Connecting Power to Speakers

Hi All,

I want to connect a pair of mini hifi speakers to my PC but they wont play
through my sound card.
They play fine when connected to the headphone jack of my existing speakers
so I assume that the sound card is not providing any power.
I'm 90% certain that the speakers require 12v. I cannot remenber the speaker
ratings but I'll check as soon as I can.

Can I connect a small 12v transformer from an old radio and how should I do
it. Most importantly I do not want to damage my sound card and PC.

Thanks in advance,

mc
chotsATidwsDOTcoDOTza

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[Rich Grise]

<gelatitalia@idws.co.za> wrote in message
news:carkah$qp3$1@ctb-nnrp2.saix.net...

Hi All,

I want to connect a pair of mini hifi speakers to my PC but they wont play
through my sound card.
They play fine when connected to the headphone jack of my existing
speakers
so I assume that the sound card is not providing any power.
I'm 90% certain that the speakers require 12v. I cannot remenber the
speaker
ratings but I'll check as soon as I can.

Can I connect a small 12v transformer from an old radio and how should I
do
it. Most importantly I do not want to damage my sound card and PC.

Thanks in advance,

You're welcome in advance.

The sound card is "not providing any power," true, but not in the way that
you seem to be thinking. It sounds like your new speakers are just plain
speakers, that need to be driven with an amplifier's output; your sound
card has only a "line out," which drives an amp. input, but not speakers,
and the phone jack on your existing speakers comes off their internal amp.

If that's the case, then your only choice is to build a little amp for
them or plug them into something else that already has an amplifier. To
build an amp, look up e.g. http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM386.html

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[JeffM]

To build an amp, look up e.g. http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM386.html
Rich Grise

Rich is right, but there's no need to re-invent the wheel:
http://www.google.com/search?&q=LM386+pcb+-radio+-pdf+-u2+-u3+-u4+-ic2+-ic3+-ic4