How to Set up Old Stereo Speakers?

I was looking through my basement, and i came across 4 speakers ( 2 big, 2 small ) but they are the old ones where you have 1 red wire and 1 black wire. The speakers arent connected to the chords what so ever and i want to use them in my room and connect it to my iphone or laptop and i don't know what i need or what i have to do or anything i'm completely lost. What do i have to buy and do?

You need an amplifier. Connect your audio out to the amps audio in using the appropriate cable. Then connect the amplifiers speaker outputs to the speakers using normal zip cord. Fire up the amp and feed it music from your computer/phone.

You'll need an amp/radio to run them. Look around on the speakers for labels that say what Wattage they are rated for. Then find an amp or car radio that has four channels, and is rated to the wattage or just below that of which is for the speakers, hook it all up, connect it to a power supply and they should work.

If you run an amp that has more wattage than the speakers, you'll risk blowing the speakers out and they'll be useless. Also, make sure the resistance of the speakers matches that of the amp (It will be listed in ohm's, with a horseshoe like symbol) or you could fry the amp. Additionally, run DC current (Not directly from the wall of your home) or the amp will be destroyed.

Car radio's work well for speakers that aren't large sub-whoopers, as they tend to have a lower wattage output which is typical of speakers like you've described (250 watts and lower). Also the car radio should have some sort of way to port into your computer/iPod/MP3. Hope this helps, it can seem quite difficult to put together, but if you plan it out you should be fine.