Members sonicland Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 Are 4 conductor Speak-On cables compatible when only needing 2 conductor cables. My understanding is that the 4 conductor cables are for bi-amping and the 2 conductor for non-biamping. I believe the connector is the same but is there any reason to not use 4 conductor cables in a regular PA set-up. There's a company with an eBay store that sells 4 conductor cables that are inexpensive but they don't offer 2 conductor cables so I may just buy the 4's although I will never biamp this system. I believe all the Speak-On connectors are the same and I may consider making my own so another question would be whether I can buy any Speak-On connectors and then wire them up with only 2 conductors. Hope all this makes sense and I appreciate your response.Thanks,Jeremy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kevinnem Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 you are right , the 4 pole and the 2 pole are the same size and shape (in fact I think a lot of the 2 pole ones, are 4 pole with out the second set hooked up). you can certinly use the 4 pole in a 2 pole slot, the only "issue" if you want to call it that is the second set of wires are not used. the speakons use 1+ 1- and 2+ 2- in you case you would be useing the "1" set, and the 2 set would not be pluged in. You can build your own cable, it is not hard. but often the cost of raw parts is equal to or MORE then the cost that manufactures can build the whole thing for. The only time I would say you should build your own cable is when you have a predictibale set up , and know how long each cable needs to be, every time. does that answer you queations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members W. M. Hellinger Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 I believe all the Speak-On connectors are the same and I may consider making my own so another question would be whether I can buy any Speak-On connectors and then wire them up with only 2 conductors. DIYS is fine if you have the tools and knowhow. And generally speaking, yes, you can probably wire it up with just 2 conductors and your non-biamp rig should function fine. * Many double driver cabinets (subs typically) use all 4 conductors of an NL4 connection. Many users seem unaware of this. I've reconed quite a few drivers out of NL4 manditory sub cabinets where one driver was blown, and the other driver was completely unused. The operator had been running the cabinet all along with a 2 conductor cable, oblivious that only one of the two drivers was functioning, until the one driven driver failed. Almost 100% of these oopsies is the result of running the sub bridge/mono with the operator unaware of how the speakon ends would need to be wired to make this function, since oftentimes the bridge/mono output on the amp is wired to just pins 1+ and 2+. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sonicland Posted February 12, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 Thanks, that's lots of really useful info and answers my questions. I think my needs are very basic. I have 4 JBL JRX 112's (2 for mains and 2 for monitors) that I use with my big PA (2 Carvin DSM1000's) for big gigs and 1 or 2 of the JBL's with a Soundcraft Gigrac 600 for smaller gigs. Since the JBL's only have a Speak-On and a 1/4" connector, the only way to run them in series is to have a Speak-On cable. I think what I may do is buy 8 Speak-On connectors and wire my own since I have way too many 1/4" to 1/4" cables and I can use the cable from some of those. I will try to stick to Neutriks. Thanks,Jeremy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted February 12, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 Since the JBL's only have a Speak-On and a 1/4" connector, the only way to run them in series is to have a Speak-On cable. Series or parallel? In general you would never want to wire multiple cabinets in series, as the wiring would be difficult to do with common speaker cables, and/or it would require the speaker cabinets to have some wiring mods as well. When you plug an amp to a speaker, and then from that speaker to another speaker, that would be a parallel circuit due to the way the speaker cab jacks are connected internally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members W. M. Hellinger Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 I will try to stick to Neutriks. I advise to buy from a reputable source. FWIW: I have it on good authority that the word "Speakon" is a registered trademark of Neutrik. A quick assessment of eBay shows me approx 238 auctions advertising "Speakon" cables, ends, or jacks. 31 of those 238 "Speakon" auctions appear to me to be for genuine Neutrik Speakon products. 207 of those 238 auctions appear to me to be possibly selling knock-offs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sonicland Posted February 12, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 Thanks, yes I do believe I meant parallel. I found a store on eBay that has 10 packs of Neutrik 2 conductor connectors for $34.00. I think I'll buy those and make my own. Thanks again,Jeremy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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