Sound

[grumpy2076]

Anyone give me som help, trying to hook up out side house speakers to my laptop, any ideas would be helpfull. Thanks

[chrisatpsu]

for christmas? all year round?  just for today?  the speaker (headphone) jack from the laptop can power moderately sized house speakers.  the bigger the speaker, the more likely loud wont be possible without a preamp.  as far as wiring goes, headphones use a red (right) white (left) and common (usually as a braided shielding)  you can connect your positives of two speakers to the red and white, and connect the negative to the common shield.

[MrChristmas2000]

It's not the simplest but one way would be to get a small FM transmitter to connect to the sound output of the notebook. Then you could power outside speakers from a good FM receiver. That's the way I do outside music for my shows.

If you don't have large distances a wireless speakers system might be something for you to consider.

You can look at what is available at monoprice.com

[tbone321]

for christmas? all year round?  just for today?  the speaker (headphone) jack from the laptop can power moderately sized house speakers.  the bigger the speaker, the more likely loud wont be possible without a preamp.  as far as wiring goes, headphones use a red (right) white (left) and common (usually as a braided shielding)  you can connect your positives of two speakers to the red and white, and connect the negative to the common shield.

The headphone jack is not powerful enough to drive any standard house speaker to anything more than a whisper.  You can either pick up a set of amplified PC speakers and an extension cable or you could connect your PC to your stereo thru the headphone jack on the PC to the AUX input on the stereo and let the stereo drive the speakers.  As also suggested, you could use an FM transmitter and either eliminate the speakers all together (preferred by most neighbors) or set a boom box outside tuned to your frequency.

[MrChristmas2000]

They still make boom boxes? 

[meman]

The laptop won't power large speakers on it's own, so you will be spending money on something...what that something is all depends on the size of the area you are trying to cover, your finances and eventual goals.

Simplest is to just get a cheap set of powered speakers with a subwoofer made for computers and a long extension for the standard 1/8" stereo jack. You have to protect it from the weather and not going to project real far though.
Examples:
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If you are planning to run a show, you could just use an FM transmitter and an all weather radio. Here is the setup I use..whether on foot or by car, visitors can still hear the show.  Plus I can use the radio for the rest of the year at the beach, tailgating, whatever.
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Good luck and have fun with it,
Mike E.

[chrisatpsu]

i can power 8inch woofer 4ohm house speakers from a laptop jack...

my 16's i cannot 

[meman]

i can power 8inch woofer 4ohm house speakers from a laptop jack...

You win Chris. From a purely technical standpoint my statement (and others) was incorrect; you can certainly apply power from your laptop directly to any speaker on Earth. The intensity and clarity of the sound produced will depend on that speaker...YMMV

[t.jo13]

I use a dewalt radio, spray painted black for my display. It is waterproof and has an A/V jack. I hook it up with A/V cable and will listen to internet radio out side in the backyard from the computer or smartphone in the off season. Good sound and will go as loud as you want. 

[chrisatpsu]

when you spend your teenage years with little money, but a lot of hand me down stereo stuff from your older brothers, you learn to improvise 

but, on topic...   are you sure you want to go with the live sound outside route?  depending on how your show is setup, your neighbors might get sick of hearing the music over and over again. (it's why some of us are going the fm transmitter route.)

[t.jo13]

I bought my dewalt radio at a pawn shop for 20.00, And also bought some other things ( Electric scooter for the parts, ect ) a cheap resource for some parts in our hobby. My neighbors don't mind the music, a couple even asked me to crank it up a week before christmas. I too have an FM transmitter, just haven't used it yet.

[rm357]

I have the outside live sound just loud enough to be heard from the street, but not loud enough to be heard inside. People in the car can tune to the radio, people walking down the street can hear it live. No rock concert...

RM

[Mike Hill]

Buy a cheap amp from Radioshack.  Run your plug from the laptop to the amp, and then speaker wires out to speakers.  I dis this last year and worked great.  Monopsony has great prices on rock speakers too.

[Mike Hill]

I meant Monoprice....

[jnealand]

I found an old stereo receiver in a garage sale for $15.  I run the computer output jack to the input jack on my Ramsey FM25B radio transmitter and then go from the Ramsey output jack (a pass thru signal) to an aux in jack on the receiver.  The outdoor speakers are connected to the speaker out from the receiver.  I can control the sound volume on the radio and the speakers separately which works great.