I have a pretty magical pair of bookshelfs, a T-Amp that has surpassed all expectations and a 18650 battery pack to power everything. I have been bringing this setup on camping trips and the sound quality is magical, especially compared to those awful shrill $100 bluetooth speakers other friends bring... which I believe are causing permanent irreparable damage to my central nervous system.
This year I am adding a sub (not really needed) and packaging everything all together in a neat box to make an easier to transport package. The amp/battery enclosure is sized to perfectly fit on top of the small sub. I want the speakers to attach and easily detach from the amplifier/power enclosure. I am an accomplished woodworker and also have access to a pretty decent machining facility.
Any ideas on how to attach and lock the speakers to the main enclosure for transport while being able to quickly detach them for use? Sometimes lighter speakers and no sub would be much easier to transport so I would like to attach different speakers just as easily. I have several pairs of quality but beaten up bookshelf sets that I have picked up used for cheap over the years. I am not worried about devaluing these speakers by adding brackets to them.
I am also sick and tired of banana plugs! Even decent quality banana plugs! I want something quicker and easier... and preferably locking. I am looking at the SpeakOn connectors but get the impression that they are kind of big and clumsy. I spent over an hour searching this forum but couldn't find any great ideas for compact speaker connectors. I do have a small collection of XLR connectors and they are kind of big and clumsy for a small portable system. I am considering RJ-45 female plugs and Cat-6 shielded twisted pair cables for connecting the speakers. I am thinking of ganging together 4 leads for positive and the other four leads for negative with each twisted pair having one positive and one negative wire. This isn't a low powered system. I feel comfortable altering the speakers with Cat 6 RJ-45 plugs.
P.S. I appreciate "out of the box" thinking and ideas!
This year I am adding a sub (not really needed) and packaging everything all together in a neat box to make an easier to transport package. The amp/battery enclosure is sized to perfectly fit on top of the small sub. I want the speakers to attach and easily detach from the amplifier/power enclosure. I am an accomplished woodworker and also have access to a pretty decent machining facility.
Any ideas on how to attach and lock the speakers to the main enclosure for transport while being able to quickly detach them for use? Sometimes lighter speakers and no sub would be much easier to transport so I would like to attach different speakers just as easily. I have several pairs of quality but beaten up bookshelf sets that I have picked up used for cheap over the years. I am not worried about devaluing these speakers by adding brackets to them.
I am also sick and tired of banana plugs! Even decent quality banana plugs! I want something quicker and easier... and preferably locking. I am looking at the SpeakOn connectors but get the impression that they are kind of big and clumsy. I spent over an hour searching this forum but couldn't find any great ideas for compact speaker connectors. I do have a small collection of XLR connectors and they are kind of big and clumsy for a small portable system. I am considering RJ-45 female plugs and Cat-6 shielded twisted pair cables for connecting the speakers. I am thinking of ganging together 4 leads for positive and the other four leads for negative with each twisted pair having one positive and one negative wire. This isn't a low powered system. I feel comfortable altering the speakers with Cat 6 RJ-45 plugs.
P.S. I appreciate "out of the box" thinking and ideas!
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I vote for the BNC. It’s like a much nicer version of the RCA cord, and you can buy nice pre made cables in various lengths that will work for this. Which is really good if you’re not the best at putting the connectors on (the right tool is required). It will be coaxial, limited to maybe 20 AWG, but still handle all the current that Cat 5/6 with the pairs bundled will.
I used these for connecting parts of a high-tech bBBQ smoker:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1527467603...e0PoN9XpYwaU5trGCIQt4HKEg=|tkp:Bk9SR8Lyjvi_Yw
Available in a lot of different configurations, they lock and resist pull-out and the quality seems very good for the price. Great looking also.
Another more old-school is the type of connectors used for CB radio microphones. Not water-resistant, but they have a ring that screws dow, locking them in place. If you're patient, you can sometimes find some decent prices on Lemo connectors, the Swiss-made gold standard for medical devices and scientific instrumentation.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1527467603...e0PoN9XpYwaU5trGCIQt4HKEg=|tkp:Bk9SR8Lyjvi_Yw
Available in a lot of different configurations, they lock and resist pull-out and the quality seems very good for the price. Great looking also.
Another more old-school is the type of connectors used for CB radio microphones. Not water-resistant, but they have a ring that screws dow, locking them in place. If you're patient, you can sometimes find some decent prices on Lemo connectors, the Swiss-made gold standard for medical devices and scientific instrumentation.
I like the BNC connector idea. I installed a fair amount of 10base2 (RG58) coax before the 10baseT (twisted pair) spec was ratified and ushered in the modern era of data processing. Crimping BNC connectors on to coax (I still own my coax BNC crimpers!) didn't translate into putting BNC connectors on the end of speaker wire in my mind.
Are you guys talking about those BNC connectors that have a couple of screw pads for terminating the speaker wires? Do you guys know of any solder connector equivalents? I guess that screw tabs would be pretty easy to field repair while camping!
Thank you for the feed back!
Are you guys talking about those BNC connectors that have a couple of screw pads for terminating the speaker wires? Do you guys know of any solder connector equivalents? I guess that screw tabs would be pretty easy to field repair while camping!
Thank you for the feed back!
Is there any down side to running speaker level audio over coax? I will have to look into thin coax with stranded center conductors and see what I can find. Cable impedance?
Edit: https://www.amazon.com/Coaxial-Copper-Stranded-Center-Conductor/dp/B00PBMCV3Q/ref=sr_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Os-oqm2atSNI2LAGoPka_L9wQNNNx6LuX5AzeTtjhJ_ieziwCvZALj2lg5NPTRKRyzg60kG0s1GtFjAp6AvCbz45fmXJqPfGnnYQKCc4TG15OGT2JJASCItV-N7qMjTUBnIzM4W0LGX0U8jvCM5bJVe0lpzJvhbz5aYT_4jz9cMIczgIopLG3jnWiqlTb-_2aN0Vg7JEle3VkJwe2YdkhzMPM1JM-1VEksfEx_ak_nA.XTez8XoWNFSblcLcCp4Y587VYQ30EyI3ZxmXqePlNVQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=coax+stranded+bnc+15'&sr=8-3&th=1
Second edit (Even better): https://www.amazon.com/Amphenol-CO-...e&keywords=thin+coax+stranded+bnc+15'&sr=8-20
Hmmm... anyone know how flexible these cables are?
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I have tossed around the niobium magnet idea and I am sure I will use them for keeping a storage compartment shut (for storing the speaker wire). I guess I could use some thicker magnets and let them protrude from the speaker then sink the mating magnets into the amp box so there is a mechanical function keeping the magnets from sliding off of each other.
I have been tossing around the French cleat idea.
My current thoughts are a strip of 1/4" aluminum down the side of the amplifier cabinet with slip holes down the entire strip. Then a toggle latch on the top.
This is what I mean be slip holes. I would have a piece of aluminum (or maybe steel) with several of these slip holes machined into it.
Something like this for a latch on the top:
The multiple slip holes would allow me to accommodate speakers of different heights. The right toggle latch at the top would keep the speaker from sliding up and off the slip hole.
I will, of course, need to lift the entire system onto my shoulder so I can blast the neighbors while walking my hood.
Hmmm... 1/4" thick aluminum plate with slip holes milled into it would make the aluminum no more than 1/8" thick where it holds the stud from the speaker. Will that be strong enough?
Edit: If I used a countersink head bolt as the stud on the speaker and champered the back of the slip hole plate aluminum should be plenty strong.
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All the BNC cables I have are pre-made and have stranded center conductors and braided shields. They either have 2 BNCs or a BNC on one end and E-Z clips on the other. I believe all are 50 ohm, although that does not matter. All made for interconnecting test equipment. I‘m sure you could buy it by the roll too. But for some sort of boom box, why would you not need either 1, 3 or 10 foot cables?
Solid wire center conductor and aluminum foil shield would be a non-starter for me. I remember putting on F connectors and saying a few F words back in my satellite dish installation days. And if you remember back to the C-band days, there’s RG213 with real N connectors. Those screw on, rather than twist lock. But will handle some power. Not very flexible, though. And if you do kink it, it will set up a reflection that adds loss at RF frequency.
One minor gotcha on all these - the 75 and 50 ohm versions of the connectors are *different”. Match the ohms to be sure they FIT. The impedance is related to the ratio of the diameters.
After much consideration I decided to go with spade (banana) connectors AND add a RCA connector to each speaker terminal backplate. The idea of RCA connectors on speakers so reeks of the cheapest just stereos of my youth... in the 80's. I am thinking there are decent RCA connectors these days. What made me go this direction is the RCA connectors will be very quick to plug in and pull out if someone trips over a cable... this is a camping setup.
Here is a picture of my mini-sub box:
with a fresh heavy coat of Rustoleum bed liner spray. I am using a TangBang 5 1/4" sub driver and two 6 1/2" passive radiators. It doesn't give me massive thumping sound but it does give me very nice tight controlled bass which merges very nicely with my bookshelf speakers. Tight bass is what I was after.
Here is a picture of my mini-sub box:
with a fresh heavy coat of Rustoleum bed liner spray. I am using a TangBang 5 1/4" sub driver and two 6 1/2" passive radiators. It doesn't give me massive thumping sound but it does give me very nice tight controlled bass which merges very nicely with my bookshelf speakers. Tight bass is what I was after.
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