speakon connectors and polarity... Does it matter?

[::::BASSIST::::]

In order to have nice short cables I made one from a couple of speakon connectors and a 13cm piece of 12 gage speaker wire. The clerk at the music store said that when making a cable i should use only the centre terminals of the connector and skip the other two. I inquired about the polarity of the two centre terminals and he said that it didnt matter what was lead or ground. He didnt seem all that sure of himself.

What's your opinion?

If its hooked up wrong am I going to fry my gear?

[Passinwind]

If its hooked up wrong am I going to fry my gear?

That depends, it very well might if you have a tube amp. What amp do you have?

The standard for virtually anything that isn't a bridged mono power amp or a biamped setup is 1+ HOT and 1- COLD at both ends. The terminals are labeled on the Speakon, if you look hard enough.

Absolute polarity may not matter much with only one cab, but making a speaker cable that could be out of phase with other ones is generally a bad idea. Also, if your amp has a DI, you could end up being out of phase with the front of house feed, which isn't usually a good thing.

[::::BASSIST::::]

I am playing with a clarus head and a wizzy 112 cab.
So the connectors are marked? Where on the outside or "internally"? Must be small writing.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by TORIN

I am playing with a clarus head and a wizzy 112 cab.
So the connectors are marked? Where on the outside or "internally"? Must be small writing.

The markings are right next to the terminals, and are very small indeed.

Neutrik has a detailed wiring tutorial here: http://www.neutrikusa.com/images/ock...s/media_21.pdf

I haven't downloaded it myself. Let me know if it helps, OK?

[Munjibunga]

The guy's wrong. If you use the two center connectors, you'll be hooked up to 1+/2+. Your amp and cab are most likely connected to 1+/1-. You will not even make a connection wired the way he says, so it shouldn't cook your amp, but it won't produce any sound. (This, of course, assuming that you're not bridging.)

1+/2+ is usually used for the amp end of a bridged mono setup. Those typically will be wired to 1+/1- at the speaker end, or sometimes 2+/2- for subs that are wired that way.

Wire it to 1+/1- (both ends) on an NL-4, or just get an NL-2 and wire it to the only connections in there.

[::::BASSIST::::]

The neutrik download mentioned previously was helpful once one takes a minute to make sense of it. It backs up what Munji was saying as correct. I looked beside the terminals with a really bright light and low and behold there were little numbers in there with either + or - beside it.

Tell me if this sounds like i am doing this correctly:

- I hook up the speaker cable with the white stripe to the +1 terminal of each connector.

- i hook up the speaker cable w/o the white stripe to the -1 terminal of each connector.

- this setup will connect the hot wire and the ground wire from the amp to the cab correctly right?

thanks!

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by TORIN

The neutrik download mentioned previously was helpful once one takes a minute to make sense of it. It backs up what Munji was saying as correct. I looked beside the terminals with a really bright light and low and behold there were little numbers in there with either + or - beside it.

Tell me if this sounds like i am doing this correctly:

- I hook up the speaker cable with the white stripe to the +1 terminal of each connector.

- i hook up the speaker cable w/o the white stripe to the -1 terminal of each connector.

- this setup will connect the hot wire and the ground wire from the amp to the cab correctly right?

thanks!

Right.