Ceiling Speakers - ?best system to attach them to!

scouselass

I have had 2 ceiling speakers installed. It seemed a good idea at the time. However, I really don't know how best to utilise them.

I love listening to the radio (mostly FM) and listen to it at every opportunity on my portable radio; moving it around or twizzling the aerial to improve the reception when necessary.

What I would like to do is attach the speakers to a system that can play radio and cd's and that is robust and has a high quality FM signal. Advice would be appreciated, bearing the following in mind.

I have ruled out attaching the speakers to my current HiFi system, as it has a poor FM reception, and although I bought an FM aerial it isn't great, as it needs to be moved around depending on the programme!

I did think digital radio was the answer, but these systems when combined with CD systems are very expensive, and apparently they are not free of reception problems.

Someone said I needed a tuner amplifier? When I asked the electrician who installed the the speakers, his response was, "this is not my bag really"!

The ceiling speakers are Adastra Input 100v, Power reating 6w; tappings: 0.75/1.5/3/6E.

Hope someone can help me out.

MisterT2

I have a car CD/Radio mounted in the plinth rail under the wall cupboards in my kitchen. It is exactly the same height and that connects to speakers. A few points:
1. Buy an FM aerial (about £5-10 and put it in the loft etc as those little 12v halogens can cause interference and it will improve your reception.
2. Use a 10 Amp 12V power supply from Argos - it was £10 when I bought it.
3. You have bought PA speakers with transformers. Personally I don't care much for the quality and you will probably benefit from dropping into Richer sounds etc and getting a couple of cheapo's that were all the rage last year but out of fashion this year.

The car cd/radio thing has always been seen as a + point when I was selling my house.

welshblob

I have a car CD/Radio mounted in the plinth rail under the wall cupboards in my kitchen. It is exactly the same height and that connects to speakers. A few points:
1. Buy an FM aerial (about £5-10 and put it in the loft etc as those little 12v halogens can cause interference and it will improve your reception.
2. Use a 10 Amp 12V power supply from Argos - it was £10 when I bought it.
3. You have bought PA speakers with transformers. Personally I don't care much for the quality and you will probably benefit from dropping into Richer sounds etc and getting a couple of cheapo's that were all the rage last year but out of fashion this year.

The car cd/radio thing has always been seen as a + point when I was selling my house.

You must be a mind reader!!! I've just moved house and will be refitting the kitchen out early next year. As its quite small I came up with exactly the same idea of putting a car radio in the plinth rail too. It makes sense as if it breaks you can quite easily replace it. Do you happen to have the catalogue number of the power supply you used? Looking at the maplin.co.uk website I can only see a 5a one for about £20. Oh I'm also comtemplating putting one in the bathroom too with safety issues noted.
Cheers
Rob

loafer_2

They are 100v line speakers - you need a 100v amp to go with them! A normal car/hi-fi one will not do.

They are nearly always mono amps too - take a look at the ones on ebay
http://search.ebay.co.uk/Adastra look in the details for 100V line outputs.

....However you may find your speakers can be setup without the 100v transformer in the loop (may be that 6e tapping, read the book ti find out) so you may be able to drive them from a normal source c/o/ richersounds.

Malestrom

TLC-Direct do ceiling and wallspeakers that will run off a standard stereo amp. They also do water resistant ones for bathrooms/kitchens. All at good prices. Haven't tried them so not sure on the quality although i'd imagine they beat PA kit.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Aerials_Index/Loud_Speakers_Wall/index.html

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Water_Heating_Index/Showers_Index/Loud_Speakers_Water_Resistant/index.html

No, I dont work for them!

MisterT2

Hi

I can't find the 10Amp version on Argos. 5 Amp should be okay.

If you want a cheap supply - have a look for "CB power supply cheap" or "for sale" etc. on google. A lot of these give out 13.6V or some do 13.8V which is fine, but whatever you do, don't use a standard car battery charger.

welshblob

Hi

I can't find the 10Amp version on Argos. 5 Amp should be okay.

If you want a cheap supply - have a look for "CB power supply cheap" or "for sale" etc. on google. A lot of these give out 13.6V or some do 13.8V which is fine, but whatever you do, don't use a standard car battery charger.

I've been contemplating using a 12V spotlight transformer from tlc-direct ->
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LTYT250.html
It's rated at 250W which, based on my calculations of P=VI, should be capable of providing ~20A. Not sure why some transformers are listed by their current and somne by wattage but not both? However I'm not sure if these are designed specifically for lighting circuits and therefore won't supply a car radio.
Any comments or experience appreciated.
SAFETY NOTICE : If\when I do this I will use certain safety precautions and soak test my setup before installing it properly. I do have some background in this sort of stuff and have tinkered for many years. Therefore if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it.
Cheers
Rob

Malestrom

Just had a look at an LV lighting transformer that I have here, it ouputs in AC not DC so won't be any good, unless you want to build a rectifier too. Voltage drop might be a problem then though as the transformer I have here is rated at ~11.5v, take off voltage drop across the diodes of the rectifier and you're almost down to 10v. Not recommended really.

welshblob

Wondered what the catch would be and I guess TLC assume everybody knows lighting circuits are AC as they don't mention whether the output is AC or DC on their site. Might have a look at a bridge rectifier and voltage regulator to see what I can come up with .... that can handle 22A
Cheers
Rob