Built in home speaker advice
Built in home speaker advice
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Discussion

dusty0010

Original Poster:

6 posts

158 months

Wednesday 4th September 2013
quotequote all
Hello PH!

So my parents have moved into a new house, which has speakers built into the ceiling of the living room and the kitchen. There are individual volume controls for each room.

Please click below for link to album of pictures.

http://imgur.com/a/Mv30v


Now you see those 2 cables with a blue and brown cable each? What do I need to plug those into so that my Mum can play her ipod through the speakers?

Talk me through the process here guys, what do I need and how does it work.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

h0b0

8,901 posts

219 months

Wednesday 4th September 2013
quotequote all
OK. First thing to check is that those cables are not live! That's mains cable not speaker cable.


Now, hopefully you have established that the original installer used mains cable for speaker cable. There is nothing wrong with doing this except the potential confusion and concern at a latter date. I can see that they are labeled. Does it say anything useful like "Right" and "Left"? If not, get AA battery and swipe one blue cable across one side of the battery and the brown cable over the other side of the battery. Hopefully a speaker will crackle. Decide if this is right or left. Then you will have to buy an amp to run the speakers. If you get an airplay one you will be able to play music with out plugging in the ipod.

Here are the other photos on the account for people to look at


dusty0010

Original Poster:

6 posts

158 months

Wednesday 4th September 2013
quotequote all
Yep one cable says "left" and the other says "right".

Do I need anything more specific than an amplifier? Its just when I type that on amazon I get a lot of results that seem to vary a bit.

If you could post a link to the kind of thing I'm after I would really appreciate it!


h0b0

8,901 posts

219 months

Wednesday 4th September 2013
quotequote all
The Amp or receiver will take the out put from the ipod and amplify it to a level that can be played through speakers. You would only need a stereo amp such as the one below


Cambridge audio topaz am10

with one of these



CAMBRIDGE AUDIO iD10

Make sure you get the right dock for her iPod for this solution.




dusty0010

Original Poster:

6 posts

158 months

Wednesday 4th September 2013
quotequote all
That is great!

Thank you so much.

+10 internets for you sir!

VEX

5,259 posts

269 months

Thursday 5th September 2013
quotequote all
Wow, if ever those products shouted 'am an electrician but I know how to do this' but obviously doesn't then that is the one!

Nothing wrong with it, but it is very commercial almost school audio / pa quality.

What you have been recommended should work fine. If you can just take the volume controls off the wall and check what is behind there. If it looks big and chunky then your fine, if it doesn't look like there is very much behind there at all, then just take a little care on volume levels with the new amp. Big chunky electronic means the amp is protected from any over load. Not mush there means you will have to be a little more cautious with the volume as the resistances from to many speaker can damage amps.

HTH

v.

h0b0

8,901 posts

219 months

Thursday 5th September 2013
quotequote all
VEX said:
Wow, if ever those products shouted 'am an electrician but I know how to do this' but obviously doesn't then that is the one!

Nothing wrong with it, but it is very commercial almost school audio / pa quality.
OP, Vex is talking about the speakers, cable and volume control here. It's exactly what I thought when I saw it.