Curious, will these work for me?

[Preeminent]

Hey all, I asked this in another thread, but it kind of got lost. So I'm hoping someone can guide me the right way in here. I have a HK AVR 7.1 receiver on the way and a LG BD370 player. It looks like I'll probably be able to pick up my main right and left speakers this weekend. So my question is this: I have these old speakers from a Zenith DVD/Surround-all in one deal- from a few years ago. I would love to use these for surround for now, until I can upgrade to better. The dvd player has the red and black tabs for the positive and negative parts of the wire. Well my new receiver doesn't have those of course and am wondering how I can make these work with it? How would I go about doing it? Would I just be able to peel back the covering some and use banana clips?
Also, they are individually marked (Left front, left rear, right front etc etc) will this matter when using with my receiver?



Thanks!!!

[HAMP]

WoW!!!!

I wish you could make the pic’s a little smaller, maybe 800X600

You can use the same wires, but they really look rather thin.

If you use the same wires, just make sure you connect the positive on the back of the receiver to the positive on the speaker.

If you are considering using the old speakers for surrounds until you get others, just make sure the speakers are 8 Ohms. You wouldn’t want to mess up your new receiver with old speakers that are 3 Ohms.

[Blu-Dog]

You can connect these to your receiver with banana clips, but there might be one headache: You don't know the resistance of the speakers, in ohms.

Many of the older model speakers with the Home Theater In A Box design had odd resistance ratings. Standard for most receivers is to connect them to 8 ohm speakers. Some speakers have lower ratings - 6, or even 4 ohms - and a lower resistance rating allows more power to come from the receiver or amplifier. This can cause damage over time - sometimes right away.

Some of the older speakers that came with kits had higher resistance ratings - 10, 12, sometimes 16 ohms. This requires the receiver to push harder to provide volume. While this probably won't harm an HK receiver, you can set the volume to hear dialogue clearly, then a gunshot or car crash comes along, and the receiver will just blast those little guys to smithereens. Smoke, confusion, and bad language soon follow - not from the movie, but from you, and your equipment.

If you can buy or borrow a low-cost ohm meter (Radio Shack has them for under $20.00 for the really basic ones) you can find out the resistance rating on these speakers. If luck is good, they'll be 8 ohms. 10 is OK, six is OK, but keep the volume down. Less than six, or more than 10, just don't use them - they'll fry, and possibly cause a short on your new receiver.

You might be better off running in two channel mode anyway. They won't provide much volume, and you'll always be tempted to crank them.

Just be careful. A low volume test can't hurt, but take it very, very easy.

[Preeminent]

Awesome, very informative! Thanks guys! Sorry about the size of the pics! My little surrounds say "IMPEDANCE: 6" on them and the sub says "IMPEDANCE: 8" I'm assuming that is the ohms, but I'm going to do some searching on that. Thanks again!