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RCA connectors for whole house audio system?

Just moved into a house with a 4 zone whole house speaker system, and I need to buy an amplifier. The speaker wires appear to be attached to RCA terminals, at least my RCA cables fit into them. I have not been a able to find an amp that has RCA outputs to the speakers. This system was installed in 1993, so maybe it was non-standard, or the technology has changed since then? I'd appreciate any advice - should I try to find an amp with RCA outputs, or should I cut the speaker wire to remove the RCA termninals, and splice in to wire to reach the amplifier?

I'd also appreciate any suggestions for amps, there are 12 in wall Klipsch speakers split between 4 zones, looks like 2 speakers are the IW250 and the rest are either IW50 or IW150.

thanks for any help.
tonnesen
4 responses Add your response
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,303 posts
 
You won't find many if any high end amps with RCA connectors for speakers.

Radio Shack used to sell bare wires with male RCA's on one end. With these, if still available, you could run the bare wire out from an amp's speaker terminals and connect the male RCA on the other end to the existing RCA wire terminals, assuming these are female.

OR if you can, you can remove the existing RCA terminals and splice in wire extensions to reach the amp as you mention. IF you do this, be sure to keep track of wire polarity and run positive to positive and negative to negative.
tonnesen OP
138 posts
 
Thanks for the reply - I did buy RCA terminals at Radioshack thinking that I would solder them to speaker wire, but wondered if it's better to remove the existing RCA's and splice the wires, rather than add another RCA to the line. Do you have any advice on the best way to splice wires to get the best connection? Or would it be better to add another RCA?

Thanks
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,303 posts
 
Whatever works best or easiest for you should work fine.

R.S. may also have wires with RCAs already on one end if you want to look to save having to solder connectors.

To splice the wires, I remove 1/2-3/4 inch of insulation and wrap/twist the two endsfacing each other tightly together then wrap with electrical tape to protect and alleviate stress that might otherwise loosen the connection. You can solder the connection if desired but I find it is not necessary.
elevick
2,636 posts
 
You're gonna need a lot more than just an amp. Do you have a multi zone unit? Speaker selector? IR repeater system? Cutting the RCA's is the easy part.
You need to decide how many zones will be run at one time with different sources? A great 2 channel amp with a 6 zone selector is a lot simpler than a true 6 zone mess.
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