook up some speakers that have speaker wire terminals but my amp only has RCA outputs (weird, I know).
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post #11 of 12
5/10/11 at 10:45am
Aren't the Bose Roommate speakers powered? If so, that explains why they have RCA terminals -- they're designed to take a line level signal for input. I'm not sure I want to know what happens when you hook speaker wires to a line level input.
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post #12 of 12
5/12/11 at 5:27am
Those speakers are not intended for "speaker" level outputs. They are for "line" level output (portable CD players) and recommended to be connected to a "headphone" output of the device.

What is the make/model of the receiver? If it has a headphone jack, you can use it for the Bose speakers.
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