RCA Connector to Bare +/- wire

Posted by: RedSIinPA

RCA Connector to Bare +/- wire - 08/05/07 04:55 PM

Hello all.

So as part of my system redesign, I'm selling off my B&Ws and opting to mate the 1070 with the Atlantic Tech speakers in my living room. To finance the purchase of some new stuff the B&W's have to go. In a spare bedroom, I've decided to use my Yamaha RXV750 with a handed-down Acoustimass setup. (Leave snide remarks out! laugh ) But seriously, I think the Acoustimass cubes + the VCS-10 center channel will do just fine for Xboxing. I'll save my money for a pair of larger fronts in my living room in the not so distant future.

Now enough lead in...the Acoustimass cubes each have a single RCA connector on the back of them. I want to run them off the Yamaha (set a pretty darn high crossover, I'm thinking.) I need a single RCA connector with bare wire on the other end to hook to the receiver. Can anyone recommend a decently priced option to pull this off?

Does anyone have any misgivings about my plan? I can only imagine the cubes have a very limited freq. range since they're "special" - but I'd heard a "rigged" system in before with these very speakers hooked to a Panasonic digital receiver and it sounded Ok.

Thanks in advance.
Posted by: gonk

Re: RCA Connector to Bare +/- wire - 08/05/07 10:39 PM

The cubes' RCA connectors were used to more conveniently connect to the bass module, which contained a crossover network. You should be able to snip the RCA's off and strip the wires (or get some RCA extension cables and snip an end off those to preserve the resale value of the cubes), but there's probably no obvious indication of positive and negative so polarity could be an issue. If the wires have some sort of mark (ridges, stripe, text, ...) on one conductor, that would allow you to be consistent across all channels.
Posted by: RedSIinPA

Re: RCA Connector to Bare +/- wire - 08/06/07 01:27 AM

Hi Gonk.

Earlier today I snipped the end off of some cheap stereo cables. there's an outer ring comprised of copper cable that I figure correlates to the "ring" part of a standard RCA connector. I've read before that's the "black" wire. Within the ring of cable was a small insulated wire that I figure is the "red" wire. the problem I saw was that particular wire is so thin that it wouldn't be much to snap off when I wire it to my receiver.

Also, I don't have the original wires.

thanks for the suggestion. I'm thinking a set of Monster stereo cables I have on a shelf have something more substantial in terms of that "red" wire but I don't want to wreck a bunch of good cables on a witchunt either.
Posted by: RedSIinPA

Re: RCA Connector to Bare +/- wire - 08/06/07 06:14 PM

After hunting around a little more, I've found that Radioshack.com sells a 12 ft and 24 ft cables, 18 or 24 gauge, with an RCA connector on one end and either bare wire or spades on the other side. While the quality compared to the cables we typically discuss here is questionable, it fits the bill for my application. And the price is right - between $4.00 and $8.00 a run. If anyone knows of a better manufacturer, please do let me know. As soon as I get my 1070 back, I'll be buying these.

oh and I was mistaken on the wires/RCA plug association. The prong part of the RCA plug is for the 'negative' and the outer ring is for the 'positive.'
Posted by: gonk

Re: RCA Connector to Bare +/- wire - 08/06/07 06:25 PM

That sounds like the ideal solution, Red.