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speakon vs 1/4" phono-any difference?

jellymax

jellymax

Don't fry any wooden fish
Supporting Member
Nov 29, 2006
1,353
1,079
SF CA
#1
ok, lets hear it...


anyone tried to compare a speakon/speakon cable vs
a phono/phono in an A-B comparison? if so, was any difference noted?

speakon is supposed to have more contact area, more capacity,
etc.............right?
 
#3
cdawzrd said:
Depending on the cable used it might be hard to tell a difference. The main advantage of SpeakOn in my opinion is that it is impossible to short out the connection or connect it incorrectly, so the chances of your damaging your amp or speakers are very low.
Click to expand...

Oh it's possible. I just paid a $300 repair bill that confirms it. Moral of the story, while highly unlikely to happen just make sure to periodically check your cables.
 
#4
IIRC 1/4" was originally for telephone switchboards - not intended to be transferring hundreds and hundreds of watts. It does seem to work fine, even on bass rigs. For more than 500 watts, though, I prefer to run Speakon or banana.

I also like Speakon because it's very easy to assemble your own cables with the Neutrik plugs - no soldering required! (Those beefier 1/4" speaker plugs need a good-sized gun to solder them properly.)
 
#6
They've been A/B compared many times, noted in many previous threads with the exact same title. ;) There is no audible difference, but then no audible difference was ever claimed by anyone (AFAIK). The differences are that Speakons:
-lock in place
-can handle more wattage
-don't "lever" and bend the connectors inside the jack
-can be re-wired with just a screwdriver
-allow bigger diameters of wire and insulation
 
#7
I can't imagine that a modern engineer would approve the use of phone jacks for speaker connections. Their use is purely historical.

For signal connections, they are OK, rugged, and it would take a long time to retrofit all of our old gear.
 
#12
I remember reading some Peavey literature somewhere saying the contact area/current transfer thing doesn't really come into play until you hit 500 or so watts. ie: a 300 watt amp doesn't need them for performance purposes, more of a convenience thing there. A 1000 watt amp, they're probably a good idea. For what it's worth.
 
#14
will33 said:
I remember reading some Peavey literature somewhere saying the contact area/current transfer thing doesn't really come into play until you hit 500 or so watts. ie: a 300 watt amp doesn't need them for performance purposes, more of a convenience thing there. A 1000 watt amp, they're probably a good idea. For what it's worth.
Click to expand...

Look inside the speakon and note how large the contact area really is. It may be more than a 1/4" plug has but not by much.
 
#15
There is a LOT of contact area in a Speakon compared to the TINY TINY bit of contact where the round tip meets the flat tip contact.

1/4" plugs should NEVER have been used for speakers, it just was convenient and power was small when they started using them.
 
#18
bongomania said:
They've been A/B compared many times, noted in many previous threads with the exact same title. ;) There is no audible difference, but then no audible difference was ever claimed by anyone (AFAIK). The differences are that Speakons:
-lock in place
-can handle more wattage
-don't "lever" and bend the connectors inside the jack
-can be re-wired with just a screwdriver
-allow bigger diameters of wire and insulation
Click to expand...

+1 on what bongmania said.

It's not a good idea to plug or unplug your loudspeaker connections while your rig or system is live, but if you do, Speakon connectors at least don't short out.
 
#20
BassmanPaul said:
Not sure if I am reading Fdeck properly but it just took me less than an hour to convert all of my remaining equipment to use speakons. Very simple job.

Paul
Click to expand...

That's what I did too. It was a matter of changing the jack on one speaker.

I can't speak with authority on this subject because I am not a licensed engineer or electrician. However, electrical devices which use connections with potentially exposed contacts carry a much higher burden of proof in the regulatory approval process. There is a voltage threshold that is surprisingly low, above which more stringent regulations kick in. Suppose it is 50 Volts, which is referred to in some European standards. That's only 625 Watts into 4 Ohms.

Also, the voltage itself might be safe but a fault inside the amp could place an unsafe voltage on an exposed terminal. If that is possible, then the required precautions could be much more onerous than simply using a modern connector.

If someone was designing a piece of industrial equipment that generated signals comparable to speaker signals (e.g., small electric motors), I doubt they would pass any sort of engineering review with phone plugs.
 

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