1/4" plugs?

[kmk42019]

Any particular brand and length recommended for hooking up a GK head to a 410 Avatar neo?

 

[Son of Bovril]

just make sure it's a proper speaker cable and not a shielded guitar cable, and the thicker gauge ones are supposed to be better...

 

[amos]

+1.....

 

[Magneto]

Might I suggest a Speakon cable?? I consider these connectors much better than 1/4 plugs on amp-to-speaker connections, and you can easily make your own without having to solder if you buy the speakons..

Try to use decent-gauged wire. 12 gauge is good, 14 is ok.. anything lighter, well.. I wouldn't..

Mag...

 

[Vic Winters]

Bayou speakon. I'm fairly certain the stock GK speakons are 14 gauge.

 

[deekay911]

Mogami cables

 

[Nils Ö]

Any 1/4" plug and ordinary lamp cord will do.

 

[amos]

Might I suggest a Speakon cable?? I consider these connectors much better than 1/4 plugs on amp-to-speaker connections, and you can easily make your own without having to solder if you buy the speakons..

Try to use decent-gauged wire. 12 gauge is good, 14 is ok.. anything lighter, well.. I wouldn't..

Mag...

for a GK head to an Avatar cabinet, I'm going to go ahead and say suggest that you DO NOT use a speakon cable, as the GK speakon outputs are configured for bi-amping and a there was a whole thread reecntly of a guy having problems with his Avatar 212 cabinet until he figured out it was all from running speakons from the GK head. Go full range, use the 1/4" output on the GK to the 1/4" input on the Avatar 410neo

Ding, ding, ding! While I've only been able to test this at lower volumes in my apartment, when I used a 1/4" cable the sound is back to normal. Just for spite, I tried the SpeakOn again and it sounded like crap. I'll withhold my final judgment until I can crank it up.
.

 

[MtManiac]

for a GK head to an Avatar cabinet, I'm going to go ahead and say suggest that you DO NOT use a speakon cable, as the GK speakon outputs are configured for bi-amping and a there was a whole thread reecntly of a guy having problems with his Avatar 212 cabinet until he figured out it was all from running speakons from the GK head. Go full range, use the 1/4" output on the GK to the 1/4" input on the Avatar 410neo

Can you post that thread please? I just ordered a Speakon to connect a RB700-II to an Avatar SB112. I'd have thought that with a regular 2-conductor cable there'd be no issue, especially if the tweeter control is turned off on the amp. I'd like to read what issues this other fella was having.

 

[ulrich]

Speakons, RTFM, and deal with any GK wiring issues. If that's gonna be hard, turn in you man card.

If you must use 1/4": Nuetrik, G&H, or Switchcraft plugs.

Wire: Speaker wire, SJO extension cable, low voltage garden lighting cable, 16 AWG zip (lamp) cord. Whatever, you're only going like three feet; gauge isn't that important. Go ten times the distance, say to your PA speakers, and gauge becomes a lot more important.

For head to cab, I use Canare 4S8 16/4 speaker wire. 2 wires +, 2 wires - = 14 AWG. For longer runs, I use 12 AWG.

Speakons always; any cabs, or amps that didn't take them, have been modified.

Just contact Butch at Bayou; I'm sure he can sort you out.

 

[Pilgrim]

Any 1/4" plug and ordinary lamp cord will do.

That works for me. I do like to use a good quality plug, and if you're pushing a lot of power, 12-14 gauge wire is a good idea.

Copper wire is copper wire. Nothing special about it.

 

[greenboy]

I don't have a GK with the biamp-tweeter arrangement, but if I did I would read the manual, guessing that the Speakon wiring description would be at hand there for using it with cabs that don't have a biamp-tweeter feature.

If not, it should be included.

I hazard to guess that the tweeter amp is probably connected to +2 and -2, and the main amp to +1 and -1. In that case a Speakon cable with only +1 and -1 connected at each end would do the trick.

 

[Hoover]

For head to cab, I use Canare 4S8 16/4 speaker wire. 2 wires +, 2 wires - = 14 AWG.

Ooh, sorry dude, guess you'll have to turn in your man card. Or your electrician's license at least.

Doubling up identical guage wires yields an equivalent AWG decrease of 3, not 2. So two pairs of 16awg doubled up = 13awg.

 

[MtManiac]

According to Dave at Avatar, you can use any mono (2 conductor) Speakon cable, just don't use the Speakon that GK supplies because it is a 4 conductor (stereo) Speakon cable and using it with a non-GK cab will fry the 50 watt tweeter amp in the head.

 

[ulrich]

Ooh, sorry dude, guess you'll have to turn in your man card. Or your electrician's license at least.

Doubling up identical guage wires yields an equivalent AWG decrease of 3, not 2. So two pairs of 16awg doubled up = 13awg.

Close enough for man work. Maybe not precise enough for lady work, but it'll do.

What electricians license? I'm a carpenter.

 

[Vic Winters]

2 conductor speakon will be fine going from GK to Avatar. It's the 4 conductor ones you can't use.

 

[amos]

According to Dave at Avatar, you can use any mono (2 conductor) Speakon cable, just don't use the Speakon that GK supplies because it is a 4 conductor (stereo) Speakon cable and using it with a non-GK cab will fry the 50 watt tweeter amp in the head.

Good to know, I was wondering about the 2 pole/4 pole issue and whether or not that had something to do with it. Sorry for the blanket statements about using speakons between GK heads and Avatar cabs!

 

[Magneto]

May I add something?

4-conductor Speakon connectors (cable plugs) are very common. Every Speakon I've bought is 4 conductor/pole.
The input female Speakon on Avatar cabinets are 4 pole.

You do not want to use a GK Speakon cable wired for biamping (4 pole, 4 wire) with Avatar cabinets.
Why? Because the 4 pole female has pins 1+ and 1- wired to power the cabinet, and the other two pins (2+, 2-) are wired in parallel to the 1/4 plugs on the cabinet so that you could daisy-chain out from them to other cabinets. If you did connect the GK biamp Speakon cable to the Avatar, you'd be basically connecting the woofer amp section to the tweeter amp section which is a big NO-NO..
Many other cabinets are probably wired this way as well.

You can still wire your own 4 pole Speakon connectors with 2 conductor wire, and you'll be fine. And by the way, "lamp cord" works just fine.

Some of this probably sounds complicated or dangerous, but it's really not..

Mag...

 

[MtManiac]

May I add something?

4-conductor Speakon connectors (cable plugs) are very common. Every Speakon I've bought is 4 conductor/pole.
The input female Speakon on Avatar cabinets are 4 pole.

You do not want to use a GK Speakon cable wired for biamping (4 pole, 4 wire) with Avatar cabinets.
Why? Because the 4 pole female has pins 1+ and 1- wired to power the cabinet, and the other two pins (2+, 2-) are wired in parallel to the 1/4 plugs on the cabinet so that you could daisy-chain out from them to other cabinets. If you did connect the GK biamp Speakon cable to the Avatar, you'd be basically connecting the woofer amp section to the tweeter amp section which is a big NO-NO..
Many other cabinets are probably wired this way as well.

You can still wire your own 4 pole Speakon connectors with 2 conductor wire, and you'll be fine. And by the way, "lamp cord" works just fine.

Some of this probably sounds complicated or dangerous, but it's really not..

Mag...

Cool, thanks Mag.

 

[greenboy]

Pretty much what I guessed in post #12.