How to link up music system

luckycat99

Hi

I have a query about how to connect different components of a music system together. My OH likes old fashioned looking amps, record players etc and has bought an amp, record player and speakers. They are different makes and cost him quite a bit but we have no idea how to connect them all to each other.

The record player is a Pioneer PL-15R and has a power lead coming out the back and a lead with two sockets on to connect to the amp. The amp is a Pioneer SX-727 and has lots of different sockets in the back. The speakers are Celestion Ditton AV3's. They have four golden screw type sockets in the back. We have speaker wire as well but we have no clue how to wire it up.

I would be very grateful if anyone could advise me how to connect this up. The speakers were my Xmas present to him and he is thinking of selling them if he can't figure it out soon. I don't want to have to pay someone to come out to sort them out as I envisage that it's quite straightforward if you know what you're doing and I can't really afford to pay someone.

Many thanks

luckycat

Shimrod

Hi, you can find a manual for the amp here http://www.hifiengine.com/manuals/pioneer/sx-727.shtml

You want to have a look at page 5, which shows the diagram of the back of the amp. Connect the record player to either phono 1 or phono 2 as shown on the diagram. The leads are probably colour coded red and black - make sure you connect the right colours or it will sound funny.

The same goes for the speakers. You say the AV3s have four terminals - that means they can be bi-wired. At the moment they should have a metal connector on them which joins both red terminals together and both black terminals together. You have a choice.
1) leave the metal connectors in place, and run the speaker cable from either of the red and black to the corresponding Speaker A terminal as shown on the page 5 diagram. It looks like it is expecting an unusual plug (rather than connecting bare wire or banana plugs) so you may have to experiment with the wires to work out which terminal on the amp is positive and negative. connecting the speaker up the wrong way round will not damage speaker or amp, but will sound strange.
2) Bi-wire the speakers. Remove the metal connectors from the speakers, and two sets of wires from the speaker terminals to the amp. Connect one set up as above(one each of red and b;ack), and the other to the speaker B terminal. This seperates the signal from the tweeter and main speakers and theoretically gives better sound, but I doubt you would really notice it.

oh yes, the power leads go into the wall after everything else has been connected up :-)

luckycat99

That's great, thank you. Do I need special adaptors to put on either end of speaker wires to connect to speaker and amp?

Thanks

Shimrod

not at the speaker end, you have probably got binding posts. Loosen off the knobs, wrap a bit of wire around the post and tighten the knob to hold the wire in place. From the looks of the diagram, the amp end might be a bit more tricky - it looks like some type of plug. You could try just jamming the wire in, but that wouldn't really give a good connection. Best bet would be somewhere like maplins for a connector - the amp connections look non-standard for the hi-fi world. If you could post a piccie of the back of the amp, I could say for certain.

Sput2001

Shimrod wrote: »

From the looks of the diagram, the amp end might be a bit more tricky - it looks like some type of plug. You could try just jamming the wire in, but that wouldn't really give a good connection. Best bet would be somewhere like maplins for a connector - the amp connections look non-standard for the hi-fi world. If you could post a piccie of the back of the amp, I could say for certain.

It looks as if the speaker sockets need those plugs with an off-centre pin and a flat plate. They were fairly common in the 70s and early 80s, before spring-clips & banana plugs took over.

You must be able to get the somewhere, but I'm not sure where. You needed to be a bit handy with a soldering iron to connect the plugs to the cables, iirc.

Alternatively, you can just stuff the wires into the holes - heck knows, I did often enough in my youth!

EDIT: I think I've found them. They're called "2-Pin DIN" plugs, and you can get them from Maplins or on eBay. Maplin do a solder-connection version and a solderless screw-connection one. I'm fairly sure they're what you need...

luckycat99

Thanks guys - thats really helpful. I found the sockets on the Maplin site, they look like they will fit in the socket on the amp and only 79p each - bargain! I'll go and have a go at connecting it all up now just by jamming wires in for now until I get the sockets. I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully I can get it working and surprise my partner for when he wakes up.

Cheers:beer:

luckycat99

I've connected up the amp and the speakers and they sound good:j . I didn't need those sockets after all as there were some sockets already there in the amp. He can't get his stylus to work now, so now I have to find him a stylus before he loses patience and buys another record player (I know, not very mse, which is why I'm on the case).

timbim_2

Oh the multiple joys of the vynl disc!

Sput2001

This one claims to fit your turntable:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stylus-Aiwa-AN11-LX10-PXE80-PXE850-ATN91-ATN3600_W0QQitemZ300227476769QQihZ020QQcategoryZ48648QQcmdZViewItem