• Registered: 2008-09-12
  • Posts: 45

Topic: Power small speakers from phones sockets.

OK, I want to do a stupid thing, and I'd like to check just how stupid it is before I do it.
I'd like to run a pair of small speakers from the headphone sockets on my ADI-2 PRO fs.
Clearly there's a lot of power available on the headphone outputs. (I won't be using the outputs on the back for anything if I do this).

I've looked at the spec's and my guess is that the issue with using balanced phones mode (one side per speaker) is that the lowest impedance the output is expecting in high power mode is 150 Ohms. But in low-power mode it's 8ohms, which is, of course the nominal impedance of many speakers.

I'm not expecting anything loud, I just want to know:
(a) is it possible - will it work without burning anything out?
(b) how to wire the plugs - balanced phones mode is obviously 3 pins for what would be a 2-wire speaker cable.

Don't ask me why. Just tell me if it's possible, what the problems are and how to do it wink

Thanks

2 Reply by DominicPerry (edited by DominicPerry 2019-09-02 14:47:02)

  • Registered: 2008-09-12
  • Posts: 45

Re: Power small speakers from phones sockets.

OK, well I've found the wiring diagram in the manual for balanced-phones mode and I have the specs, and given there are no objections here, I'll see what happens.

  • Registered: 2019-03-05
  • Posts: 84

Re: Power small speakers from phones sockets.

It depends on what is the real frequency dependent impedance and phase of your speakers and how much current they will suck from RME unit.

RME people must say how the unit behaves once the hunger for current goes over its limitps. It can overheat and switch itself off before damage or overheat and burn or hard limit the signal not to be overloaded... Many possibilities.