Two speaker wires into a single plug (DIY Home Audio)

Submitted by NoahTheCuck t3_10km6of in DIY

Mom gifted me a speaker system with a catch, only one wire for a 5.1 system.

I figured no big deal, speaker wire and banana plugs. But, it’s not working out.

Each speaker has two normal speaker wire connections, but the receiver (subwoofer) only has 5 plugs.

I’ve researched online and all I can find is that I could connect them in series or parallel, but the one cable I have is working well without doing that. Is there a way to recreate the center cable?

Pics: https://ibb.co/album/Q7yRpP

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Comments

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JustTheSpecsPlease t1_j5ri95e wrote

I initially thought that single to double RCAs were in order, here, but those connections on the speaker end look odd to me.

What model Bose all-in-one is this?

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Zetor22 t1_j5rigie wrote

isnt it a 5 speaker system 2 front, 2 rear and 1 center

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Yago20 t1_j5rmbiy wrote

Looks to me like the speakers use banana plugs. You'll have to convert one end of the RCA to banana plugs.

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mikeymaxdb t1_j5rmk1q wrote

Every rca plug has two conductors. Can you diy a cable for each speaker that has banana plugs on one end and rca on the other?

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justmoreredditors t1_j5rnz6e wrote

Each RCA connector uses two wires. The wire connected to the larger outer ring goes to the black connector on the speaker. The wire connected to the inner tip goes to the red connector on the speaker. Lots of ways to get this done, but which one is easiest depends on what is in your junk/spare parts box.

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jobyone t1_j5rznlh wrote

Each of those 5 RCA plugs on the receiver has two wires.

You need to build or buy five cables like these, such that each of those RCA plugs on the receiver splits out into two banana plugs and goes to one speaker.

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Mark_Bastard t1_j5sbhmv wrote

It may not even be worth the money you'd spend on cables.

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f03nix t1_j5scadt wrote

If you don't have spare RCA cables lying around, you can get RCA connectors and solder/screw the speaker wires into them. See this and this.

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Few_Ad_5677 t1_j5sk6w6 wrote

Each speaker has 2 wires going to it, without exception. The rca jack is 2 wires in one plug, the center pin and the outer circular part.

If you cut that RCA cable and connect each of those wires to one of those bananas, that will work.

5.1 = 5 regular speakers = 10 wires total

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papinek t1_j5sme37 wrote

How can someone not know that rcas are two lines?

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BigLan2 t1_j5smnl7 wrote

Replying to JustTheSpecsPlease (#1,477,671)

The label says ps28. Looks like it's the back of the sub which the speakers connect to, and there's a separate DVD player. It does use an RCA to banana plug connectors, which could be hacked together from an RCA cable, speaker wire and banana clips.

Here the product support page https://www.bose.com/en_us/support/products/bose_home_theater_support/bose_5_speaker_home_theater_support/ls28_series3/manuals_downloads.html

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mykidlikesdinosaurs t1_j5srkv8 wrote

Replying to justmoreredditors (#1,478,224)

The colors shouldn’t matter as long as each speaker is consistent.

If it sounds like the breakdown of “Life In The Fast Lane”, or if it sounds very thin when you sit in certain locations in the room, then one or more of your speakers is likely wired out of phase.

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queen_medusa_maria t1_j5t7erl wrote

You need to get a connector cable that has one plug that goes into the back and on the other end has a double slot plug in for both of your banana plugs and maybe some bigger gauge speaker wire. I will put a link to one

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kyle72ab t1_j5u08a3 wrote

Replying to jobyone (#1,479,332)

I don’t think banana plugs will fit. These systems come with cables that have rca plugs on one end and bare conductors on the other end. You can insert the bare conductors while pressing on the button with the 6 dots shown in the linked picture provided by op.

This is also shown on page 13 of the installation manual https://assets.bose.com/content/dam/Bose_DAM/Web/consumer_electronics/global/products/speakers/ls28_series3/pdf/ig_en_lsiii.pdf

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No-Setting9690 t1_j5uwk2a wrote

Could old school it. All RCA, chop the speaker end off. Easy peasy.

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jobyone t1_j5vhkd0 wrote

Replying to kyle72ab (#1,486,035)

I don't think that manual is for the same system. The layout on the receiver is different, OP didn't mention DVD-playing, and the ports on the speakers in OP's photo really don't look like those spring-loaded bare wire connectors.

It is a distinct possibility that they're some sort of goofy proprietary Bose nonsense.

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