Turning speakers wireless???

[MasterOfReality]

Ok,

Well I want to use my home theater system the way it was intended, but because I have tiles in the loungeroom, and the walls are concrete, running wires across the floor or in the walls is out.

All i want to do is use a wireless system for my rear surround speakers that are rated 25W RMS @ 8 Ohms.

I went to Jaycar and they have a wireless amplifier pack that includes the transmitter and receiver. The receiver has a built in amp thats rated 30W RMS @ 8 Ohms.

http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...d2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=

Now the dude at Jaycar was telling me I need to buy an additonal low level converter, or something like that, because the signal coming from my stereo amp to my surround speakers is too high. Wtf???

I was under the impression that these wireless systems just plug into your stereo amp and utilise your existing surround speakers????

Is he full of shit?

Cheers

 

[scblack]

Wireless speakers is not a true statement.

They still require electrical power from somewhere, for the speakers to have any power to make their sound.

It is wireless from the amp to the speaker, but you will still have a power cord for each speaker. That could mean going "wireless" is not an advantage for you.

 

[danv]

Ok,

Well I want to use my home theater system the way it was intended, but because I have tiles in the loungeroom, and the walls are concrete, running wires across the floor or in the walls is out.

All i want to do is use a wireless system for my rear surround speakers that are rated 25W RMS @ 8 Ohms.

I went to Jaycar and they have a wireless amplifier pack that includes the transmitter and receiver. The receiver has a built in amp thats rated 30W RMS @ 8 Ohms.

http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...d2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=

Now the dude at Jaycar was telling me I need to buy an additonal low level converter, or something like that, because the signal coming from my stereo amp to my surround speakers is too high. Wtf???

I was under the impression that these wireless systems just plug into your stereo amp and utilise your existing surround speakers????

Is he full of shit?

Cheers

Basically, you can't beam power. If you go wireless, your current amp can't amplify the speakers, as all power needs to be transferred over a wire. So basically you will have seperate little power amps at each speaker, which will need to plug into a power socket. These are what give you your volume. Volume comes from power.

I think what the jaycar guy is saying is that you need to keep the output signal from the original amp low, because that signal will be going into a wireless transmitter and then through the air to the seperate speaker amps. So if you have your original amp turned up full bore and plugged into a wireless transmitter, it will cause all sorts of problems cause you have such a loud input signal going into the transmitter. The input signal to the transmitter needs to be just a low one that transmits the audio signal without any pre amp. Then the transmitter transmits the signal through air to the speakers and their respective power amps, and those power amps give it the volume at the end.

also, when I say respective speaker amps, in the case you are talking about it seems like it's just one reciever which the speakers plug into. So in this case you'll have the reciever which needs to be plugged into the wall, and all your speakers wired to the reciever.

 

[FR Drew]

It is likely that the wireless transmitter uses "line level signals" through RCA jacks which are typically from 1mV to 500mV and I doubt you'd ever find one that went over 2V absolute peak as its input signal.

The speaker outputs for your 25 watt rears will be 14v at peak which will therefore overload the input stage of the sender unit.

If your home theatre amp has RCA outputs for the rears as well as speaker outputs then you're home and hosed. If it doesn't then you want to find out what the max signal input in volts is for the Jaycar sender unit (400mV peak or whatever) and either buy or build a circuit that will drop your home theatre amp down to the level required.

If you need to drop signal, safest bet is to buy a "dongle" (not a technical term) to do the trick rather than stuff around with things and potentially kill your amp.

did that make any sense?

 

[MasterOfReality]

Thanks guys.

Wireless speakers is not a true statement.

They still require electrical power from somewhere, for the speakers to have any power to make their sound.

It is wireless from the amp to the speaker, but you will still have a power cord for each speaker. That could mean going "wireless" is not an advantage for you.

Running power cords is not a problem. I know that the transmitter and receiver have power cords and I have outlets behind my entertainment unit, and also behind my lounge, so they can remain hidden from view.

It is likely that the wireless transmitter uses "line level signals" through RCA jacks which are typically from 1mV to 500mV and I doubt you'd ever find one that went over 2V absolute peak as its input signal.

The speaker outputs for your 25 watt rears will be 14v at peak which will therefore overload the input stage of the sender unit.

If your home theatre amp has RCA outputs for the rears as well as speaker outputs then you're home and hosed. If it doesn't then you want to find out what the max signal input in volts is for the Jaycar sender unit (400mV peak or whatever) and either buy or build a circuit that will drop your home theatre amp down to the level required.

If you need to drop signal, safest bet is to buy a "dongle" (not a technical term) to do the trick rather than stuff around with things and potentially kill your amp.

did that make any sense?

My rear surround speakers (and centre) plug into the amp with RCA's. All the other speakers use the separate wires (speaker outputs?)

What type of dongle are you talking about? The only type of dongle i know are the things that computer programs need to run.

So is the Jaycar dude right about the low level converter thing?

I just don't want to go there, buy it all, plug it in and blow my amp. That would certainly not be a satisfactory outcome.

Thanks again guys

 

[FR Drew]

Are they using the RCA as a speaker connection instead of binding posts or spring clips? Hmm, that's a bit dodgy.

"Dongle" (sorry, confusing term) basically it'll be a resistive pad network to drop the 14v RMS of the rear speakers down to about 300mv I'd guess so you're looking at about 1:40 reduction.

Any widget they sell that you can plug a speaker level input into and extract a line level output signal from of should do the trick.

Also sometime called a high level to low level converter.

If you know what you're doing electronics wise, you could probably cobble something together with a 15k resistor and a 1k linear pot but if you don't know what you're doing, it's a recipe for amp fryage. safer to buy off the shelf.

I'm afraid that Jaycar are suffering from what killed Tandys and Dick Smith and the staff are gradually becoming more and more clueless when it comes to electronics and the stores are filling up with more and more toy gadget crap and less electronics items. (Still better than most other places though)

 

[MasterOfReality]

Yes, they are using RCA's for the rear surrounds and centre, but not for the front speakers. I would expect something better from a Japanese made amp. Keep in mind my stereo is about 5 years old.

A high level to low level converter, thats what the dude at Jaycar called it, so it seems he was right.

I don't really know much electronics wise so I think it might be a safer bet to buy off the shelf.

Thanks dude!