I have got a couple of spare speakers lying around that I want to hook up to my laptop.
The connections on the speakers are + - terminals for standard speaker cable while the output on the laptop is a for a standard headphone jack.

I have had a look and I can't find any cabling which allows me to do this. Anyone got any suggestions other than buying different speakers?

You might need an amplifier - most PC speakers have one, and the sound card may not be able to drive unamplified speakers.

you can buy plugs from e.g. Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1187&criteria=3.5mm%20stereo%20plug&doy=10m12



get speaker wires and solder them in.

The only problem you might have is volume, as the headphone socket is only intended to drive headphones - might not have enough juice to power the speakers. I used powered speakers for mine, which is fine

You definitely need an amp of some sort. The amp will probably take phono inputs (for which you can use a jack to phono lead) and have the usual +/- outputs for speakers.

Alternatives are to use the auxiliary input on an existing stereo system, or buy a set of PC speakers which have a built in amp. I have Logitech Z-10s, which are very good indeed.

You'll need an AMP- the laptop sound out is designed to drive headphones, there's no way they'll drive big speakers....

Buy some PC speakers you tight wad

Cheers for the replies, looks like I will need to add something else on my list for Santa