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Possibly stupid/banal question alert: doubling speaker cables by accident

kumimajava

kumimajava

May 19, 2010
604
821
Tokyo, Japan
#1
I've read through various amp threads over here, and am well familiar with the accidental connection of two amps to one cab (and the resulting magic smoke).

Would there be any danger in (accidentally) connecting two outputs from the SAME amp, to one cab?

That is, if the amp has two spearker outs, and the cab has an 'in' and 'link' socket, and I connect a (separate) speaker cable from each outputs into the cabinet - is this likely to damage anything?

(and no - this is not something i'm planning to do intentionally, but am curious whether, if done by accident, it would lead to damage).
 
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#4
Haha, the answer is quite simple.
Depending on your amp/cab configuration, one of two things will happen:
1. It's fine and nothing happens at all
2. It's not fine and you blow the amp, most likely ruining the speaker in the process.

There basically is no scenario where something mildly annoying happens. It's either nothing or it blows in your face. So maybe just don't do it.
 
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#5
el murdoque said:
Haha, the answer is quite simple.
Depending on your amp/cab configuration, one of two things will happen:
1. It's fine and nothing happens at all
2. It's not fine and you blow the amp, most likely ruining the speaker in the process.

There basically is no scenario where something mildly annoying happens. It's either nothing or it blows in your face. So maybe just don't do it.
Click to expand...

I'm not 'planning' on doing this, and I doubt that any of the other cases we've had of people blowing up amps by wiring them to the same cab were 'intentional'.

Good point by @OldogNewTrick about possibly one port (or cable) being cross-wried, that eventuality hadn't occurred to me.

I guess my curiosity was about: supposing both cable & speaker are wired correctly, in parallel. Is it possible to that due to some difference in the lenght/resistance of the two cables there may be something that causes the ampt to 'feedback into itself' & cause damage. My guess is that with approx. similar lenght cables & correct parallel wiring, there shouldn't be a worry - but since many people here know (a ton!) more about electronics than I do, I figured I'd ask :)

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond (up until now - or indeed - further below ;)
 
#7
agedhorse said:
If the amp has dual power amps, doing so could easily damage both amps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing out this possibility.

Apologies if this is an equally/or more basic question: is this likely to be the case that there is a dual power-amp setup, in a typical D-class amp (e.g. GK-500 in my case), or are those usually just wired with parallel outputs?

(Again - no, I'm not planning to try this 'intentionally')
 
#11
If the two output jacks on the back of the amp are truly just parallel connections to the same amp output, and the two input jacks on the speaker are truly just parallel connectors, then what you have effectively done is to increase the current carrying capability of the cable by running two in parallel. Probably not needed, but I doubt it would be harmful.

But, if the connections on either end are something other than parallel, or one of your cables are not wired the same, you could be in for ... excitement.
 
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#12
el murdoque said:
Haha, the answer is quite simple.
Depending on your amp/cab configuration, one of two things will happen:
1. It's fine and nothing happens at all
2. It's not fine and you blow the amp, most likely ruining the speaker in the process.

There basically is no scenario where something mildly annoying happens. It's either nothing or it blows in your face. So maybe just don't do it.
Click to expand...

So Anyway, it could lead to a New Amp Day.
If you're still alive.
 
#17
Just for clarity:

Is the original question, "Can I use one of the two output jacks on the back of my amp to go to speaker #1 and then daisy chain speaker #2 & #1 together with an additional cable?

I always like to ask questions like this here because I can almost universally guarantee that another member has blown up the same amp I'm using multiple times....
 
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#18
james condino said:
Just for clarity:

Is the original question, "Can I use one of the two output jacks on the back of my amp to go to speaker #1 and then daisy chain speaker #2 & #1 together with an additional cable?

I always like to ask questions like this here because I can almost universally guarantee that another member has blown up the same amp I'm using multiple times....
Click to expand...

Not quite, apologies if I was unclear. I think the question you have described is about daisy-chaining Cab1 & Cab2, and has been discussed elsewhere.

In my question: one amp, and one cab.

Amp has Ouput1 and Output2, and cab has Input1 & Input2 (or Input & Link).

What I was asking was - assuming that the cables are not cross-wired & the cab is also corretly parallel wired:

Is it likely/possile that if we connect Output1 to Input 1, and Output2 to Input2, there might be damage.

So basically: one amp & one cab, but bi-wired.

My own (scientifically uninformed) source of concern was that - if the cables have different characteristics, the bi-wiring may lead to some sort of feedback within the amp (even if the amp outputs are parallel wired).

Based on what @agedhorse said above (if I understood it correctly), on some amps the output1 & output2 may in fact be driven by a separate 'power amp' section within the same amp. So this kind of bi-wiring could cause damage (similarly to the stories of 'two-amps wired to one cab' that we've seen elsewhere).

Since I know nothing about amp topology - it was interesting for me to learn that some (many?) amps may be designed this way. My prior feeling was that multiple outputs would be just 'wired in parallel' at the amp end.

So - I learend something new, and got (yet another) reminder to be careful with triple-checking wiring before powring up anything.
 
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#19
Yes, correct about the two power amp possibility,

No, different cable characteristics between two cables aren’t coming to matter, the amp/speaker will see them as a parallel combinations of the two cables. No big deal to the amp.
 
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