Home Audio 101.. got a couple speakers, what do I do now?

Question

My parents recently walked into Best Buy and bought a rather hefty pair of speakers, and naturally they defer to me to figure out what to do with them. Despite being great at handling technology in general, I've never encountered speakers like these and I really have no idea what to do with them. 

The only intermediary device (between a music-outputting device and these speakers) I know of is a mixer.. board, thing, except I'm not looking to shell out for an item I don't even know how to utilize, but I really don't know what else I'd use. To recap,


What I have: 
Two free-standing speakers with XLR and TRS inputs

What I'm trying to do: 
Figure out what to plug them into so that I can play music from a CD or other aux device (iPod, laptop etc). 

All suggestions are welcome, and thanks in advance.

AES · Accepted Answer

XLR?  From Best Buy? WOW.  So are the pro-audio equipment like DJ or studio monitors? Sure they really want to deal with that?  They could take them back and just get an all-in-one kit that includes the receiver and speakers.

But if they really want them and they only take XLR or TRS I assume they have a built in amp so you need to plug then into an AC outlet.  To hook them up you could get yourself an receiver with low-level outputs or even go higher end with a pre/pro processor but thats when things tend to get pricey.

You could in theory connect directly to a source with low level output using the right cable adapters although it is a little inconvenient:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=XLR&x=0&y=0
(scroll down a little and you will see them).

Good luck.

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Home Audio 101.. got a couple speakers, what do I do now?

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