[Doug Freyburger]

says...

We have a new TV (finally replaced the last non-HD set in the house)
and it has speakers in the back. The sound echoes in the cabinet and
it sounds off. That and TV speakers blow even to my uncritical ear.

Since PC speakers are cheap I took a pair off the shelf figuring I'd be
able to get a Y cable to convert from the separate red and white RCA
jacks on the back of the TV to the stereo 3.5 mm headphone/PC jack on
the back of the speakers.

Don Pearce wrote:

Frankly, PC speakers are going to be very little better than those
already in the TV.

To me uncritical ear they are better than the TV speakers. If I get
this working then I spring for $30 speakers which will be plenty good
for this particular purpose.

Do you not have a Hi Fi in the room that you could connect the TV to?

In another room. Since it's partially working I'm already far enough
down the path I am unlikely to move it to check.

No luck, the Y cable only gave me one channel. I hoped the wiring would
be there for both channels but apparently it's not. I tried a lot of
stations in case that one happened to be broadcasting in mono. Still no
luck.

Are there specific Y connectors I should get to be able to do this? I
don't think it should take a mixing circuit because I start with two
mono signals on the RCA jacks and end with a stereo signal on the 3.5 mm
jack. That should be 4 conductors.

whosbest54 wrote:

What make and model TV? If it has a stereo pair of line level outputs
then that should work with the proper adapter for stereo amplified PC
speakers, provided the speakers use a male 3 conductor (common ground)
mini plug, like the plug for most headphones these days. So, the proper
Y-adaptor is 2 RCA plugs to a single female 3 conductor mini plug.

At Frys I only found one type of Y connector. I will check at another
store to see if they have others. It does appear that I purchased a
mono Y with the wrong number of conductors.

Perhaps the Y-adaptor is the wrong one and it adapts to a 2-conductor
mono female connection or there's an issue with the plugs not making a
good connection. Did you try reversing the connection to the TV and see
if it changes channels? If it doesn't change channels, then you know the
problem isn't with the TV but with the adaptor or the speakers.

You can test the TV line level outs by connecting them to a stereo line
level input on an amp or receiver if you have one available.

Will do. Also thanks to Dave Platt for the response.