With colour-coding and/or numbering it can be made fairly foolproof. Works on my 14-amplifier system.
Maybe you can sell the expensive cables and get some 8 or 2 x 4 conductor cable (even though some still wants us to believe in exotics, it is only the size that matters 🙂 ).
To tidy up connections in a rack, you could again look towards pro touring. Some makes a rack with a number of amps, and then within the rack connect these to an output plate/panel (sometimes on the front). Take a look at e.g. L'Acoustics LA-RAK https://www.l-acoustics.com/products/la-rak-ii-avb/ for inspiration (though they use PA-Con connectors for 8 pole ... would guess because it is higher IP rating?) ... other companies like LAB Gruppen or Crown uses SpeakON 8 pole for 4 way)
Many moon ago back in the time I was still nitpicking about minor details we did some measurements on all kinds of loudspeaker connections including some highly expensive “highend” banana plugs and the cheap speakon connection came out on top in terms of least contact resistance, least parasitic capacitance and inductance so highest bandwith. I never use anything else since, highly reliable, highly convenient and very cheap.
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I remember the days of jack plugs and sockets for speaker connections.
I did a mobile disco gig and all was going well.
I then tripped over speaker lead and it got pulled out.
It must have shorted on the way out.
Luckily I just blew amp output fuse.
A quick fuse change and back to the gig.
I can definitely see the benefit from a none messy point of view, particularly with the derig which always gets annoyingly tangled. But the 8 pole cable really is expensive. Something to think about for the future though. As more subs and mid bass units (and amps) are added later I'll need more cabling so I should really think about biting the bullet and changing it all up then. Thanks for the suggestions.
8x2.5mm2 is only 9 €/m ..... but you could also go for a dual 4 pole setup, mid-high together and bass alone ..... If you have subs I guess they have internal amps
https://www.thomann.de/dk/cordial_cls_825.htm
https://www.thomann.de/dk/cordial_cls_825.htm
Yes that's cheaper than the van damme and Klotz stuff I found but I was looking at 4mm. Although that 2.5mm stuff you listed would be perfectly fine for the mid bass, mids, highs (which is currently what I have anyway for those).
Too true. I use 8-pole for my 3-way tops and double up on the 2.5mm for the dual 12s.
Neutrik SpeakON all the way !
I have 4-way tops, and typically put both 8-pole Neutrik, and two 4-pole, into each top for flexibility in connecting to various amps.
Many pro amps have 4-pole outputs; haven't encountered any 8-pole.
Use either 2 or 4-pole for subs, but using only 2 poles.
Fwiw, ....and just my 2 cents.
There is never any need ime, for more than one 2.5mm, which is totally fine even for a 3000W, double 18", 4 ohm load, and 20m runs.....i
(And yep, quite familiar with damping factor.....and running peak voltage loss math, etc)
I have 4-way tops, and typically put both 8-pole Neutrik, and two 4-pole, into each top for flexibility in connecting to various amps.
Many pro amps have 4-pole outputs; haven't encountered any 8-pole.
Use either 2 or 4-pole for subs, but using only 2 poles.
Fwiw, ....and just my 2 cents.
There is never any need ime, for more than one 2.5mm, which is totally fine even for a 3000W, double 18", 4 ohm load, and 20m runs.....i
(And yep, quite familiar with damping factor.....and running peak voltage loss math, etc)
Maybe it is (I don't think so) but one thing's for certain - it's not going to do any harm! 😉