My old setup, which was 5.1 and comprised of some good quality speakers were taken down and put into some boxes (not sure why yet), but the wires left in their place.

So since then i've just listened to music through my guitar amp.

Today i got bored and took apart a small shower speaker thing, which had two small speakers in it. The speakers are quite small and not very powerful but i noticed that i can connect the wires which were used with my old speakers, to these small ones.

So i just cellotaped one of the speakers into one of the "stands" in the wall, as you can see above. And i just left the two wires touching two metal parts on the back.

I did the same with the other speaker to another one of the stands.
Both speakers are on the left side of my room as, for some uknown reason, the wires on the left side of the room are louder then on the right. And as the speakers are already quite small and quiet its better on the louder side.

I then thought that it would be awesome to have my guitar amp connected too, i tried to connect it in the same way as the two smaller speakers (connecting the two wires to two pieces of metal inside the amp, on the back of the speaker) but it wouldnt work, im guessing due to not getting any power that way.
So i cut a 3.5mm cable open and connected two cables from my previous speakers onto the two cables inside the 3.5mm cable. I then just cellotaped them together, connected it to an adapter and plugged it into my amp's input slot



You can see the original cable(black) connecting to the 3.5mm cable(green/yelow) with cellotape(lump next to the red line)

As this worked i then thought that i should connect the cable which used to connect to the centre speaker, to my monitor speakers as thats centre/right infront of me.
So using the same method as with the amp, i took apart a 3.5mm cable and connected it with cellotape to the centre cable.

You can see the cable(white/silver) then the cellotape(brown) and then the original centre wire(black).

But now i have a problem :/ My amp is constantly giving off that interferance sound (scccrrrrrsssshhhhhh) And im not sure how do get rid of it. Sometimes i just twist the cable around at the cellotaped part and it gets a bit clearer.
What should i do to get rid of the interference? Perhaps not using cellotape and something else?

If it gets better when you twist the cable at the cellotaped part, chances are it's where the signal isn't clean because of where you've spliced the cabling together. Apart from that I have no idea as I don't know much about electric/sound cables.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

If it gets better when you twist the cable at the cellotaped part, chances are it's where the signal isn't clean because of where you've spliced the cabling together. Apart from that I have no idea as I don't know much about electric/sound cables.

Im not sure :/
I took the cellotape off, and just held the red cable against the red wire, and the black cable agaisnt the black wire. And theres mcuh less interference.

Ive also noticed if i hold the red cable against the red wire. And just hold the black wire without the black cable the amp suddenly gets louder :/
Anyone have any clue why this is?

Have you ever noticed how speakers are normally mounted in a box and not out in the open like that? There's a reason for that....

illepall

Yes
But the speakers that are out in the open cost about £10 or something.
They came free with ted baker deoderant
Although for £10 deoderant speakers they're acctually pretty decent quality and quite loud, when used how they are currently, if they were used while in their little sphere thingy then their crap.


The original casing for the speakers



Its got a curved back, with a flat bottom.


And when closed its a little sphere thing.

I could always smash the middle part so i have two sepereate half spheres, then put the speakers back in, and somehow get these to stay up on the wall stands.

But the speakers are fine how they are now XD

Its the amplifier wire im needing helps with.


Oh and you've gotta be slightly illepall to create something like i have done out of things i find around the house

Have you just taped the lose cables together or did you solder it? As the Amp is ment to amplify the weak signals from the guitar it may receives other electrical signals (from mobiles, microwaves, everything running on electricity) through the (as i understand it) unisolated cable. Try to solder it and than put stuff around it like you find in normal cables, maybe simple tin foil will work.

Quote from ACCAkut :

Have you just taped the lose cables together or did you solder it? As the Amp is ment to amplify the weak signals from the guitar it may receives other electrical signals (from mobiles, microwaves, everything running on electricity) through the (as i understand it) unisolated cable. Try to solder it and than put stuff around it like you find in normal cables, maybe simple zin foil will work.

Ahah all right then, i'll see if i can get my dad to give me his soldering kit.
If not would just simply putting zin foil around the joint of the two wires work?

had a typo, i meant tin foil
you can try it that way, but remember to put an isolation layer between it and the cables, like sticky tape

Is this a joke? You got two cheap 2.5" paper cone speakers powered by a guitar amplifier and you are complaining about interference?

Im not sure where to start...

A guitar amplifier is a really really bad amplifier for hifi use.
Cheap 2.5" paper cone speakers are really really bad for hifi use.

Its not going to sound good no matter what you do.

...Oh, i think that covers it all.

Quote from Zeeall :

Is this a joke? You got two cheap 2.5" paper cone speakers powered by a guitar amplifier and you are complaining about interference?

Took the words right out of my mouth. Aren't guitar amplifiers built to be overdriven on purpose, too? There's a reason it's called a guitar amplifier. The op could probably build a simple NPN amplifier and it'd sound better then the guitar amplifier.

I think he plugged both the small speakers as the front speakers and the amp as the rear speaker or bass. there is no connection between both other than the soundcard

Can you explain where these wires are connected from? You've explained how you've stuck speakers on the ends of two of them and another one has gone in to the input of your guitar amp but what are the other end of these wires connected too? Any chance of a diagram of how it's all wired together and to what??

First thoughts are, you should always at least twist the bare wires together before wrapping in selotape, (not ideal but won't be the cause of any noise). If you have bare wire and speaker tabs (what those metal bits on the backs of the speakers are called) then they should really be soldered together.

I suspect the problem is relating to the output of whatever your driving the wires plugged in to the input of your guitar amp with. You may well be overdriving the input, (given that it's designed for a guitar pickup not an actual driven circuit output stage of a sound card or whatever).

In my room i used to have the Bose Acoustimass 5.1 Speaker System
http://www.bose.co.uk/GB/en/ho ... le-speakers/AM5/index.jsp

Their are 5 wires in total. 2 Being used by the 2 small speakers, 1 being used by the monitor, the other being used by the amp. The fifth one is doing nothing.

All the wires DO NOT connect to the amp.
They all connect to this subwoofer


At the back of it, their is a place for all the wires to go.


And then from their one of the wires(Completely different one from the speaker wires) from this subwoofer goes through this mess of wires to....


The bottom amplifier thingy.


Heres a diagram.



Also i know the sound quality is going to be rubbish whatever i do, but this is only a temporary solution until i get new speakers.
So in the meantime id like to try and get my amp to sound clearish.





Edit: Also im not complaining about interference in the smaller cone speakers, nor any interference in the monitor. All of those are fine.
Its just interference in the Guitar Amp.

Quote from Migz :

Edit: Also im not complaining about interference in the smaller cone speakers, nor any interference in the monitor.

Wait, you have the guitar amplifier connected to another amplifier? That's your problem right there! You cannot connect a speaker-level output to a line/phono level input. Same with the speakers on your monitor. That's NOT a speaker level input. It's a line-level input. Also, doesn't the subwoofer have an amplifier built into it? Why would you plug other speakers into the amplifier? Or is it a passive speaker system, so there's an external amplifier somewhere? If that's the case, then what's with all those wires plugged into the back of the amplifier? Oh, and make sure you don't melt a speaker coil. I ran 12W RMS or so through a PC speaker (the kind that makes teh beeps in your computer), and the coil actually melted in one place, and proceeded to short, thereby making the whole thing start smoking. Luckily it had really high impedance to begin with, and the short didn't over-power my amplifier.

So the reason im having interference is because my Guitar Amp is connected to another amp?
I dont even know if the other thing is an amp, its so old i have no clue what to call it :/
Are you sure its an amp? Or are you just calling it an amp because i said it was an amp?
As i honestly have no clue what it is lol.

But surely if its the same with my monitor then why is my monitor not giving off interference?

I have one question for you, do you mean distortion? Interference is when a signal un-intentionally is recieved by a circuit. Interference can cause distortion, but disortion isn't necessarily from interference.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

I have one question for you, do you mean distortion? Interference is when a signal un-intentionally is recieved by a circuit. Interference can cause distortion, but disortion isn't necessarily from interference.

Both really, but not normal guitar distortion. The sound was just crap, it didnt sound like it was being guitar distorted lol.

The problem constantly changed though. Sometimes there would be no sound coming through, id twist the wire, then there was sound, but then it was distorted, id twist the wire it went fine for a bit, then i started hearing radio through my amp (Which i thought were dead people talking so i absolutely SHAT my pants), and then i twisted my wire and ti went fine.

I think ive now got it sorted though, i cellotaped the wires together then put foil around the connection. Then just cellotaped that down.
All the other problems have now gone, just an annoying humming sound stays.

Well, I really don't suggest you chain three amplifiers together in the way that you are doing so. Everything will probably be fine, but any sort of loud volumes and something is probably going to overheat IMO.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

Well, I really don't suggest you chain three amplifiers together in the way that you are doing so. Everything will probably be fine, but any sort of loud volumes and something is probably going to overheat IMO.

How does my monitor count as an amplifier? :/
And i dont put the volume over a certain level anyway, as over that level everything just sounds crap lol.

Quote from Migz :

In my room i used to have the Bose Acoustimass 5.1 Speaker System
http://www.bose.co.uk/GB/en/ho ... le-speakers/AM5/index.jsp

well there's your problem! bose sucks! alot!

http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

Quote from Zeeall :

well there's your problem! bose sucks! alot!

http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

Thats definitly not the problem as it was just the wires catching intereference or something.

But thanks for the link, ive read it all and bookmarked it. And shall use it whenever my dad says that the bose speakers he bought for my room and the lounge are amazing and probably way better then the Logitech z-5500's that i want to get.

Quote from Migz :

So the reason im having interference is because my Guitar Amp is connected to another amp?

Yes, that's your problem. The subwoofer has a built in amplifier, the output of your amplifier in to the subwoofer is going to be at around 500mv, the sub then amplifies this signal and outputs it to the speakers, likely at around several volts (whatever the power rails of the amp are - depends on the design). Now your guitar amp is only built to accept inputs from guitar pickups, which at most are around the same level as the output of your other amplifier. So what is happening is that you're overloading the input of your guitar amplifier, this is what's causing the distortion noise your getting from it. You need to use a normal speaker instead of the guitar amp on the end of those wires.