Underpowered speakers

[Maverick]

I just bought a pair of 2 inch polk audio speakers to use together as my center channel with my BA4800s that are hooked up to my Phillips AE sound card. Unfortunately these speakers are not powered. Even with the center channel volume turned ALL the way up, its barely audible. These have no power connection in the back, just a wire that connects the two into a stereo 1/8th inch plug. Can anyone think of a way to power these bad boys up so I can get some sound out of them? Or should I send these back and ask for a refund from the guy I got them from? Thanks.

 

[Noriaki]

Yikes...non-powered...ouch

I'm not 100% sure about the AE, but the standard for most sound cards I've seen is line level outs (that is to say the speakers need their own amp), I don't think you can get any newer sound cards to produce amplified output.

My friend has an old ISA SB AWE32 that has one line-out and one pre-amped out for the front left/right channels.

But new sound cards tend to forgo the amp...

You could try a boostereo (sp?), it's a little guy that takes a 3.5mm input and produces an amplified 3.5mm output (typically for headphones, but it should work for these).

 

[Maverick]

I don't need a lot of power for these things, just enough to use them for a center channel (voice in movies). Where would I purchase a "boost-stereo" ?

 

[Crunk3000]

I doubt the Boostereo will cut it for home theatre.. if it does, great! if not,
If you have two wires going into the 1/8 in plug, cut the plug off at the end. No one sends an amplified signal through a mini-jack. Split the two wires about 3 in, and strip the last 3/4 in of rubber coating off with a wire-stripper. Now you have a set of speakers with built-in, rubberized, hermetically-sealed speaker cables. You will now need to get a hold of some 110V amplification. (Car amps are 12V and need transformers and such to work, though it can be done) These days, consumer amplification is available only bundled with a tuner, either in a receiver or a mini-system. Radio Shack usually has a basic 50Wx2 Stereo receiver for $60 or so, maybe less. Or you could check your local pawn shops. Receivers are cool beause you can hook it up to your soundcard's input, and listen to the radio, play cassetes, etc.

 

[jamarno]

Most sound cards aren't designed to connect directly to nonpowered speakers and need some sort of amplifier. But considering how cheap a regular stereo receiver is, you may want to think of getting one instead of just a computer speaker amplifier.

The few sound cards that have built-in speaker amplifiers can't really provide more than 1 watt/channel continuous, and even that may be optimistic because of their small or even nonexistent heatsinks.

 

[Maverick]

getting a whole regular receiver seems like a lot of work to get two speakers working. I might as well just return them then.

 

[Noriaki]

Boostaroo reivew at 3dss.com

There's a review of the unit for you, it's a $20 unit (and there is a link to the manufacturer on the first page of the reivew).


Crunk: I agree, a Boostaroo is not a good option for real amplifying, but he wants to run one channel off of it, nor is running an amplified signal through 3.5mm cables the best way to do it.

But I think it would be effective for the situation we are talking about.

A pair of 2 inch polk audio speakers are hardly what I'd call home theatre level equipment. And to get a $60 Reciever/Amp to amplify 1 channel of a computer setup is a bit overkill I would think...

However, you are right it would certainly work better than the Boostaroo...personally I don't want a Reciver on my computer desk...but that's me...Shiva112 may not care.

 

[Maverick]

yeah I definitely don't have room for a receiver on my desk. Thats why I use computer speakers. I'm just gonna return these speakers and get some money for the item I traded. Thanks for those who tried to help.