Cabinet Rewiring: A Word Of Advice

[ddpaulbell]

Do not make the mistake I did when rewiring a multiple driver cabinet. I rewired my 2x15 from 16 ohm to 4 ohm. I thought I was hearing less volume. I just thought to check to see if the speakers are in phase. Nope they aren't. One goes out the other goes in. I wish I'd thought to check before I soldered everything. Now to rectify the situation.

[greenboy]

Soldering to drivers, not good anyway.

[ddpaulbell]

Originally Posted by greenboy

Soldering to drivers, not good anyway.

Being that you are a professional I trust your input. Might you explain why soldering to drivers is not good?

[greenboy]

ddpaulbell,

unless you have good soldering skills it's a little too easy to melt the connection on the other side of the terminal that goes to the voice coil. Also makes it a pain if any driver swapping takes place.

I know the spade connectors can be a little cheesy and a PITA sometimes; definitely there are better terminal blocks on some drivers than others.

[mikeddd]

Or you could have the same misfortune I had some years back when building a trunk sub for a customer. A little too much solder and no tinfoil placed under the terminal block like I usually do...and a big blog of hot solder dripped down and right thru the cone. Nice.

IMO all pro speakers should have push (spring loaded) terminals with really stiff springs. The 3015LF has them as do many pro-level drivers. Even the ASD1001 compression driver has them. My favs by far. Spade terminals are so...1940.

[ddpaulbell]

Originally Posted by greenboy

ddpaulbell,

unless you have good soldering skills it's a little too easy to melt the connection on the other side of the terminal that goes to the voice coil. Also makes it a pain if any driver swapping takes place.

I know the spade connectors can be a little cheesy and a PITA sometimes; definitely there are better terminal blocks on some drivers than others.

Thanks.

I wired one driver to the input jack then I wired from positive on driver one to negative on driver two. Then form negative on driver one to positive on driver two. Is that parallel?

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by ddpaulbell

Thanks.

I wired one driver to the input jack then I wired from positive on driver one to negative on driver two. Then form negative on driver one to positive on driver two. Is that parallel?

Yes, but with reversed polarity, so the two will cancel each other out.

[ddpaulbell]

Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice

Yes, but with reversed polarity, so the two will cancel each other out.

That explains why they are out of phase. That's an easy fix for tomorrow. Along with lining the cabinet with fiberglass insulation. Then I can move on to rewiring my bass pickup from series to parallel.