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Spakon vs. Jack

#41
Jazz Ad said:
If once, just once in your life your hand gets stuck onto a powered jack plug with the amp delivering at the other hand, you will likely be using Speakon as often as possible afterwards.
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that happened to me in a BIG way. I had a Roland looper repeating a bass riff over and over, as I kept unplugging the amp head, switching it between two different cabinets...while doing product development (I didn't have a switcher).

Anyway, I received a very nasty shock. My lights almost went out.
 
#43
Munjibunga said:
A 2-conductor plug will work just fine in a 4-conductor jack.
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Maybe I have it the other way around, 4 conductor into a 2. One of those configurations does not work. (the key part in the middle is shaped differently) regardless.......speakon cables are easy to make up on your own, no need for soldering skills and it's a solid connection as Bill mentioned.
 
#46
Doug Parent said:
Maybe I have it the other way around, 4 conductor into a 2. One of those configurations does not work. (the key part in the middle is shaped differently) regardless.......speakon cables are easy to make up on your own, no need for soldering skills and it's a solid connection as Bill mentioned.
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Its a 4 conductor cable end will not plug into a 2 conductor cabinet jack. That is my manufacturers use a 4 conductor cabinet jack. It will take either the 2 or 4 conductor cable part. Hopefully that makes sense.
 
#47
This are good to build the cable?
 

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#48
Barcza said:
So both works?
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Your amp has a 4-conductor jack. Either a 2-conductor or 4-conductor plug will work in it. If you're going to buy the parts and assemble the cable yourself, there's no point in spending the extra money on four-conductor plugs. Anyway, yes, what you have pictured will work but I'd avoid non-Neutrik plugs. Also it looks like the cable has one extra conductor (the white one - probably a ground). Snip it off flush and don't use it.
 
#52
Speakons are advised if you're running more than about 500W. (Speakons can handle more current.) Otherwise it really doesn't matter. Oh, and they are mechanically nicer, but whatever. You don't have to switch unless you're running a lot of current. This is probably why most guitar rigs haven't switched: if your guitar player is running 500W+ or more, um... you have a loud guitarist.

I like speakons, but it's not really the end of the world if you don't use them everywhere.
 
#54
aborgman said:
I've gotten whopped by 120V and 220V AC 100+ times, and smacked with the 30,000-40,000V coming off a car ignition coil a couple dozen times. I'm not too worried about it.
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That might not be the most stupid reasoning I've ever heard, but it's certainly in the Top Ten. :hiding:
Maybe you can go on Letterman holding a 1/4" plug between your teeth connected to the output of Will's Ampeg as a Stupid Person trick?

You don't have to switch unless you're running a lot of current. This is probably why most guitar rigs haven't switched:
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Most guitar rigs haven't switched because they're primarily tube amps, which rely on a normally closed switching jack to short the output transformer when no speaker is plugged in. That's the one and only situation where 1/4" is useful.
 
#55
*Sound* better? Doubtful. Probably not.

The primary advantage of Speakon connectors, for me, is that they *lock* in place. Not such a big deal for a solid state amp, but for a tube amp it's important.

Playing at high volume when one of the stage guys running behind my rig trips over my speaker wire and pulls the plug... oh, boy. It's happened to me - luckily it was a rental amp :-)

Running a tube amp without a speaker connected can cause bad, bad damage to the amp - blown tubes and worse. It could end your gig and cost you a lot of dough. I like the twist-lock feature of Speakon connectors.

Since I run a tube amp, I use Speakons. Luckily I have the option.
 

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