Hey everyone, my friend just gave me some old stereo speakers and I want to hook them up to my computer. The only problem is that the speakers use those bare lead things (looks like regular wire with with a lot of tiny wires sticking out, and thers 2 for each speaker). Do any of you know of any adapter that has 3.5mm input and the bare leads thing output??

Already checked Radio Shack btw.

you could just harvest that from an old pair of headphones...
but there's a problem with your idea, headphones work at around 32 ohms those speakers probably work at 4 or 8 ohms this is not good it would most likely burn out the tiny amplifier on your sound card, also you will want an amplifier of some sort, a sound card doens't push all that much power for a pair of speakers....

You need to get yourself a cheap amplifier. Back in the day, I ran an AWE32 into a Yamaha amp and pumped it through a pair of Optimus Mach II's. That was when Duke Nukem and Heretic was popular. When that shotgun blast went off, car alarms in the neighborhood would also.

Anyway, use a cheap amp. You could probably find one for almost nothing.

thanks big akita. Where would i start looking for an amp?

thry looking at ebay first and www.stereoreview.com,half .com,local pawn shops ,old record stores (note record stores,places that sell cds dont usually have amps),radio shaft has some ok ones,you could be a pimp and build your own if you know alot about reading schematics (do a search for dyi amps.) look for either a yahama or denon they usually go for a good price (got a duel mono denon for 100 bucks)

i once hooked up a 12" sub with an old headphones wire. I cut the headphones off because they were broken split the ends and connected it to the sub. Then plugged it into the back of my computer and it worked GREAT!!!

A few things to consider for ya... How good are the speakers, do you know? No sense putting a crappy amp behind great speakers. As for amps, you can head one of two ways, go totaly vintage and get yourself a sweet tube based amp or jump on the digital band wagon and get yourself something with alot of inputs that will eventually handle 5.1 surround sound or better.
If you're a music fanatic and love live music go vintage, there is no comparsion to the warmth and tone on a tube amp. If you're mostly going to be gaming and blasting dance and techno music go digital, more boom for ya.
If you've got mediocre speakers and aren't hard core into sound any old thing will do. BTW i've got a Sony 5.1 jobbie i'm looking to get rid of if you're interesed.

thanks for the info paige. Im mostly just gonna use the speakers for like basic music listening while im chatting or whatever. My friend has an old amp that he might be able to trade me for a USR 56k modem and a floppy drive lol. thanks. any other posts with info would be much appreciated.