Speakon Connector help

[jacqui01]

Can any one give me some advice.

I had a problem over the weekend after setting up for a gig, had no sound, although everything was monitoring through the PA, monitor lights flashing, after changing round several leads, we almost gave up, then got a spare speaker lead from the car, Jack one end speakon the other, lucky enough my speakers take both, and it worked.
When we got back home, tried it all again, and everything worked OK, till the next gig, nothing again, finally after a through check again yesterday I think we have found the culprit, a faulty connection on one end of the one of the speaker leads. speakons both ends.
I opened it up, only two wires inside my speaker cable and four connectors inside, so opened the other end to copy that one and that one is faulty too, only one wire inside connected.
so I've looked at the website and thats where I'm lost, it says on the site
For easy wiring especially on big cables, first
screw on the inner contacts 1+ and 2+ and
afterwards the outer contacts 1- and 2- !
so what about just two leads and the only numbers I can see are on the outside casing -2 +2
don't want to blow myself or my away.

The other thing I was wondering was why both speakers would not work, when only one cable was faulty, you would thing just one speaker would come on at least.?

link NL4FX connector model
www.neutrik.com/fl/en/audio/210_612654417/NL4FX_detail.aspx
any advise appreciated.
Jacqui

[JohnG]

Hi Jacqui,

You were so nearly right there. Try going here:
www.neutrik.com/content/technicalsupport/assemblies.aspx
and you'll find assembly instructions for almost everything Neutrik.
Probably the 1st one in the Speakon section i.e the "SPEAKON System" pdf. But maybe you've got that.

I would have thought that you just need +1 and -1. i.e. wire it up as if it's a two pin plug.
Which one is connected already? I expect either + or - 1. If it's either of those then just connect the opposite polarity. If you've got +2 and -2 marked then it's the other two terminals. The +ve is more towards the centre of the plug the -ve further out. If you connect them in reverse then bass frequencies will cancel out. (nothing worse) so you will just need to swap the wires over. If you connect to the wrong terminals (i.e. + - 2) then I suspect you'll just hear nothing at all. But the best advice I can give you is to be guided by the good working connection and "take your time"!



As for why neither speaker came on, it's possible that the loose lead was shorting across to the other lead inside the plug, that would usually cause the amplifier to bring in its protection circuit to stop you or the amplifier frying. Result "nada"!

Hope that helps?
JohnG.

[jacqui01]

Hi John
Thanks for your reply and all the information, When I checked the leads it appeared that only one terminal was securely connected at either end, and that was the - 1 in both cases, the other one was loose in the terminal not catching the screw very well.
So I will go with your advise and connect the -1 & +1.
One thing I was wondering is what the -2 & +2 means written on the casing of the connector? does that have any relevance to connecting the wires.
Thanks
Jacqui

[JohnG]

Hi Jacqui,

Sometimes a four wire connector is used to carry a stereo signal to a speaker (like a sub) which has two voice coils on the one cone, and combines left and right channels into the one LS. In this case you would use +&- 1 for say left and +&-2 for right. It's just that AFAIK the four way connector has become an industry standard even for mono connections. My hi-fi sub has a four wire Speakon plug for both channels.

Hope that helps,
JohnG.

[jacqui01]

Hi John
Just to let you know I have all my Speaker Cables up and running again and all working perfectly, thanks you for all the information, which helped me so much.
Cheers Jacqui

[JohnG]

Good to know, my great pleasure Jacqui.
JohnG.

[moonie]

Hi Jacqui...it's always worth reading the back of amplifiers and speakers, usually the required information is there (even if it's not always easy to understand. The wiring requirements can change from manufacturer to manufacturer but it is quite common (no golden rules though) for subs to be wired to the 2's and tops wired to the 1's, sometimes it's the opposite and sometimes just the 1's.
Speakers: usually 1's or 2's not both...1 reason for this is if you split the 4 core wire at the amp end and patch the 1's to the left channel and the 2's to the right channel then the subs and tops can be fed by 1 cable to the sub then patched to the top box from the sub out...the 2's send signal to the speaker and the out plug and the 1's send signal to the outplug only then on to the top box, the connecting lead from the sub to the top box would be wired on the 1's only...yeah?

Amps: usually in stereo mode send on 1's, so sometimes to run subs you might wire the amp end to 1's and the sub to 2's...
: bridged mode, sometimes you need the lead wired 1+2+ at the amp end, sometimes 1+1-...

regarding the iffy connections that some speakons get, I tend to trim the wire twice the length I need fold it back on itself, twist it together and "tin" the ends (a light solder) then screw it in the speakon connector.