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Warning! Do Not Buy Cheap Speakon Cables

#42
I've witnessed and had to remove/replace Speakon jacks on JBL monitors because of counterfeit plugs. This particular bandleader buys the cheap cables from his friendly/local music store, because the store replaces his broken cables free of charge. This goes for XLR mic cables too. When it's up to me, Neutrik, Switchcraft and the occasional Amphenol are fine, though I do have to examine Neutrik connectors more closely for Chinese knockoffs.
 
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#43
Them MONOPRICE Cables should be pulled from the market.

On their site reviews only 4 are positive out of 15 reviews all talking about the connection being wonky.
This is a 73% failure rate. :meh:

Though people still said they are ok and gave a decent rating, yet still mention a wonky connector. :banghead:
Invalid Link Removed
Plus the many threads on TalkBass about them getting stuck or intermittent connections.

DO NOT BUY MONOPRICE.
 
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#45
They and Ali are both companies I have not and wouldn't buy from, along with amazon. I have no use for their products or business model.

S-Bigbottom said:
Them MONOPRICE Cables should be pulled from the market.

On their site reviews only 4 are positive out of 15 reviews all talking about the connection being wonky.
This is a 73% failure rate. :meh:

Though people still said they are ok and gave a decent rating, yet still mention a wonky connector. :banghead:
Invalid Link Removed
Plus the many threads on TalkBass about them getting stuck or intermittent connections.

DO NOT BUY MONOPRICE.
Click to expand...
 
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#47
They only way to get cheap Speakon cables that have legit Neutrik jacks...is to make 'em yourself. ;) Even then you're constrained by the cost of the connectors. So with 2-pole being ~3$ and 4-pole being ~5$ and toss in something like two or three bucks for the actual cable stock, and you're not going to find anyone commercially selling the 'real thing' for $9.99 given you've got what amounts to 7 or 8$ in materials without labor or packaging.

The really good news is that you can very easily make your own, no soldering involved, just a quick snip or two and some wire stripping.
 
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#49
Generally I've found a place I like, that's good to work with and carries a good variety of stuff and gets it to me quickly, so I'm not buying rando and cut rate on Amazon or whatever.

Speakon Connectors | Redco Audio

Bulk Speaker Cable | Redco Audio

It's just not worth it when you're connecting thousands of dollars worth of gear to save tens of dollars.
 
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#50
DJ Bebop said:
Myself, if I need any more cables I buy Neutrik SpeakOn ends from my local shop URS Electronics Inc.
and then get cable or zip cord or whatever :) Pull out my little screwdriver and put 'em on.
Click to expand...

For awareness (and DJ Bebop, you may already know this), the screws in Neutrik SpeakON connectors require a #1 pozidrive bit rather than a regular Phillips head screwdriver. A Phillips head screwdriver may work to some extent, but there’s a greater chance of stripping the heads as you try to get them tight enough.
 
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#51
scottfeldstein said:
Two cheap 3' speakons arrived for me yesterday. From Amazon, made by Cable Matters. $9.99 each. I hope I have better luck than the OP.
Click to expand...
They are their own thing, NOT Neutrik.

DO NOT TRY YOUR LUCK.



https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matter...t=&hvlocphy=9033517&hvtargid=pla-826911692368
71QFbkwgklL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

71vbithN2WL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
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#53
MVE said:
Sounds like its also a good idea to visually line up those keys and just give it the ol’ reach around.
Click to expand...

Agreed, this is a good idea. The connectors can wear after many years, but it takes a lot of use.

Frank77 said:
Thanks for the PSA, hopefully it can prevent someone else having the same mishap.

Me, I will not use anything but Neutrik on my amp, cabs and basses (valid for all ins and outs, 1/4", speakon, XLR). I'm going to come out as a huge nerd, but their connectors are possibly my favourite pieces of engineering. They look simple, but a LOT of thought went into these. From the mechanical design, to material selection, data sheet/assembly instructions, and even the packaging. There is no such thing as perfection, but these must be pretty darn close.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

MultiScaleMale said:
Are there counterfeit Neutrik connectors or if you see Neutrik, you're safe?
Click to expand...

Yes, there are and they mostly come from sources off shore and Amazon, eBay, Ali etc.

ardgedee said:
It took me about 90 seconds to find branded counterfeits on AliExpress. I won't link directly here, but if you really need to see it, PM me.
Click to expand...

Yes, they do exist.

S-Bigbottom said:
They are their own thing, NOT Neutrik.

DO NOT TRY YOUR LUCK.



https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matter...t=&hvlocphy=9033517&hvtargid=pla-826911692368
View attachment 3984234
View attachment 3984235
Click to expand...

I have seen this type in the shop as well, both stuck and also intermittent connections.

bhendrix said:
Never used speakon cables and never had any problem with any 1/4" cable I've used.
Click to expand...
Count yourself as very lucky. The same sort of thing happens in the 1/4” world with spinner rivets, oversized sleeves and weirdly shaped tips.
 
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#54
I honestly like the Neutrik Speakons so much that I'd also prefer that all amp/preamp (and potentially my pedalboard powe supply) use PowerCon connectors too. They're the 'same but different' power-cable version of Speakon connectors. My stage-rig's power amp has a PowerCon. and while I do carry a self-built converter (Powercon to IEC) in my 'in case of bag' I've never needed it.
 
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#57
agedhorse said:
Let me step in here for a minute... the OP has IMO been very gracious in sharing his experience with us for the benefit of everybody in this community. That takes quite a bit of humility and willingness to step up to the plate and "take one for the team" so to speak.

I have discussed this industry wide problem several times and every time there are a couple of members who suggest that I am making this stuff up. Clearly, I'm not as I have helped several members here with this exact issue and not just on our products but on ANY product that uses SpeakOn connectors (including our competitors). This is truly an INDUSTRY problem rather than any single amp/speaker manufacturer problem.

In the case of this particular problem (and a few others recently), the keys on the plug were molded undersize (both in diameter and in width) so that it was quite easy to install the plug backwards (180 degrees off) in the jack. Normally the keyways in the jack would reject this but there wasn't enough meat on the plug's keys to do so. Once the connector got twisted to lock, they got hung up on the machined reveal in the back of the housing and it wouldn't easily find its way back out. The difference in thickness of the key between the genuine plug and the knock-off was about 40%. This brand the OP confirmed was Monoprice (a generic "cable & accessory house"), and has been the source of many of the plugs that we have had to surgically remove from amplifiers. This is both time consuming and costly for us and is also costly and inconvenient for the customers. It is entirely avoidable by insisting on genuine neutrik plugs.

While it might appear that this was a user error, and in part it was, it would not have happened with a genuine plug because that's the entire purpose of the rejection keys (one is wide and the other is narrow). In fact, I tried a genuine plug in his amp just to verify and it would not go in backwards.

I posted a couple months ago about how the contact assemblies on another knockoff plug came apart inside the jack and bent one of the contact fingers back and bent the rest of the contact assembly. This caused what first appeared to be an intermittent, defective amp but in the end was a damaged jack.

This is not unlike the challenges we had years ago with 1/4" plugs that had "unique" tip profiles, some so poorly designed that they would crush the leading edge of the contacts on some jacks. There was also the oversized and undersized plug sleeves that would either get stuck, damage the jack or bend the guts that would then make other plugs intermittent. The rule back then was to stick with Switchcraft and Neutrik plugs!

I hope this information is helpful to everybody here.

View attachment 3984004
Click to expand...

IMHO your advice is always helpful Andy. Many thanks.
 
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#58
I'll echo the question someone else posited a page or two back: any word on the REAN marked connectors which are marketed as a subsidiary or licensee of Neutrik? Does anyone have personal experience of problems with these specific connectors?

I have a Hosa cable with these REAN connectors that I got from Sweetwater, and it's been fine so far... granted, it was simply plugged in once, with care, between a TCBQ500 and an Ampeg SVT410HLF cab and hasn't been subjected to anything else.

Hosa SKT-410 Speakon Pro Speaker Cable -10'
 

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