I had forgotten about this thread.
Take the cord cut it in half, strip the neutral and ground wires if you're worried about it. The real thing is to use them in this manner I believe.
At the speaker, use the stripped end with the female plug. No way to plug that in.
At the amp use the stripped end with the male plug. Then plug the two together. If you need it longer just use a regular extension cord between them. When you are finished, you remove the wires from the amp as you always would when you tear down. No way to plug the amp in.
Anyway, 18 years later and no concerns.
Take the cord cut it in half, strip the neutral and ground wires if you're worried about it. The real thing is to use them in this manner I believe.
At the speaker, use the stripped end with the female plug. No way to plug that in.
At the amp use the stripped end with the male plug. Then plug the two together. If you need it longer just use a regular extension cord between them. When you are finished, you remove the wires from the amp as you always would when you tear down. No way to plug the amp in.
Anyway, 18 years later and no concerns.
When I worked at Speaker City back in the 80s we would torture test any 12 or 15 inch pro driver that came in with a torn cone by plugging it in to the ac. Some of the good EV or JBL woofers would actually play for several seconds before melt down while cheaper drivers would give a loud brapppppp for about half a second and catch on fire. Sometimes the whole voice coil would eject out of the cone. The good old days!
Perry
Tell me which one of the conductors in a Schuko outlet or plug is the neutral.
Here at home I know because I've wired all the outlets the same way (Left Neutral / Right Live)
Use Speakon or some other type of connector for safety sake.
Tell me which one of the conductors in a Schuko outlet or plug is the neutral.
Here at home I know because I've wired all the outlets the same way (Left Neutral / Right Live)
Use Speakon or some other type of connector for safety sake.
Speaking of unintentional damage, between grad school and my first engineering stint, I worked for a brief time fixing stuff for a stereo store before the place went belly up.. This was the 70's, and CB radios were all the rage. One enterprising individual used a standard 2-prog AC plug and socket to deliver the 12V DC to his CB rig. One of his "friends" got the wrong idea and plugged the rig into a std 115VAC socket. I was told that after that, there was nothing left saving inside - it must have made quite a racket.....
You all know Scott Wurcer - he lived down the hall from me in my early years at MIT. At the time, everyone was building the David Weems-designed "Thrifty 3-Way" speaker from an article in Popular Electronics. The dorm we lived in had long corridors, especially good for setting up standing waves. Scott may have broken in his newly made speakers with a thundering rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner". Another person (maybe it was Scott, maybe not), plugged his speakers into a variac and cranked it up, generating standing waves in the long, long corridor.
Here's a link to the Poptronics issue that had the speaker plans...
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/60s/69/Pop-1969-02.pdf
Here's a link to the Poptronics issue that had the speaker plans...
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/60s/69/Pop-1969-02.pdf
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By all means avoid Mains plugs, PERIOD.
Not even using just females is safe, and using male ones is INSANE.
Beside the terribly UNSAFE side of the equation, as in PERSONAL safety, up to and including danger of DEATH, there is also the high possibility that some idiot will do something idiotic.
I once made a PA system for Maria Creuza, one of the best Brazilian female voices and THE reference for Bossa nova (being one of its creators).
They carried my system to Uruguay, where morons hired a "regular" Electrician to install it "fixed".
He used regular zip cord (so far so good, no matter what crazy cable threads say) BUT regular male and female 220V mains plugs and sockets (2 parallel round pins each, the classic European type).
Needless to say, at some time somebody fed 220V to speaker lines, blowing not only speakers but amps.
By the way, it caused me to be booked by Uruguayan Customs Police as an International Bootlegger, go figure.
I carried luggage chock full of spare speakers , plus boxes of tools , selected 100V 2N3055H transistors,TIP drivers, assorted components, the works.
At the Airport they wouldn´t let me through, and I was in a hurry, so I left my passport there as a guarantee and went through to the Club so that very night they could work again.
Needless to say, an over zealous 4ssh0le saw the opportunity fit to make a big scandal, and book me for bootlegging.
Thanks God everything cleared the next day.
So in a nutshell: AVOID using mains connectors of any kind, except for strict mains duty, of course.
EDIT: thinking US or European members may not have much clue about who Maria Creuza is, here´s a free sample:
Not even using just females is safe, and using male ones is INSANE.
Beside the terribly UNSAFE side of the equation, as in PERSONAL safety, up to and including danger of DEATH, there is also the high possibility that some idiot will do something idiotic.
I once made a PA system for Maria Creuza, one of the best Brazilian female voices and THE reference for Bossa nova (being one of its creators).
They carried my system to Uruguay, where morons hired a "regular" Electrician to install it "fixed".
He used regular zip cord (so far so good, no matter what crazy cable threads say) BUT regular male and female 220V mains plugs and sockets (2 parallel round pins each, the classic European type).
Needless to say, at some time somebody fed 220V to speaker lines, blowing not only speakers but amps.
By the way, it caused me to be booked by Uruguayan Customs Police as an International Bootlegger, go figure.
I carried luggage chock full of spare speakers , plus boxes of tools , selected 100V 2N3055H transistors,TIP drivers, assorted components, the works.
At the Airport they wouldn´t let me through, and I was in a hurry, so I left my passport there as a guarantee and went through to the Club so that very night they could work again.
Needless to say, an over zealous 4ssh0le saw the opportunity fit to make a big scandal, and book me for bootlegging.
Thanks God everything cleared the next day.
So in a nutshell: AVOID using mains connectors of any kind, except for strict mains duty, of course.
EDIT: thinking US or European members may not have much clue about who Maria Creuza is, here´s a free sample:
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And for even more history, this article is available here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030606233446/https://www.passlabs.com/pdf/spkrcabl.pdf
I like that thread!
The notion of ditching fancy wires and getting fancy with totally ordinary stuff is just cool. And saves money.
And thanks to all for emphasizing the importance of the use of „deliberate“/unmistakable plugs!
The notion of ditching fancy wires and getting fancy with totally ordinary stuff is just cool. And saves money.
And thanks to all for emphasizing the importance of the use of „deliberate“/unmistakable plugs!
Years ago there was an article about using Walmart's 14awg outdoor extension cord for speaker cables - forgot the brand. I tried it. It sounded like cr*p.
As said by many others in this thread: Do not even think of using mains type connectors anywhere in a speaker cord! This will be fatal in the end, for your speakers, for your children, for your wife and/or for you. Anyway, iIf you can buy ready for use mains extension cords for less money than copper cable of the same length and cross section off the spool, one might suspect the mains cord isn't copper, but copper clad aluminium. Been there, seen it. But if it is real copper throughout, go for it. Forget about what some say about the crappy sound of cables without some fancy name.
Best regards!
Best regards!
Agree with the advice re never using AC connectors.
That said, as many of my designs are 3 way active, 2.5mm2 (~13AWG) mains cable is the cheapest way to get 6 conductors, they're white and lay flat. I use the A and N of one run for LF, A and N of the other run for MF and the 2 earth conductors for HF as they're 1.5mm2. Just mark one with a bit of heatshrink to show which E conductor is + and -.
I'd have no problem with a single pair run for outdoor speakers either.
That said, as many of my designs are 3 way active, 2.5mm2 (~13AWG) mains cable is the cheapest way to get 6 conductors, they're white and lay flat. I use the A and N of one run for LF, A and N of the other run for MF and the 2 earth conductors for HF as they're 1.5mm2. Just mark one with a bit of heatshrink to show which E conductor is + and -.
I'd have no problem with a single pair run for outdoor speakers either.
Having a few Pioneer sx828 receivers, I make speaker cables with vatious length extensions by turning one blade 90 degrees on the male ends, cutting off the females, either tinning the ends or adding bananas. I'm safe unless the moron has pliers!!
That was awesome Samps, thx!
Made for for some good nostalgia too....i've sat at those RA picnic tables...
I don't mean to be an un-politically-correct killjoy.....but come-on guys...do we really need to keep reminding each other not to leave it where someone could plug the speaker into AC ???
I know the world's steadily moving towards idiocracy, but are we there already ??? 😢
I know the world's steadily moving towards idiocracy, but are we there already ??? 😢