Standard 3.5mm jack to Speakon possible?

[pgudge]

Hi,

Got a new office and there are speakers in the ceiling, with this port on the wall:



The VGA/Video goes to the Projector, and this other port is a Speakon 2pole socket apparently. Can a 3,5mm jack to Speakon cable/converter/adapter connected to a phone, or mp3 device to power the speakers, or am I going to need an amplifier?

Thanks,

Paul.

[wasabi]

You need an amp in the middle unless your speaker is about 3 cm wide and designed strictly for personal sit-beside-it use.

[scaryjim]

Without know more about the setup - particularly the speakers - it's impossible to say. However, it seems *unliklely* that anyone would've used a speakon connection for active speakers, so the chances are you'd need an amplifier* to power the speakers (at which point you'll need to find out the impedance and power limits of the speakers to match an appropriate amp.

if in doubt, get it checked over by a professional.

*an aside - if you want to get an adapter the chances are you won't damage anything trying to run the speakers off an MP3 player. Also, a lot of speakon connectors are dual-wired so you can use a quater-inch (6.3mm) jack in the centre *or* a speakon. So a cheap way to check would be get a 3.5mm to 6.3mm lead and see if that works.

[peterb]

As scaryjim says, some speakon connectors have standard jacks in the centre - it isn't easy to tell from the photo, but that was my first thought when I looked at the picture.

[pgudge]

Thanks guys. I ordered a connector from eBay, however it doesn't fit in the hole (the connector is too wide) On looking at the listing again, the Title says 6.5mm and the description mentions 6.35mm. Does a 6.5mm Jack exist, or is this probably just a misprint, and this Speakon doesn't support the 6.35mm port?

[peterb]

6.35mm is 1/4 inch, which is the standard audio tip and ring jack size. If that doesn't fit the centre hole on the speakon connector, then the connector isn't comparable.

You may ned something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neutrik-Spea...peakon+adapter