RCA termination at one end of a Speaker Lead?

[CliffR52]

Hi Guys.


I have an interesting combination of vintage speakers.


A pair of Minimus 5 Realistic Speakers (which have RCA out for parallel speaker connection).


I also have a pair of wall mounting Realistic speakers which can be hooked up as rear speakers for a mock surround.
They've been set up to include individual volume control so they can be tweaked for optimal sound set up.



Can speaker wire be terminated to RCA type connection at one end?


cheers


Cliff

 

[ubergeeknz]

Yes, indeed it once was commonplace on some of the less expensive gear to use RCA Jacks for the speaker outputs.

 

[CliffR52]

I'm thinking, modern RCA plugs are geared to accommodate interconnects and other discreet applications.


Are there dedicated RCA plug designs to accept speaker cable?

 

[ubergeeknz]

Not that I know of. There's nothing too difficult about soldering regular speaker wire to a basic RCA plug. For anything using RCA sockets for the speakers, 18-22awg is going to be perfectly adequate. If you're not happy with that, replace with a more suitable connector. Or make an adapter to something more convenient, which is what I usually do for gear with the 2-pin DIN speaker terminals.

 

[ubergeeknz]

Actually a quick search reveals there are RCA plugs available with screw terminals already built in from several sources (amazon, ebay, etc). So that would solve your problem very easily if you're not keen to solder anything up.

 

[Galu]

You may be interested in this video of a Minimus 5 restoration, Cliff.

Minimus 5 Speaker Restore Pt. 1 - YouTube

It's a bit slow, doesn't get going till about 1:30 in, and has no sound!

However, it does let one see what's going on inside.

 

[Galu]

P.S. You can buy speaker cable already terminated at one end by an RCA plug.

Handy if you don't want to take the chance of short circuiting your amplifier through clumsy soldering!

 

[MAAC0]

Creative computer speakers used to have RCA's on their 5.1 amps and speakers.

 

[CliffR52]

You may be interested in this video of a Minimus 5 restoration, Cliff.

Minimus 5 Speaker Restore Pt. 1 - YouTube

It's a bit slow, doesn't get going till about 1:30 in, and has no sound!

However, it does let one see what's going on inside.

Thanks G.


I saw that video it was part 1 of 2 parts, and thankfully the 2nd had sound.


I removed the dust covers over the tweeters as was recommended.
Fitted poly 3.3 caps in place of the existing electrolytic ones, fitted multi way speaker wire connectors, and lined the boxes to remove resonance.


No sound out of one of them probably due to my sloppy soldering but haven't had time to track down where I slipped up.


Re nourished the real wood veneer with danish oil and looking forward to some critical listening.


I have some nice 7 metre new speaker cable so I might do the solder RCA connection at one end to hook up the wall mount style Realistic rear speakers.


I think they're a great poor mans vintage surround set up.