Speaker wiring question

[GrandBofTarkin]

I have searched the forum but cannot find an answer to my dilemma, apologies if I have missed the correct thread.

I am building a Jamma cab and want to wire in an 'in line' volume control and headphone jack along with the speakers. don't want to disturb others while playing if they're watching TV.
Can anyone point me in the right direction please, either to a wiring diagram or a how to?
I'm a mechanical person not wiggly minded unfortunately.

Thanks in advance. 

[Sarver Systems]

A headphone jack cannot be wired into the speaker wire because the speaker wire is amplified. If you plugged headphones into it, it would blow them out.

You'll need to convert speaker level back to line level, or find the audio wires before they hit the amplifier chip, and connect a headphone jack there.

Wiring a volume pot is easy peasy. It would be a 1K or 10K pot. Someone else can chime in on the specific value of the pot.

[dkersten]

I have never tried it, but I would put money on it that you could use a line level converter to get your headphone output, and then a pot to dial the volume down.  This is assuming a simple stereo setup.  If you have a subwoofer or a 5.1 system then it would take a lot more.

This isn't something that you will likely find already built, but it wouldn't be hard.  If you have the room, you could easily use an in wall volume control for in wall home speakers.  You can find these for as cheap as $20 on amazon and they usually can handle 100 watts, probably way more power than you are pushing.  Then on the input side of the volume control you wire in a line level converter which is made for car stereo systems to take full power outputs and convert them down to RCA level (pre amp) levels.  You can get an adjustable one for about $10 on amazon.  From there you will have to find a male RCA to female 3.5mm stereo jack.  If you search on amazon for exactly that you can find them for 1-5 dollars.  Mounting this in a cab in an easily accessible spot would be the hardest part.  The adjustable line level out would give you a way to dial the initial headphone volume in, and using a set of headphones with an inline volume control would be ideal if you don't want max volume all the time.  There are tons of inline volume controls for headphones if you don't have headphones with them already built in. 

[GrandBofTarkin]

Thanks guys that's awesome.
I have seen the mentioned line out converters used in cars so will probably go down that route.
I bought a pair of 5w speakers but thinking I should go for higher wattage ones then use an amp?
It's a mono signal from what I know so my two speakers will just be wired in parallel.