Soldering speakon cables?

[nightanole]

Not sure if this is the right forum, but i havent seen much interconnects threads.

Anyway neutrik advertises most of there speakon cable ends as solderable. I have nl4fx, nl2fc, and nl4fc. I dont see how you could solder to any of these. I guess if you remove the set setscrew and retainer, and then get an odd shaped tip that as long and slender as the set screw, with very little taper it might work. It also would seem that this little tip would also need to have the mass of the sun in order to heat the well and 14 gauge quickly without melting everything else and resulting in the solder wicking up into the insulation.

still the nl2fc looks almost impossible.

[AndrewT]

the speakons I have are all screw terminated.

I would expect solderable to be built very differently.

[nightanole]

They dont have solder and screw for cables like they do for panel mounts, they only have 1 kind for cables, and they say they can be soldered or screwed, and lot of sites that sell pre made cables say they are soldered. I just dont see how. Yes the cups looks perfect for soldering, but getting to them looks impossible. This is my first time with speakons, but im having alittle trouble keeping the wires in. I pop the wire in, and start cranking the screw, and the lead squirts back out. I only got one set done, and i did that by screwing it down under my work solder microscope inorder to make sure the lead wasnt being pushed out with by the compression flange. This is with the 2 pole, why each unit has to have a diff way of holding the wire is beyond me. Some models have the screw at a 45 to the wire, some models have smooth compression flanges, some are ribbed.

Looks like the STX Series does have solder cup only, but the fx series advertises solderable screw terminals.

[DavesNotHere]

yea you can solder them, but it takes a really powerful solder station (800 deg F ) and you have to work hot and quick. pre tinting seems to help.

I usually solder them after I screw them down. the newer style ones (phillips screws) seem to be better for those who roll them out for the stage

[simon7000]

They used to include copper sleeves. You would put the cable in the sleeves and making sure they stayed round to fit the terminals you could then solder them. The set screws would dig into the sleeve so it would not come loose.

It is a bad idea to tin leads that are held in place by any clamp. The solder continues to squeeze out and the connection fails.

The older NL4's used a 1.5 mm set screw and unless you had the right allen wrench it would not tighten well. The newer design with the phillips combo screw and flap is a better arrangement. If you solder these you can overheat things and get into trouble.

But the old fashioned Weller gun is the tool for the job.