Ceiling Speakers Amp choices???

[bbbodger]

Hi there,

I was wondering if any of you would be so kind to help me.

I'm looking to get some speakers into my kitchen ceiling so we can cook and listen to our iPods.

I recently bought x 2 Philips (Bosch) LBC 3090/31 rated 6w/100v ceiling loudspeakers....

eBAY LINK HERE

But, i'm struggling to find out what amp I need to power them?
I really have no knowledge of this, but just want some advice on the correct amp to get. A cheap one at that! haha.

Thanks in advance.

Matt

 

[ChrisFrost]

These type of speakers are known as "100Volt Line" speakers. They don't work like Hi-Fi speakers. 100V Line is used for spreading sound over a large area by daisy-chaining speakers. You can't do this with a normal amp and conventional 8-Ohm ceiling speakers as the power drops too quickly over distance.

The trade-off with 100V Line is sound quality. It's more like AM radio compared to FM. 100V line s better suited to PA and background "muzak" rather than HiFi listening.

What you need to drive these 100V Line speakers is a 100V Line amplifier. You'll find most of them (and certainly all the cheap ones I have seen) are mono

 

[OwainDIYer]

As far as I can see from the instructions here

http://www.pacat.co.uk/PDFs/Loudspeakers/Ceiling/B_lsp_ceil_InstructionBook_LBC395051.pdf

That speaker is for 100V line public address systems and doesn't have 8ohm terminals for domestic audio speaker systems.

Unless the drive unit itself is 8ohm and you can remove the transformer from circuit it will be unsuitable.

If you use 100V line, multiply the number of speakers you have x 6W and add about 10-20% spare for the amplifier power. Eg this one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Millbank-Tali...Elec_SpeakersPASystems_RL&hash=item4cf348e606

would do 4 speakers. (The sound will be mono)

 

[GreenlightAV]

The replies set out so far are correct in that the speakers are designed to run from a 100V line amplifier. They are designed to allow multiple speakers to be run on a single amplifier output so they are commonly used for public address systems over a wide area.

However, on the rear of the speaker is a transformer that takes the 100V input and converts it to a standard speaker level. If you remove the transformer you will be left with a pair of wires that will drive the speaker directly. The speaker is almost certainly an 8 ohm model and can be driven from any domestic amplifier. As ChrisFrost mentioned, there will be a small loss of power with a long speaker cable but in most houses, the length won't be sufficient to cause any noticeable loss. The speakers are only rated at 6 watts each so an amplifier that has more than 10W per channel output will drive them with no problem at all.

Be aware that these speakers won't be the best quality you have ever heard but for background music in a kitchen, they will probably do just fine.

 

[bbbodger]

thanks so much for all your replies, I really am grateful!

Ok, so i've got one of these bad boys at home and have wired it as suggested by GreenlightAV (by removing the transformer and wiring direct to the amp) and i've still got no sound.

Any ideas?
Sorry for the lazy replies, thanks again!

 

[OwainDIYer]

Have you tried the amplifier with other speakers that are known to work?

Hav eyou tried the speakers with another amp that is known to work?

Do you get any reading if you put a voltmeter across the amp input and output terminals?

 

[GreenlightAV]

Follow OwainDIYer's suggestions but you might want to confirm that your audio source is working as well. Connect it with the same cables into another amplifier and that should confirm that you have a good source.

As the amplifier appears to be a digital one, using a meter across the outputs may work but it can also deliver some misleading results. Also, if you have a meter that can measure resistance, check for continuity in the speaker. By measuring across the two speaker wires, you should expect to get a reading of between 1 and 3 ohms if the speaker is an 8 ohm model. Don't worry too much about the exact reading - what you are hoping to confirm is that the speaker isn't open circuit or a dead short.

When you have done all the tests, you should have identified the location of the problem. Drop us a line at that time and I'm sure that one of us can direct you a little further.

 

[StretchArmstrong]

hi matt,

not meaning to be awkward, but perhaps send them back to the ebay seller, perhaps as faulty, perhaps as unclearly advertised, and buy yourself some proper Hifi ceiling speakers, I bet the sound quality and ease of connectivity will make it worthwhile. ?