Please advise on connecting equipment?

Alec

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Hello! Further to my my post on biwiring, i must, with a growing sense of embarrassement, ask some very basic advice on connecting stuff. Now, i have my pc and my monitor BR2s and my NAD320. The NAD goes into the pc via a phono lead with 2 connections into the pc and 1 into the Aux connection on the amp doesnt it? (i know many will disaprove, but i dont have better than my onboard sound at the moment, but probably will have in the not too distant future). Assuming im right so far, could someone explain, for a complete ignoramus, how i connect the speaker wire up...? I wasdnt expecting to have to connect banana plugs n things, you see. Go i do this at both ends of the wire? And what if i choose to biwire them with an amp that isnt made for biwiring (which someone told me on here the other day is possible). Thanks in advance, and apologies for the rambling, unformatted post!
 

Andrew Everard

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No need to bother with bananas if you don't want to. You can just clamp the bare ends of the cables into the screw-down terminals on amp and speakers. If you want to biwire, you just twist the two 'plus' cable ends together at the amp end, and put that into the terminal, and repeat with the 'minus' cable ends.
 

Alec

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Thanks Andrew. How does biwiring work if i do choose to use banana plugs? and woud i use them at both amp and speaker ends...? Thing is, i know some are unconvinced of biwiring, but i know what hifi said it was good for my speakers. personally, i have no opinion, as im too inexperienced, i havent experimented enough yet.
 

Andrew Everard

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[quote user="al7478"]How does biwiring work if i do choose to use banana plugs? [/quote]

Exactly the same, except the twisted together wire-ends are soldered into a single banana plug, which is then plugged into the amp's terminal.

[quote user="al7478"]And woud i use them at both amp and speaker ends...?
[/quote]

Entirely up to you - just because you have bananas at one end doesn't mean you have to have them at the other end, too.
 

Alec

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OK, so they can be used at both ends with my setup? Very useful to know, thanks Andrew for your patience again with such basic stuff. I didnt realise any soldering was necassary. a friend offered to fit banana plugs for me, and he didnt say anything about soldering.
 

Andrew Everard

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[quote user="al7478"]I didnt realise any soldering was necassary. a friend offered to fit banana plugs for me, and he didnt say anything about soldering.[/quote]

You can buy various designs that screw onto the end of the cables, but they are prone to working loose. Soldering is a much better solution.
 

Andrew Everard

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No, that's not what I said. I meant that screw-on banana plugs can work loose, especially at the speaker end where they are subjected to the vibration of the speaker.

Using bare wire connections, it's sensible to check the connections from time to time and tighten them if required.

If the wires come loose, then yes that might noticeably affect sound quality, by breaking the connection and thus giving no sound at all.
 

Andrew Everard

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[quote user="al7478"]so is there a noticeable diference in sound ith or without plugs?[/quote]

Nope.

[quote user="al7478"]and how might one go about getting them
soldered...?[/quote]

Any worthwhile retailer will offer a service whereby your nice new cables are supplied with plugs neatly soldered on.
 

Andrew Everard

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Nope, you can use twin runs of conventional single-wire two-conductor cable, twisted together either with of without banana plugs at the amp end. Biwire cables just make things tidier by wrapping up the four conductors in a single 'jacket'.
 

Alec

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And im right in what i say about connecting amp to pc in the first post, right? Standard phono lead, one wire from amp Aux setting, splitting into to goin into pc for L & R speakers?
 

Alec

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Its ok. Thats fine. i dont mind being mocked. go ahead. have a field day. there are no such things as stupid questions, just questions to which one does not know the answer. Oh, i trust you are over the lurgy that was afflicting you recently?
 

Alec

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Sorry. Whats a spade plug and why might one use one? And is the cable i need from pc to amp called 3.5mm jack to 2 Phono cable? I thought phono cables were 3.5mm too, but whatever, is that the proper name for it?
 

Andrew Everard

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Spade plugs



can be used instead of bananas. They're clamped down on the speaker terminals like you would bare wires.

Phono cables have these



on either end, whereas a 3.5mm stereo to phono cable has those on one end and one of these



on the other.

If your PC has phono sockets for audio output, and your amp has a 3.5mm Aux input on the front, you can either use a phonos-to-3.5mm cable to hook it up, or a standard phonos-to-phonos stereo interconnect to connect the computer to one of the Aux inputs on the rear of the amp, which will use a pair of phono sockets.
 

Alec

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Thanks again. So if i use standard stereo interconnects, there's only one connection at the amp and the pc then? Presumably that would mean i have to find some other hole (only the most technically precise language from me) on the back of the pc?
 

Andrew Everard

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If your PC has a pair of phono sockets, usually coloured red for right and white for left, then you can use a standard two-phonos-to-two-phonos lead from this to one of the auxiliary inputs on the rear of the amp, which will also have two sockets like this. Or you can run a two-phonos-to-3.5mm-stereo-plug cable from the stereo phono outputs on the PC to the 3.5mm aux input on the front of the amp.

If the PC has a single small socket for audio output, like a small headphone socket, then you can use a 3.5mm-stereo-to-two-phonos cable from that to one of the auxiliary input pairs on the rear of your amp, or a 3.5mm-stereo-to-3.5mm-stereo cable from the PC to the aux input on the front of your amp.

Your choice - it will probably just look tidier without a plug sticking out of the front of the amp.
 

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