Members Xplora Posted October 21, 2005 Members Share Posted October 21, 2005 Ok, this is basic so I hope it works. I have to make a speaker cable with an XLR input and Speakon output. Am I just trying to connect the hot wire on the Speakon to the live wire on the XLR? and return to the return? AKA pin 1 on the XLR to pin 1- on the Speakon and pin2 on the XLR to pin 1+ on the Speakon????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BillESC Posted October 21, 2005 Members Share Posted October 21, 2005 What amp are you using? XLR outputs are very strange... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ear Abuser Posted October 21, 2005 Members Share Posted October 21, 2005 Since I don't know of any amps that use XLR for outputs, I'm guessing you have a speaker with an XLR input, which was done sometimes in the past. As far as I know there isn't any standard for wiring an XLR for speakers- But if it was done so that you could use mic cable for speaker cable, I'd use the shield as ground and tie the two signal wires together for hot to give lower overall resistance. Take a battery and connect a couple of wires to it. When you touch the wires from the battery to right set of pinss on the XLR you will hear the speaker click. This tells you which pins but not which is positive and negative. Repeat the click test, but this time watch the woofer move- when the positive terminal of the battery is connected to the positive terminal of the speaker, the speaker will move out, away from the cabinet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members B. Adams Posted October 21, 2005 Members Share Posted October 21, 2005 Originally posted by Ear Abuser As far as I know there isn't any standard for wiring an XLR for speakers- But if it was done so that you could use mic cable for speaker cable, I'd use the shield as ground and tie the two signal wires together for hot to give lower overall resistance. You shouldn't ever use mic cable for speaker level signals, you'll break something. XLR conenctions for speakers used to be pretty common, and I'm under the impression that XLR's are still popular for speaker connections in Australia, where this guy is from. The reason XLR's were used for speaker signals in the "old days" is because they have large pins, which were capable of carrying the voltage. Not every XLR connector is suitable for this though, so you shouldn't go cheap on those. But even though connector is XLR, you still need speaker cable. Personally, I would recommend building a patch panel with female speakon connectors on it, with XLR tails to get to the amp. This way you can use standard Speakon cable, and you won't have any weird cables floating around with XLR's on one end. As for which pins on the XLR to use, the only way to know for sure is to see the amp, there's possibly a diagram on there somewhere. But if I had to guess, I'd say you're probably right with your first guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted October 21, 2005 CMS Author Share Posted October 21, 2005 Another option if the XLR is on the speaker would be to replace it with a Speakon jack. You might get really lucky and the XLR is Neutrik with the same size mounting as a Speakon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dboomer Posted October 22, 2005 Members Share Posted October 22, 2005 Originally posted by BillESC XLR outputs are very strange... Actually XLR speaker outs are not uncommon on Aussie amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Xplora Posted October 23, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 23, 2005 The wiring worked! Funnily enough, 1600W RMS isn't that loud... We were getting distortion fairly quickly. But it was enough to make my 18" Paiste Full Crash become an accent instead of a Doomsday Device! I think we'll look into Speakon in the future. Right now, its just too expensive for virtually no payoff, since its only a rehearsal room setup right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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