anyone know about making cords with bare speaker wire?

[dman5000]

i found these old bose speakers on trash day... they work
they have the bare speaker wire input cuz theyre old.... im wanting to hook the bare ends into a 1/4 jack so i can use em with my mixer as monitors...
i got the bare wire and the empty no solder 1/4 jacks (mono).... i hooked it all up and it works... but its super quiet..........
normally i would just guess that the speakers need a pre-amp.. but would that be true coming out of a mixer that plugs into the wall? i did what test i could by plugging them into my pa head which is def powered and it was way too much like you could hear it thru the speakers with the vol all the way down....
could i be using the wrong gauge speaker wire and thats making it quiet?
do i actually need the stereo 1/4 plugs?
the speakers might just be worn out hence they were on the sidewalk...

if anyone knows about this stuff please respond back and i can go into more detail and pictures if you can help

[greencarpet]

you could try using banana plugs.
alot of that has to do with the watts too.
the bigger the speaker the more watt you need.
prolly need an amp.
id just go to good will and get a 10buck home stereos and hook that shit to yer shit via rca.
hope i could help.

[dman5000]

that did in help in as far as using the speakers in my general life.. but id like to have em as monitors if i can, so for that they have to run from my usb mixer/interface.. i dunno might jsut keep saving for real monitors..

[wax inspektor]

how big are those speakers? Generally you could say that the bigger the (passiv-)speaker the more power you`ll need from your mixer to get a proper volume without an amp... If the speakers are alright, why don`t you just get a hifi-amp or a radio with line-in...? Good monitors are really expensive and cheap ones prolly aren't better than the ones you already have...


*
lol

should have read greencarpets comment...

[dman5000]

the speakers are pretty regular home stereo size like about a foot high. ... if i was to run my mixer thru a stereo to power the speakers would that stereo color the sound at all?

[cartesia]

usually home stereos colour the sound yes,
but some have an EQ setting called 'flat' which will help a bit..

at the end of the day speakers you picked up off the street wont have flat response anyway, so you can really use whatever amp you want.

[dman5000]

yeah probably just gonna stick with using them as home stereo speakers and save for monitors then... thanks to all who helped