setting up amplifier / speakers / home entertainment

akrot1

Afternoon all,

I was hoping someone might be able to help me please. Have moved into a flat and the owner has left in their old wires / cables etc... but has taken their speakers with them. In the corners of the room, where there were speakers there are two wires coming out of each and in the place where the amplifier is menat to go there are 4 wires. I'm told that he has done all the heard work and all that I need to do is ge myself a speaker set with amp and connect it all up and that apparently this is quite simple? Can anyone confirm exactly what I need to buy to do this. I'm planning on using which to recommend a home entertainment system but we have a dvd recorder already so am i right in saying there's no need for me to buy one with a dvd as we can watch dvd's on the dvd recorder and connect it up to the speaker system we buy- is this correct?

Assuming this is the case, does anyone know how I connect up the amplifier to the DVD recorder we have, will there be a scart socket in the amp and I just connect that to the dvd recorder like that?

ANy advice, comments or tip swill be really appreciated!!

thanks very much and merry xmas to you all.

Sput2001

OK, first the speakers:

Your standard speaker has two wire connections; + and - . There should be some kind of marking on the cables as to which is the + cable and which is the - . At the very least, one of the cables should have a print or stripe on it so you can easily identify it at the other end. If so, call the printed wire the + cable. It should then be marked on the speaker which goes where. Pretty straightforward.

Connecting to an amplifier:

The four cables together will be the other ends of each of the two speaker cables. Hopefully they'll be joined together as pairs so you can tell which goes with which speaker. What might be less obvious is which is the left hand speaker and which is the right. You might have to experiment when you're setting up and be prepared to swop the connections over if need be.

The back of an amplifier will have + and - connectors for both sets of speakers, one each for the left and right. Sometimes they might be coloured red and black, in which case the red connector is + and the black is - .

Place the + cable from the right hand speaker into the Right + connector on the amplifier, place the - cable into the Right - connector, and so on until they're all connected.

mymatebob

As above - all good advice.

One thing though you may find the speaker cable is not marked in anyway - it can happen if someone uses cheap bell wire - not a disaster just a little bit of trial and error will get you sorted.

As far as the amp and speakers themselves go you can spend way beyond your wildest dreams on audio equipment so good idea to have a budget and then work from that.

Richersounds are pretty good for price.

Sput2001

We'd need to know what sort of home entertainment system you're planning for the rest. Your speaker cabling would appear to be a straightforward stereo set up. Are you planning on keeping it that way, or adding a centre and rear speakers for surround sound?

If it's just a two-speaker stereo system, then most standard stereo amplifiers will do the trick. Speaker choice depends very much on the size of your room.

If you have a DVD recorder then there's no need to buy another player. For stereo connection it should have standard phono output sockets. A standard stereo phono cable should connect it to the "Aux" input on the amplifier.

If you are looking for a surround sound system then the advice would differ from above. Without knowing exactly what you're looking for or what models of equipment you have it's hard to give more specific advice!

Conor_3

mymatebob wrote: »

As above - all good advice.

One thing though you may find the speaker cable is not marked in anyway - it can happen if someone uses cheap bell wire - not a disaster just a little bit of trial and error will get you sorted.

There's a trick you can use to find out what goes where.

Connect the speakers up to the ends in each corner. Where they're all together at the amp end, get each pair in turn and quickly touch the bare ends onto the terminals of a PP9 battery. You'll hear a click from the speaker connected to the other end of the wire.

technosapien

You have been given great advice so far!
Do you have wires in all four corners, and if so is there another pair of wires for a sub anywhere, its not the end of the world if their isn't as you can add one from the amp.
I will also recommend richer sounds, also suggest joining their VIP club (its free) because you get even better discounts on selected products.
Have patiance and good luck....envy you as I can't have a surround sound kit because my wife hates trailing wires, and wireless kit still isn't that great!

aliEnRIK

How much are you looking at spending?

akrot1

I was hoping to get it all sorted for £100, definitley no more, ideally less - am not the type of person that will appreciate a good quality one so no point spending the extra money i don't think- am hoping to ideally get one in the sale.

I'm hoping to get the surround sound and just 4 small speakers for each of the 4 corners of the room. can't see any wires for the sub-woofer anywhere just the 4 wires for the amplifier (am i right to assume that these 4 can only be for the amplifier, perhaps they are for the sub woofer?!)

As we also have sky, what would be great is if we can watch sky and have the sound coming out from the speaker system rather than the TV however i've done some research a couple of months ago i think it was and remember reading that a lot of the cheaper end systems dont have this feature so I'd imagine this owuld be out of my price range.

mymatebob

If there are 4 (pairs) of wires one going to each corner than you can connect your front left and right and your rear left and right speakers to them
the central speaker will come off your amp and be near the TV as will the Sub-woofer.

I think you will struggle for that budget but this is the sort of thing you would be after I suspect

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-DAV-DZ260-Cinema-System-Black/dp/B0015S394U/ref=dp_cp_ob_ce_title_0/275-9171755-1104654

EDIT - no it wont as it has a DVD included!

technosapien

akrot1 wrote: »

I was hoping to get it all sorted for £100, definitley no more, ideally less - am not the type of person that will appreciate a good quality one so no point spending the extra money i don't think- am hoping to ideally get one in the sale.

I'm hoping to get the surround sound and just 4 small speakers for each of the 4 corners of the room. can't see any wires for the sub-woofer anywhere just the 4 wires for the amplifier (am i right to assume that these 4 can only be for the amplifier, perhaps they are for the sub woofer?!)

As we also have sky, what would be great is if we can watch sky and have the sound coming out from the speaker system rather than the TV however i've done some research a couple of months ago i think it was and remember reading that a lot of the cheaper end systems dont have this feature so I'd imagine this owuld be out of my price range.

I am sure (I have restricted internet access at work) that Argos list a 5.1 surround sound kit for £100 (ministry of sound?) issue could be whether the speakers are hard wired or if you can use the cables you already have (another problem), you need to try and match outputs and inputs, worth a look at at https://www.avreview.co.uk, the guys there are great for advice, and drool making kit reviews.

keith1950

Hi, all you would need for basic set up is phono leads from back of sky box to left/right phono inputs on amp.Even the most basic amps have some form of input although might not be phono.