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How would you connect this?

Caleb R

Caleb R

New Member
Hello to everyone smarter than me! I'm needing the help of the community. I have a 1960s Magnavox Stereo with working turntable, reel to reel, and the option to send the audio to external speakers. The back has screw terminals posts. How would you connect this to a pair of external speakers that have RCA inputs? See pics for detail. There are only 3 posts with screws, so how would you connect speaker wire to this setup? The terminal on the upper right has 2 wires going into it. Any advice would be appreciated! I love this stereo and want to learn more about how it works.
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Greetings & Welcome!

Pretty simple actually: The common screw or "C" is also the negative connection for both external speakers. Since the bottom "C" slot is empty, just use the one directly above it as the "C" or negative connection for both left & right external speakers.

So with your external speakers, make sure both the minus(-) or negatives of both your external speakers are connected together and connect them to the top right "C" screw.

Connect your left external speaker positive to the top left "CH1" screw and your right external speaker positive to the bottom "CH2" screw.

Since your external speakers have RCA input jacks, you will need to buy or make a pair of wires that have RCA male jacks on one end and just plain wires on the other end to connect to the terminal screws on the console.

That's it!

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Caleb R said:
(...) a pair of external speakers that have RCA inputs (...)
Click to expand...

What kind of speakers would we be talking about? Regular, passive speakers, the cables of which just happen to be terminated with RCA plugs - or rather active/powered speakers?

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
What @cademan said. Guessing at one point this had another terminal and it got pushed through somehow. Either way, both negative on the C terminal, + on the appropriate left and right terminals. No big deal.
 
As Gadget says. Maybe there was a forth wire that got dislodged at some point. I would look around in that area. See if it's floating around in there. If there is, wouldn't want it to cause a short in future. If it contacted wrong place.
Nice console.
 
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Thanks for the insight and advice! To throw a curveball at you, I am attempting to connect this to a Sonos Port so I can stream the turntable around the house using the Sonos system. Anyone ever attempted something like this?
 
With the Sonos, you would need to connect it to something with a line level or tape record output.

Since you say your console has the reel to reel deck, you're going to have to use some Y adapters coming off of the tape record line or just use the tape record jacks coming off of the receiver itself.

Or...if you don't need to use the tape deck to record, just get a pair of double ended RCA patchords and plug them into the record jacks straight off of the receiver going to the Sonos.
 
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could also use a speaker to line level converter, though the volume control on the console would also affect the levels on the Sonos speakers.

Tape out would be steady level though.
 
Here is a pic of the tape deck audio you are referencing. Are these inputs or outputs? Do you think if I ran RCA outs from either of these to the Sonos it would work?IMG_5682.jpg
 
You will use the two jacks on the metal plate that say, "REC". This stands for RECord which is tape out.

All four grey male wires are from the tape deck itself so just unplug the two in the REC jacks and use your own double ended RCA patch cords from there to your Sonos.

REC is output. PLAY is input. You want output.
 
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Nothing to add technically, just a comment: that is a beautiful piece of furniture. Hope everything goes well with your wiring.
 
Ya'll are the best. Truly making me feel welcome for asking basic questions. Can't wait to get home from work tonight and tinker around on this some more. I'll report back with my progress. I purchased a Rega Phono Mini PreAmp that arrives today, because I wasn't sure if I would need to amplify the signal from this. But now it sounds like that may not be necessary.
 
Phono preamps are designed to take output from a moving magnet cartridge and amplify it with the proper EQ curve. This uses a ceramic cartridge with different output that doesn't need the EQ. You could use that preamp if you wanted to convert the changer to using a mag cartridge. Quite possibly it would sound better, but I seem to remember these use a non-standard mounting so you'd have to figure out the particulars of how to mount it up.
 
Wow! Just followed the advice from @cademan and dropped the needle. It sounds incredible! This has been a goal for over 3 years and I’m so happy! Thank you for your clear directions and patience for an audio newbie.
 
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