Members Guitarist4life Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 What happens if I use a guitar cable as a speaker cable?? I want to try my new powered mixer, but I dont have speaker cables BTW, its one of those Soundtech PMX10SD (450w x 2, plus 200w x 1 for monitors) powered mixers Music123 was blowing out for $199:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 It will work at low volume, it may even work at high volume, but due to the sheer amount of power running through the instrument cable the cable can heat up / short out / cause other undesirable effects that may hurt your amp, speaker or both. Get a speaker cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gary in NJ Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Do you have a 30 watt PA system? Most instrument cable is 22ga. That is simply too light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Guitarist4life Posted June 13, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Gary, what wire guage works?I have some 18guage home audio speaker cable, I wonder if I can just solder 1/4" at the ends and use that?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deepblue Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Gary, what wire guage works?I have some 18guage home audio speaker cable, I wonder if I can just solder 1/4" at the ends and use that?? yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gary in NJ Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Gary, what wire guage works?I have some 18guage home audio speaker cable, I wonder if I can just solder 1/4" at the ends and use that?? Do a search and you'll find a lot of data on this. Here is a small chart for you to see (at the bottom): http://www.jblpro.com/pages/general_faq.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Some power amplifiers do not like the additional capacitave load that most instrument cables present. Depending on the length and construction, some amplifiers can oscillate and then fail. Additionally, the gauge is generally too small. If you plan on building your own cables, be sure to construct them properly. Poorly constructed cables can destroy an amp as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Balladeer Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Mains electric flex can work fine in some PA loudspeaker applications, and be much cheaper than hi-fi or in-car speaker cables. Not lighting cable, but the sort of flex you'd use on power tools should be fine. And this can come in a good thick insulating sleeve, which hi-fi, car-fi cables often do not. Or am I wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Mains electric flex can work fine in some PA loudspeaker applications, and be much cheaper than hi-fi or in-car speaker cables. Not lighting cable, but the sort of flex you'd use on power tools should be fine. And this can come in a good thick insulating sleeve, which hi-fi, car-fi cables often do not.Or am I wrong? That may work as well. Note that the gauges you guys across the pond from us use tend to be pretty small though since you are 230/240 volt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members W. M. Hellinger Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Gary, what wire guage works?I have some 18guage home audio speaker cable, I wonder if I can just solder 1/4" at the ends and use that?? I'm wondering if that Soundtech PMX10SD has 1/4" speaker outputs, or is it strictly Speakon speaker outputs? I think it probably does have 1/4" speaker outputs, possibly right below the Speakon jacks. I suspect you've already checked, but I'm just bringing this up in-case you haven't received the mixer yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Singin' Dave Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Buck up $40 and buy some proper speaker cables... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LavaMan Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 It's a simple case of Gauge: Need 10 - 16 for speaker cable and most instrument cable is 20. The amount of current and voltage is much higher for a speaker cable than an instrument cable and this why a larger gauge is needed.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 It's more than a simple case of gauge if you happen to own an amp that has difficulty with capacitive loads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 That may work as well. Note that the gauges you guys across the pond from us use tend to be pretty small though since you are 230/240 volt. I'm currently using power cable of an old electric lawn mower (only two strand power cable I could get hold of - and it's a lot of length), it's thicker wire than any of the actual speaker cable i see around and that's on 240 volt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Thicker copper or thicker jacket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted June 14, 2007 Members Share Posted June 14, 2007 Thicker copper or thicker jacket? Thicker copper (definately a thicker jacket as well - bright orange, but I don't mind to much). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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