Old speakers and amps help / advice

[afshind (Afshin Dehkordi)]

Hi all ,
Appreciate advice from folks knowledgeable about audio systems…I have two old ex BBC speakers with accompanying amp for each…I can’t find much details online about them.

What do I need to do (cables to buy, extra kit) to get the speakers to work with a) tv b) WiFi playing tubes through laptop/phone.

It came with the cables to connect amp to speaker and I bought a 3 pincable at one end and 3.5mm jack at the other end (plus adapror to bump up the 3.5mm back to the bigger size)…that setup lets me play music from a single speaker from a 3.5mm socket from my phone or laptop.

How to get both to work stereo? And from TV? And ideally cable free from laptop/phone?

Really appreciate advice as partner is pressuring me to get rid of them of I can’t get them to work, speakers are big! But I’m emotionally attached to them! I sat next to them daily for alomst 8 years at BBC.

[Matthew (Matthew Marks)]

Probably the easiest way to drive them is from the tape or pre-amp outputs of another amplifier, seeing as you want several sources and will need a volume control. However, they use professional level signals so you might find you don’t get much volume. Connect each channel to pins 2 and 3 of the XLR input socket. Doesn’t matter which is “hot” and “cold” so long as it’s the same on both amplifiers or you’ll get a channel inversion.

For wifi reception, perhaps you could use a Chromecast Audio.

For Bluetooth reception, you can get very cheap Bluetooth receivers from China which connect to one of the inputs of the “pre-amplifier” and are powered from a USB supply (phone charger).

By the way, they won’t sound nearly as good in your house as they did in the studio! It’s all about acoustic treatment…

And another thing: those XLR mains connectors were used “the wrong way round” by the BBC so make sure that the plug is always connected as the trailing lead isn’t particularly safe in a domestic environment.

[iNeil (Neil)]

Hi Afshind,
So I sort of have rigged a setup in my bedroom that might be similar to what you’re looking for. I have a Roland/Edirol UA-25 which has XLR balanced outputs and can act as a USB external sound card. It has a volume control on the front (as well as an annoying blue LED which I taped over). They seem to be going on Ebay for about £40.

Edirol 24bit 96khz USB Audio and Midi Interface for sale | eBay

I use balanced/XLR cables from the UA-25 to a pair of Alesis M1 Active speakers. To take care of the Wifi side of things, I have the UA-25 wired to a Raspberry PI3 (you could use a cheap Pi Zero-W) and managed to configure Linux with an open-source Airplay implementation which lets me send audio to it from my iPhone, iPad or Mac. I believe there’s other open source options for Android. https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-airplay-receiver/
I personally went down the path of configuring a touch screen web-UI on the Raspberry PI to give me an alarm clock that plays podcasts in the mornings and gives me weather + train info on the display.
The UA-25 also has XLR and SPDIF inputs. Your TV may have a SPDIF output which could work. There’s other alternatives to the UA-25 which may be better suited to your needs. Just google for “balanced audio external sound card”.
Hope something in these ramblings is helpful!
Good luck,
Neil

[skullfokker]

Hi there. I have a set of these and they are awesome. you need these cables and I use a pre amp to run them

!

[skullfokker]