This section describes how to wire your system setup. There are a number of ways to do this depending on what equipment you have. With decks and mixers the jacks are usually the same but when wiring through amplifiers and stereos it can be different.

The diagram below shows the way I have my bedroom wired up. There are a number of ways that I could have done it but for recording purposes I chose this method.

The first thing to do is check that you have all the cables that you need and also the right length. It is always a good idea to separate the equipment as much as you can. If it is all crammed together you can get equipment interference which may cause a humm noise through the speakers. This can also be caused by a bad earth somewhere in the wiring so take your time.

Firstly I will explain how I wired my system up and refer to the diagram. Some of this will also apply to everyone.

Decks to Mixer

The turntables will usually have two phono RCA jack sockets on the back one white one red, and also a screw for the earth. Some decks have the cables built in and earthed such as the Soundlab DLP32 so you don't need to worry about cables. If they aren't then you need 2 phono-phono leads with ground wires for each deck. These should have come with the decks as part of a package. Make sure the colours match Red/Red White or Black/White or Black and the ground lead is securely fastened. If you find sound coming through the wrong channels then you might have connected the wrong colours up.

Now look on the back of the mixer. You should see the phono jacks similar to the ones on the back of the decks. There should also be a similar screw for the ground leads. You should see four inputs for each channel your mixer has. Usually they are labeled CH1, CH2, CH3. There are two connections - one is Phono and the other is Line. Plug the leads from the left deck into the Phono inputs on channel 1 (make sure the colours match). Plug the leads from the right deck into the Phono inputs on channel 2 of the mixer. Take both ends of the ground leads and tighten them on the screw mechanism - make sure they are tight or you get the speaker humm. Make sure that the input switches on your mixer are set to Phono or you will get no sound.

Mixer to Stereo

In my setup I have connected the mixer to the stereo for recording tapes. If you look on the back of your mixer you will see two connections for AMP or MASTER. Again you will need two Phono to Phono leads but no ground leads usually. Try and get a decent shielded cable here. Connect the lead to the mixer matching the colours in the amp or master sockets depending on what mixer you have and from there to the AUX on the back of your stereo. If you have no AUX then you will need to buy an amp.

Stereo to Amp

From the stereo you can go straight to the speakers and it will work OK. What I have done is disconnected all speakers from the stereo and instead driven them with the amp. What I have done is got a single headphone style jack plug that goes to two phono jacks - look below:

The single jack goes into the headphone socket on the front of the stereo and then into any channel on the rear of the amplifier. Make sure the amplifier is switched to the channel that you have it wired to.

Amp to Speakers

Depending on the type of amp you have you are limited to how many speakers you can have connected. What you need is a good length of high quality speaker cable. Not the crap that came with the stereo. On the back of the amp you will have red and black holes to clamp the copper of the speaker cable into. Make sure the colours match up when connecting the other end to the speakers. Make sure left goes to left and right is right. Your mixer may have a speaker pan control so you can test the direction.

This method has worked fine for me and left plenty of room for expansion. If you are still stuck then please mail me. jonno1@cwcom.net