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How to connect my speaker to my cab?

O

Oldguy69

Feb 20, 2018
16
0
#1
So, I got this Eminence Beta 15A. The two wires were squeezed into a the red an black terminals in order to get the plug in for the amp to work with the speaker. If that makes sense..

Anyway, the terminal is plugged into my old speaker. The Beta has these wires but with these little latches with holes in them. The pictures not great but that's one of the side and one above the nickle wire. My question is. How do I plug the speaker to the amp? Do I squeeze the two latches together after sliding the cabs wires into them?

I just wanna be extra sure. Thanks.
 

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#4
No, you do either/or. If you do not solder it, you need to use crimp connectors.

The first question is...how much experience do you have with soldering? If zero, this is not a good place to learn as you could easily burn your speaker up.

Alternatively...do you have crimping tools to make the crimp connectors if you can't solder?

Maybe you have a buddy who can help you with one of these methods?

Solder will look like this:

7-jpg.jpg



Crimp will look like this:

spade_lug_installed.jpg
 
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#6
You will need proper .205" terminals, do not solder. Use proper tools as well.

What happened to your original driver? Where is the black push terminal? It looks like that driver is now pretty much ruined, though it might have been worth a recone based on what I think it was (a MUCH better driver than what you are putting in there now).
 
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#7
agedhorse said:
You will need proper .205" terminals, do not solder. Use proper tools as well.

What happened to your original driver? Where is the black push terminal? It looks like that driver is now pretty much ruined, though it might have been worth a recone based on what I think it was (a MUCH better driver than what you are putting in there now).
Click to expand...

No no the pic of the terminals are screwed. That's the old driver I used. The new driver is the other pic. The problem is the wires won't stay .Probably, unless I solder it.
 
#8
mmbongo said:
No, you do either/or. If you do not solder it, you need to use crimp connectors.

The first question is...how much experience do you have with soldering? If zero, this is not a good place to learn as you could easily burn your speaker up.

Alternatively...do you have crimping tools to make the crimp connectors if you can't solder?

Maybe you have a buddy who can help you with one of these methods?

Solder will look like this:

View attachment 3073292


Crimp will look like this:

View attachment 3073293
Click to expand...
This might be a stupid question but did you solder those climps? Cuz they look all melted.
 
#9
Oldguy69 said:
No no the pic of the terminals are screwed. That's the old driver I used. The new driver is the other pic. The problem is the wires won't stay .Probably, unless I solder it.
Click to expand...
What is the driver you took out??? Did you remove the terminals?
 
#11
If you solder them, be sure to gently stuff a rag between the terms and the speaker basket to catch solder drips.

I’ve made at least 1 million solder connections and still occasionally drip.
 
#12
Go to your local auto parts or hardware store and get 0.205" Female Disconnect Terminals. Get the ones without insulation, or that are not fully insulated. The insulated come in three different colors depending on wire gauge to be used -- Google "Female Disconnect Terminals" to learn more. Remove the colored insulation if there, insert the stripped wire into the hole, and solder the wire to the quick connect, a good solder joint is much better and more reliable than crimping.

Then slide the connectors onto the respective +/- tab. It can require a little force, so be careful you don't bend the tab over. The above is not a tutorial, just a general idea. If you want to crimp, see below.

 
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#13
Any time I use crimp connectors, I solder the wires to the connector. Crimps can become loose espcially if they aren't crimped right but a proper solder joint won't.

To make a solid and clean solder joint, here is how you should do them. Never just cover the whole connection with solder at once!

I would use the proper size female terminal slider ends. Looking at your pics, it should be the blue ones.

When soldering, remove the blue plastic over the terminal end. You can save them and slide them down each wire to re-attach later but it isn't necessary. Only do this if the connectors will be close enough where they can touch each other causing a short.

It's helpful to have a soldering vice or stand with alligator clips or just another set of hands holding them with pliers.

Strip each wire just long enough for the connector. Tin each wire with solder first coating all sides of the wire. Then tin the inside of each terminal end only where the wire rests, just none on the folded ends of the connectors.

While the terminal ends are still hot, push the wire into the terminal while reheating the terminal with your solder iron to make the both solder connections remelt, then remove the iron and hold the connection steady to let the solder cool.

The 2 tinned ends of each solder joint (tinned wire and tinned terminal end) will fuse together when cooled and no additional solder will be necessary.

Slide the blue plastic over the terminal if you didn't completely remove it and now you have a clean and solid terminal connector to slide over your speaker.
 
#15
Don't try to learn soldering on the speaker tabs. You will make a hash of it.

Use the correct crimp females for the speaker ''spade'' tabs. Hopefully your speaker wire is of a good gauge to fit to the female parts.

All that solder on the wire might get in the way. I would nip off the soldered wire and trim a new bit of copper for it.

The whole thing with the crimp connectors is avoiding soldering.
 
#19
There is no need to ever remove these terminals. I suspect that the driver (which is better than what you now have) is now a junker unless you saves all the parts and the insulating sleeves are undamaged.
 
#20
agedhorse said:
There is no need to ever remove these terminals. I suspect that the driver (which is better than what you now have) is now a junker unless you saves all the parts and the insulating sleeves are undamaged.
Click to expand...
No the coil or the actual speaker itself is screwed. I reconed it but it still crackled the same as it did before. It may have been in conjunction with my poor handy work but that speaker, I believe, was blown to begin with.
 

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