NL8 to 2-3 NL4/2 cables

[Unalaska]

The summer outdoor festival season is approaching and I'm thinking of ways to streamline PA setups. Mainly the idea is to speed up the amount of time it takes to run cable from a singular amp rack to 2 stacks, 1 per side.

 

As it is now about 60% of of all speaker cable is 2 conductor w/ NL2, for biamp tops there is NL4 which can be used on any speaker, passive or biamp. Mostly it's any speaker and any cable, except for biamp mains of which there are either 2 or 4 per event.

 

Idea: at the amp rack 2 NL8s, 50' & 20'. The speaker end would have 2x NL2's (subs) and 1 NL4 (tops). The fan tails would be 5' (tops), 4' (sub1) and 2' (sub2).

 

The speaker termination can be either NL8FC with an NL8 coupler and NL8FC to breakout OR no termination and just peel back the cable and use shrink wrap over the pairs of conductors.

 

I'd still keep the standard patch panel with NL4's on it so these could be run in parallel with the NL8 if needed (center clustered subs could be run from the NL4 panel)

 

thoughts?

[agedhorse]

Much better to go to 2 x NL-4's because then the cabling will still be compatable with your other set-ups. Subs on one run, and biamped tops on the other, everything 4 conductor. That way you can put the subs anywhere you want without having to dick around with breakouts and couplers.

 

Subs use 1+/1-

 

Tops use 1+/1- for LF and 2+/2- for HF. That way your horns are protected. This is probably the most common config, and exactly what I do as everything must be able to break out and mix/match. My line array systems use exactly the same cabling and amp racks as my SRX-700 stuff (different DSP program but pinouts are identical) .

[Unalaska]

I do the dual NL4 thing now with a NL4MC to dual NL2 FC on each end. Basically it cuts from 3 cables to 2. Each dual 18 gets it's own set of pins/amp channel, and MF is pins1, HF pins2. I can't bring myself to put NL4 using pins 2 on the amp rack patch panel on LF since the wrong cable would destroy a driver, I use NL4MP for LF but only pins1. My though was to keep the amount of cabling down, but then you loose redundancy if there are not enough cables.

 

As is I don't see a real benifit to doing this upgrade, especially since the number of failure points go up a bit.

 

Amp rack end

NL8 (Pin 1: LF1, 2: LF2, 3: MF, 4: HF)

speaker end

NL2 LF1

NL2 LF2

NL4 MF/LF

 

Splitting into 2x NL4 at the amp rack would be dangerous for HF. Splitting into 2x NL2 & 1x NL4 at the amp rack would be ok since there is no way to damage the HF. Maybe that's the option. It would also not require a 2nd 2u panel or any rewiring.

[Unalaska]

FWIW all my systems are 3 way or 2 way with all DRPA's in 2 way mode using the MF amp for the 2way (100hz-out) and the HF amp is not used. There are no full range presets since if I'm using full range I'll tap a monitor amp channel instead and leave the FOH amp in the truck.

[agedhorse]

Don't use 2+/- for subs.

 

Sometimes, for maximum flexability and uniformity, it doesn't pay to multi-pin up.

 

Do you always need 2 runs for subs?

[Unalaska]

No, 90% of the time I'm using only 1 mid/high over 1 dual 18. For larger shows I double up but the amp racks are the same. This summer I have a string of double stack shows where I'd like to cut down on running 3x 50' cables. Almost always I have the subs under the mid/high boxes, no that there is anything wrong with center cluster, just it gives the stage more room not having 2/4 mid/high boxes on it (4' mobile stage). My avatar (?) pic shows center clustered subs, honestly the subs will outrun the tops so I don't need the acoustic output. Anyway I'm thinking this outloud since it's the internets and I don't want to spend the money if it isn't absolutely needed.