Wiring SPEAK ON in series

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Droco

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Joined 2017
I don't quite get how to wire the internal of a sub as to allow both 1 sub per channel as to wire those subs in series and parallel. It's easy to do with regular speaker wire, but I dont get how one would do this with speak on.

Any help is appreciated!
 
NEO Dan

NEO Dan

Member
Joined 2008
On the speaker cabinet you have a female speakon with 1+ 1- 2+ 2- going to two woofers?

A series cable would have a male speakon cable end plugged into the cabinet with a jumper going from 1- to 2+ and 1+ 2- would be routed down a 2 conductor cable to the amp.

A parallel cable is typically a 4 conductor cable with all 4 pins wired on the cabinet end and the 1+ 2+ going to the + amp output and 1- 2- going to the - output on the amp.
 
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cbdb

Member
Joined 2008
Do your amp a favour, Wire them for 4 ohms. 4 ohms is the nominal impedance, the actual impedance may be less at some frequency, so even if you could wire them for 2 it might actualy be less at certain Fs and few amps can drive less than 2 ohms at high levels.
 
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Droco

Member
Joined 2017
All of this info is not very helpfull.. yes I know 4x 4ohm woofers cant get to 2 ohm, but 2 on each channel can. Playing safe is ofcourse something I can still consider, but not relevant to my question.

That doesnt my answer how I would have to wire the speak on connections internally to the driver, as to make the subwoofer able to be wired in parallel to another similary wired sub.

Dont get me wrong, I appreciate the time being invested in my topic, but I just need to know how (if at all possible) to wire this.
 
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conanski

Member
Joined 2013
Droco said:
how I would have to wire the speak on connections internally to the driver, as to make the subwoofer able to be wired in parallel to another similary wired sub.
Click to expand...
No special wiring necessary to parallel wire 2 boxes, of course that would present a 1ohm load to whatever amp this is connected to so good luck with that.

Connecting the 2 boxes in series on the other hand would present a 4 ohm load, for that you need a custom wired splitter box that connects from the 1- terminal of one box to the +1 terminal on the other box. This also allows for the use of standard speakon cables, you could also do this with a custom speakon Y cable contraption but it's gonna be ugly to assemble if you need to use wire of any size.
 
TBTL

TBTL

Member
Joined 2013
Droco said:
I am planning to use 4 woofers, but again.. not relevant. I want to have the option to wire them in series or parallel. I dont need or want to go into the specifics of picking the correct amps and drivers.
Click to expand...
Yes it is relevant. We need to know how many woofers are in a cabinet, how many cabinets are connected to the amplifier and what amplifier it is. We need to know the amplifier model to determine what load it can handle.
 
M

MAAC0

Member
Joined 2010
On all of my self-built PA speakers there are two speakons wired in parallel, so I can daisy chain them. I believe it's much standard on non powered speakers.
So on the amp You have 2 speakons one for L & one for R.
On the speakers You have two, In & Out wired in parallel.
In Pa amps normally terminals 1+ & 1- are used, but there are also amps which use terminals 2 for the other channel or wire the 2+ in parallel with 1- for bridging.
 
M

Mark Tillotson

Member
Joined 2018
One way is to build a splitter box for series connection, one speakon in, two out in series, clearly labelled.

For parallel daisy chain the drivers (ie you need at least one driver to have two speakons).
For series connect up the box.

If you want to integrate into a cabinet a large DPDT high current switch might be simpler option. Upto about 25A DPDT switches aren't too crazy in price(*), and never switch under high load. Switch is much less confusing to deal with.


(*) https://uk.farnell.com/nkk-switches/s332/toggle-switch-dpdt-on-on/dp/1524256
 
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D

Droco

Member
Joined 2017
conanski said:
No special wiring necessary to parallel wire 2 boxes, of course that would present a 1ohm load to whatever amp this is connected to so good luck with that.

Connecting the 2 boxes in series on the other hand would present a 4 ohm load, for that you need a custom wired splitter box that connects from the 1- terminal of one box to the +1 terminal on the other box. This also allows for the use of standard speakon cables, you could also do this with a custom speakon Y cable contraption but it's gonna be ugly to assemble if you need to use wire of any size.
Click to expand...

MAAC0 said:
On all of my self-built PA speakers there are two speakons wired in parallel, so I can daisy chain them. I believe it's much standard on non powered speakers.
So on the amp You have 2 speakons one for L & one for R.
On the speakers You have two, In & Out wired in parallel.
In Pa amps normally terminals 1+ & 1- are used, but there are also amps which use terminals 2 for the other channel or wire the 2+ in parallel with 1- for bridging.
Click to expand...

Mark Tillotson said:
One way is to build a splitter box for series connection, one speakon in, two out in series, clearly labelled.

For parallel daisy chain the drivers (ie you need at least one driver to have two speakons).
For series connect up the box.

If you want to integrate into a cabinet a large DPDT high current switch might be simpler option. Upto about 25A DPDT switches aren't too crazy in price(*), and never switch under high load. Switch is much less confusing to deal with.


(*) https://uk.farnell.com/nkk-switches/s332/toggle-switch-dpdt-on-on/dp/1524256
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! ! This is the stuff I was looking for :)
 
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