Since a couple people PM'd me on this, here's what I'm doing. I have an Android phone doing my voice alerts instead of the Elk (via Vera Alerts, you need a Vera for this). But I still want the Elk to be able to use the speakers. I bought a cheap line level converter from the car audio installation dept at Best Buy for $15-20. Model number is TC-LOC2. It's NOT in the store, it's in the car audio install bay. I hooked one side of this to the Elk. Walmart sells these also, but the ones I saw all required power or were like 8 channels. I tried making one from a PDF that Elk provided to me for converting the output to line level, but the sound quality was horrible (I later figured out I used too small of a capacitor).
Make sure you order some 3.5mm male->male cords to hook things up, and you'll also need some of the big phono plug to 3.5mm adapters. Here's my order list from Parts express, I ordered some extra stuff (like 2 amps and some extra cables and adapters):
5 091-1025 DAYTON ADQS-3.5S 1/4" STEREO M TO 3.5MM STEREO F ADAPTER
1 092-157 REAN NYS231BG 3.5MM STEREO PLUG BLACK WITH GOLD PLUG
4 240-052 3.5MM MALE TO MALE SLIM-PLUG SHIELDED AUDIO CABLE 3 FT.
1 248-6304 BEHRINGER MX400 MICROMIX 4-CH LINE MIXER
1 310-300 LEPAI LP-2020A+ TRIPATH CLASS-T HI-FI AUDIO AMP W/POWER SUPP
Also keep in mind that your Elk is mono, and that all this stuff you're ordering is stereo. You're only going to use one channel on the amp, the other will not be hooked up to anything.
The mixer does not convert to stereo. So you'll have:
- Elk into the right channel on mixer port 1
- Android into both channels on mixer port 2
- Output from the mixer on both channels to the amp
- Speakers hooked ONLY to the right channel on the amp. (if you hooked them to the left, you wouldn't hear the Elk but you'd still hear the Android since it outputs stereo)
Go buy or make a male RCA to male 3.5mm mono plug to go from the Elk/line-level converter to the mixer. Radio shack should have these. I just found some parts in a bin and made one.
You need to pay attention to the speaker load when hooking them up. If you've got a bunch of the small 32 ohm speakers, you can connect up to 8 of them in parallel (that will be a 4 ohm load). If you've got some of the bigger speakers that are 8ohm, then you could only connect 2 of them in parallel. I have a mixture of stuff, so I paralleled all of my 32 ohm speakers, put my 2 8ohm speakers in series, and then paralled the 8ohm speaker loop with the 32 ohm speakers. I figured it out and it gave me like 5.63 ohms. If you get the ohm rating too low, you'll burn up the amp. I think this amp is 4 ohm stable, so don't go below that.
I think the Elk is 2ohm stable, so the way your speakers are connected now might be fine for the Elk, but not for this amp.
Do some testing to figure out the gain on the mixer. I kept my Elk and my Android both at half volume, and then set the mixer appropriately. If you set the Elk or the Android too high, you'll get hiss. I still get a tiny bit of hiss, but it's only noticeable on the larger Elk speakers for some reason, and these are in the garage, and the basement near a loud server rack. So I don't hear them. Even the one in the garage is pretty hard to hear, you have to be a couple of feet from it to hear it.
Also, these little Tripath amps are awesome. I ordered 2 and have one hooked up to some 12" Cerwin Vega floor speakers, and it sounds amazing. Especially for $20.
Make sure you order some 3.5mm male->male cords to hook things up, and you'll also need some of the big phono plug to 3.5mm adapters. Here's my order list from Parts express, I ordered some extra stuff (like 2 amps and some extra cables and adapters):
5 091-1025 DAYTON ADQS-3.5S 1/4" STEREO M TO 3.5MM STEREO F ADAPTER
1 092-157 REAN NYS231BG 3.5MM STEREO PLUG BLACK WITH GOLD PLUG
4 240-052 3.5MM MALE TO MALE SLIM-PLUG SHIELDED AUDIO CABLE 3 FT.
1 248-6304 BEHRINGER MX400 MICROMIX 4-CH LINE MIXER
1 310-300 LEPAI LP-2020A+ TRIPATH CLASS-T HI-FI AUDIO AMP W/POWER SUPP
Also keep in mind that your Elk is mono, and that all this stuff you're ordering is stereo. You're only going to use one channel on the amp, the other will not be hooked up to anything.
The mixer does not convert to stereo. So you'll have:
- Elk into the right channel on mixer port 1
- Android into both channels on mixer port 2
- Output from the mixer on both channels to the amp
- Speakers hooked ONLY to the right channel on the amp. (if you hooked them to the left, you wouldn't hear the Elk but you'd still hear the Android since it outputs stereo)
Go buy or make a male RCA to male 3.5mm mono plug to go from the Elk/line-level converter to the mixer. Radio shack should have these. I just found some parts in a bin and made one.
You need to pay attention to the speaker load when hooking them up. If you've got a bunch of the small 32 ohm speakers, you can connect up to 8 of them in parallel (that will be a 4 ohm load). If you've got some of the bigger speakers that are 8ohm, then you could only connect 2 of them in parallel. I have a mixture of stuff, so I paralleled all of my 32 ohm speakers, put my 2 8ohm speakers in series, and then paralled the 8ohm speaker loop with the 32 ohm speakers. I figured it out and it gave me like 5.63 ohms. If you get the ohm rating too low, you'll burn up the amp. I think this amp is 4 ohm stable, so don't go below that.
I think the Elk is 2ohm stable, so the way your speakers are connected now might be fine for the Elk, but not for this amp.
Do some testing to figure out the gain on the mixer. I kept my Elk and my Android both at half volume, and then set the mixer appropriately. If you set the Elk or the Android too high, you'll get hiss. I still get a tiny bit of hiss, but it's only noticeable on the larger Elk speakers for some reason, and these are in the garage, and the basement near a loud server rack. So I don't hear them. Even the one in the garage is pretty hard to hear, you have to be a couple of feet from it to hear it.
Also, these little Tripath amps are awesome. I ordered 2 and have one hooked up to some 12" Cerwin Vega floor speakers, and it sounds amazing. Especially for $20.
