I just bought a pretty basic $100 Sherwood Receiver and now I'm trying to hook it up to the speakers that belonged to my old stereo. Two 10" speakers, 100W, 8 Ohms. I think they're from the mid-80s. Don't know much more than that. (I bought them at a pawn shop a few years ago.)
The problem is that each speaker is connected to a single RCA phono plug and the receiver will only accept speaker wire in spring clips (with + and - terminals separated).
Is there an adapter that will help me connect the two?
I don't know much about electronics or stereo components, but I would like to avoid buying a different speaker or receiver if possible.
I'll take a crack at this because I know exactly what you are referring to. You can cut off the rca plug and if I'm not mistaken, the wire should have a seam down the middle. Split the wire down that seam and strip the two parts. Now you have your connections. The one problem is determining the positive and negative strands so that you can connect in phase. I'm not a technician so I don't know if there is a device that can help with that. However, there are test CDs that emit signals which can help you determine correct phase. Other possibility: carefully remove the back of the speaker and try to determine where pos and neg are connected. I don't know if there is an adaptor which would allow you to convert RCA plug to standard speaker wire. Might try Radio Shack to ascertain before cutting wire. Best I can do.