# PA Speakers with Home Theater Receiver?



## Illusion

Hi, I have come by two Pyle 1600W Peak / 800W RMS Pro Audio DJ speakers (Don't worry, I didn't pay for them...), and was wondering if there was any way I could run them off of my Yamaha HTR-5280. (500w, 5.1) The back of the Pyle's have two 1/4 and two speakon jacks, and I read somewhere that a speakon cable is basically a black and white (red) inside, and it is possible to cut the speakon and plug in the black/red bare wire to the receiver, or do the same with the 1/4. I am confused because some PA speakers have bare wire spring jacks and some don't, which leads me to believe they are powered the same way as home theater speakers. I have looked all over the internet but cannot find a specific answer... is it possible (if so, how), to use my PA speakers (dual 1/4 & speakon) with my Yamaha HT receiver? Thanks.


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## tcarcio

First welcome to the Shack IOP, I run Pa speakers for my mains and they will work with your reciever but you really need more power to get them to perform to their ability. I run seperate pro amps and just use my reciever as a pre-amp. You can get cable that will go from rca to 1/4 trs at www.monoprice.com so you can hook them up directly to your reciever without having to cut wire. Hope that helps.....


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## Illusion

Thanks for the reply. I have seen mention of preamps where ever I go, but still do not understand how they work. From what I understand, if you use a separate amp (or two) with the PA speakers, the receiver still controls the sound levels, but the amp actually powers the speakers? Also, you said to use a 1/4 to RCA for the speakers, this may be a stupid question, but is RCA the same as bare speaker wire? If not, would I not be plugging the PA speakers into the normal speaker terminals? Thanks.


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## tcarcio

Your reciever has what is called pre-outs you can use those to connect an outside amp. You just go from the pre-outs to the amp and then to the speakers. This is an RCA to 1/4 trs cable that you could use.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Phone-1-4-to-RCA-Cables/ci/4187/N/4294544136


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## Illusion

Okay, so now I understand how to hook it up using addition amp(s). If I wanted to go straight from the receiver to the speakers, how would that be done? Sorry, I'm kind of new to this stuff :huh:


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## tonyvdb

You can buy solder on speakon connectors so you can just attach regular speaker wire to them and power the speakers off the receivers built in amps however I would not push it very hard as the Pyles require a fair bit more power than your receiver can produce and will overload it if pushed hard.


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## Illusion

I have had to retype this like 3 times because the website keeps redirecting me and not saving the draft, so I will make this short and sweet. I have a very tight budget, I do not know if this is a typo, but it says this Pyle amp does x2 70w 8Ohms and x2 100w 4Ohms while it being marketed as a "2200W amp". Since it does two channels 70W, would I be better off using my receiver (x5 100W)? My receiver is a Yamah HTR-5280 and the amp is a PYLE PZR6XA. Thanks.


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## tcarcio

I would use your reciever before anything made by Pyle, in my opinion they are junk. If you could spend a bit more then this would be much better than that Pyle of junk....http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BEHRINGER-EP-1500-1400w-DJ-POWER-AMPLIFIER-EP1500_W0QQitemZ350238101883QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518bd1517b


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## Illusion

Okay thanks, I just have a few more questions. Why are car subwoofer amps so much cheaper than the amps used for PA speakers? Are they built to handle lower frequencies or something, or would a car amp work with the Pyle speakers? Also, to connect the speakers straight to the receiver, I'm not really sure if these would do the job, but I couldn't find any other "solder on speakon connectors".

I found these cables, and think these would work but if there's a simple adapter I can buy I'd rather not have to buy two of these.
-amazon.com/Gauge-Professional-Speaker-Speakon-Banana/dp/B000V1RLLE/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1261941728&sr=1-14

These are the adapters that I don't know will work.
-amazon.com/Hosa-NL2FC-Speakon-Plug-Bulk/dp/B0029OSNRM/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1261941818&sr=1-7
Thanks.

Sorry, not letting me post links again so I remove the beginning of the links. :/


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## tcarcio

You need to go to the post padding thread and post a few times and then you can add links. I can't answer about car amps as I don't use them but I know they don't go lower in fq so it might have something to do with how they are powered. AC vs DC.


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## oposky2006

Get a couple NL2FC (2 pole) Speakon® cables, cut and bare the wire at one end to go on the receiver's speaker terminals. Whether your receiver has enough muscle to power these monsters to more than polite volume level without problem is an open question


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## jackfish

tcarcio said:


> I run Pa speakers for my mains and they will work with your reciever but you really need more power to get them to perform to their ability.


Those Pyle DJ/Pro Audio speakers have an efficiency rating of 98dB/1w/1m which should attain pretty loud levels even with an optimistically rated 100 wpc AV receiver. +1 on oposky2006's speaker wire solution.

Car subwoofer amps are, well, car subwoofer amps, designed for providing high peak power in a limited bandwidth. Forget about 'em for home audio.


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## samhouch

tcarcio said:


> ...they will work with your reciever but you really need more power to get them to perform to their ability. I run seperate pro amps and just use my reciever as a pre-amp.


I've been pondering this same setup...
5.1 home theater/DVD player > PA speakers:
taking 2 speaker outputs from the home theater (FL, FR) > to a stereo amp (1) > to 2 PA apeakers placed FL, FR
taking 2 speaker outputs from the home theater (RR, RL) > to a 2nd stereo amp (2) > to 2 PA speakers placed RR and RL
and taking 2 speaker outputs from the home theater (Center, sub) > to a third stereo amp (3) > to a PA speaker placed center and a PA subwoofer.

I was hoping this would provide 5.1 surround sound for large venue movie watching (community pool)



Illusion said:


> From what I understand, if you use a separate amp (or two) with the PA speakers, the receiver still controls the sound levels, but the amp actually powers the speakers?


The receiver will still have a volume control, controlling the input level(s) into the amp(s); and the the amp(s) will also have their own gain (volume) control for each of their output channels to the speakers. The receiver is thus feeding the amp, and yes the amp is powering the speakers.



Illusion said:


> Also, you said to use a 1/4 to RCA for the speakers, this may be a stupid question, but is RCA the same as bare speaker wire? If not, would I not be plugging the PA speakers into the normal speaker terminals? Thanks.


RCA is a specific type of plug-in connector, with a center post encircled by a slightly extended collar, as is found on a red/white/yellow A/V composite cable, or a red/blue/green component cable, or a red/white stereo cable.
Use whatever the receiver's output connector type on one end of a wire (or stripped if it's a spring clamp), changed over on the other end to whatever the amp's input connector requires (like a 1/4" perhaps). Then use the amp's output connection type to the speaker's input type. Each cable end does not have to be the same on both ends, and you can either purchase a cable that already has the right combinations of ends, buy an adapter to change any particular end, or cut off and install a new end to fit your needs.


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## tcarcio

samhouch said:


> I've been pondering this same setup...
> 5.1 home theater/DVD player > PA speakers:
> taking 2 speaker outputs from the home theater (FL, FR) > to a stereo amp (1) > to 2 PA apeakers placed FL, FR
> taking 2 speaker outputs from the home theater (RR, RL) > to a 2nd stereo amp (2) > to 2 PA speakers placed RR and RL
> and taking 2 speaker outputs from the home theater (Center, sub) > to a third stereo amp (3) > to a PA speaker placed center and a PA subwoofer.
> 
> First welcome to the forum. Just remember if you are going to use pa amps or pro amps they need more voltage input then consumer home theater amps in order to reach their power rating. In some cases you need to put a line level box in line before the amp. If you find that you are not getting the power out of the amps that you think you should be you probably need to do it. The art cleanbox or samson s-convert are two of them but there are others.


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## samhouch

Ahhhh, so there's the foil...
The speaker output level from the home theater is not strong enough to feed the amp?
Do you know the comparitive values for a home theater's speaker outputs compared to a device's line level output? I'm assuming a device's "line level" output is what the amp is expecting as its input?
If the amp's input is too weak, that would force the user to jack up the amp's gain to compensate, which is detrimental to the amp? or would the low input be so low as to not result in danger to the amp, but just be inadequate for the desired volume levels at the speakers?
Thanks for the welcome. Grateful to have some answers to my own lingering questions. Saves me a bunch of trial and error money .


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## lsiberian

tcarcio said:


> Just remember if you are going to use pa amps or pro amps they need more voltage input then consumer home theater amps in order to reach their power rating. In some cases you need to put a line level box in line before the amp. If you find that you are not getting the power out of the amps that you think you should be you probably need to do it. The art cleanbox or samson s-convert are two of them but there are others.


To clarify this depends on the receiver. Some receivers have excellent pre-outs that do just fine in driving the amps. I do wish they'd use balanced pre-outs instead of RCA's though.


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## tcarcio

lsiberian said:


> To clarify this depends on the receiver. Some receivers have excellent pre-outs that do just fine in driving the amps. I do wish they'd use balanced pre-outs instead of RCA's though.


Absolutley, thats why I said "if you find" in my post but you said it clearer so there is no misunderstanding the issue. I had to use them with my Pioneer for it to work correctly.


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## tcarcio

samhouch said:


> Ahhhh, so there's the foil...
> The speaker output level from the home theater is not strong enough to feed the amp?
> Do you know the comparitive values for a home theater's speaker outputs compared to a device's line level output? I'm assuming a device's "line level" output is what the amp is expecting as its input?
> If the amp's input is too weak, that would force the user to jack up the amp's gain to compensate, which is detrimental to the amp? or would the low input be so low as to not result in danger to the amp, but just be inadequate for the desired volume levels at the speakers?
> Thanks for the welcome. Grateful to have some answers to my own lingering questions. Saves me a bunch of trial and error money .


Correct, some Avr's do not put out enough voltage for the amp to put out it's full power. I know that in my pro amps they need 1.4 volts at minimum to work at their fullest. Home theater Avr's vary so there is nothing written in stone for the outputs as far as I know. If the input is too low you will find yourself turning evrything up but it won't hurt the amp. It just won't work correctly.


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