Monitor Speakers and a Reciever (1 Viewer)

[Adam Sanchez]

A friend of mine got a pair of monitor speakers, something I have never had or dealt with. He says the plugs for them are 1/4 TRS plugs, or in other words "The one that looks like a big headphone plug." Would a modern receiver have an input these can be plugged into or would an adapter be needed? The only thing I can think of is the set of Pre-Outs on some receivers, or the 5.1 output. Would either of those work? He basically wants something to plug the speakers into, and then plug his iPod into. Simple goal but have a feeling might not be that easy to obtain.

 

[Al.Anderson]

I'm not an expert on this but I'll give it a shot (and hopefully someone will correct my misses). True monitor speakers are meant for near-field sound in a studio environment. The near-field just means that they are designed to provide accurate sound to someone sitting very close. The studio part implies that they'll be set-up and torn-down a lot (so sturdy); and that the signal has to be accurate. To accomplish both the sturdy and accurate they use the TRS connection which is a balanced connector. To use those speakers on a home receiver you'd just have to connect standard speaker wire to a TRS connector on one end. I supose you could also buy a TRS cable and rip off one end; but that's probably more expensive. (You lose the balanced part when you open one end to bare wire, but that's not important for home use.) I don't think pre-outs will work as I believe these speakers still require amplification.

 

[Adam Sanchez]

Thanks for the reply. I am not sure what you meant by "To use those speakers on a home receiver you'd just have to connect standard speaker wire to a TRS connector on one end.". The speakers he has already have the wires attached with the plug being a TRS one. How can I add speaker wire to the TRS connector? Short of splicing the cables, I'm not sure what I can do. These are the speakers he says he has. http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudiophileBX5a.html

 

[Al.Anderson]

The speakers he has already have the wires attached with the plug being a TRS one.

If the speakers you linked to are the correct ones, that statement is not true. The speaker has a female TRS connection, and he needs to plug in a male TRS jack in one end and bare speaker wire on the other end (the receiver end). To do that you would get some ordinary speaker wire and attach a TRS jack. That will require soldering. The other approach is to get something that already has a TRS jack, say an old set of broken headphones, and cut the wire at the headphone end. Then plug the TRS into the speaker and the wires into the receiver. If that works he can work on a full length wire. If you meant that he already has a "patch cord" with a TRS on both ends, then he could cut one of the TRS jacks off. (But I'd hate to do that to an expensive cord; I'd rather build one with cheap speaker wire.)

 

[Adam Sanchez]

I'll have to check with him to see exactly what TRS plug he has. Thank you. =)

 

[mberndt]

In looking at the speakers for which you provided the link, these are amplified speakers. Your friend basically needs a Y-adapter with a male 1/8" (aka 3.5mm) plug on one end (to plug into the headphone jack on the iPod); and two 1/4" MONO plugs on the other ends (one for each speaker). OK...did your homework for you. Get to RadioShack, purchase one 274-369 adapter (1/8" stereo plug/2 RCA phono jacks), and two 42-2373 which are 6' RCA phono plug to 1/4" mono plug. It's a bit kludgy, but will do the trick. This should really rock an iPod with those speakers. Have fun! Michael