Speaker wiring question.

Pickups, pedals, amps, cabs, combos

Moderated By: mods

User avatar
ekwatts
A series of tubes
Posts: 24579
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Bongchester

Speaker wiring question.

Post by ekwatts »

So lots of ohm questions asked just recently and I think my question in my other thread got lost amongst them.

I have my cab wired up so both 16 ohm speakers have an individual socket. My question is if I wanted to use this cab for a more common 8 ohm input in parallel, could I just use the other two tags on the speakers? So have both speakers wired into a single jack socket in parallel. Will the fact that all speaker tags are being used but not necessarily for the same circuit cause any problems?

Like this:

Image

So I'd either be using both 16ohm sockets or just the 8ohm socket.
Image
Brandon W wrote:you elites.
User avatar
laterallateral
Traynor or Death
Posts: 5950
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:15 am
Location: Montery Howl

Post by laterallateral »

I believe that's exactly what these extra tabs are for.

If you've got any doubts, you could just wire it all up and test the impedance on a multimeter, though.
If it reads in at 8 ohms, you're gold.
User avatar
ekwatts
A series of tubes
Posts: 24579
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Bongchester

Post by ekwatts »

laterallateral wrote:I believe that's exactly what these extra tabs are for.

If you've got any doubts, you could just wire it all up and test the impedance on a multimeter, though.
If it reads in at 8 ohms, you're gold.
Ka-ching, didn't think of that.

I thought those other tags were for wiring speakers in series and stuff?

I have a socket that I bought as a mono socket, but it has four tags; I take it it's cool if I attach all four tags to the correct legs of that socket and I'm good to go?
Image
Brandon W wrote:you elites.
User avatar
laterallateral
Traynor or Death
Posts: 5950
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:15 am
Location: Montery Howl

Post by laterallateral »

This what you're talking about?

Image

If so, then yes.
Last edited by laterallateral on Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
ekwatts
A series of tubes
Posts: 24579
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Bongchester

Post by ekwatts »

No no, I mean the mono socket has four tags for the speaker wires to attach to. I thought it was odd at first when I bought it that a mono socket would have four tags but realised it was probably meant for just this eventuality. The backplate will end up having three sockets; two 16ohm ones for the individual speakers and one 8ohm socket.
Image
Brandon W wrote:you elites.
User avatar
laterallateral
Traynor or Death
Posts: 5950
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:15 am
Location: Montery Howl

Post by laterallateral »

Oh, if you're doing it with three individual mono jacks, just wire it up exactly like your diagram shows and you'll be tight.

Still not certain what you're talking about with the four tags on the mono jacks but I guess it doesn't really matter, so long as you're sure the tags you're wiring your cables to correspond to the sleeve and tip of the connector.
User avatar
laterallateral
Traynor or Death
Posts: 5950
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:15 am
Location: Montery Howl

Post by laterallateral »

OHHH... You know what these extra tabs might be for? (and forgive me if I was just being tick and that's what you've been trying to tell me all along)

It might be so that you can jump multiple jacks, in order to achieve exactly what you're talking about without having to have spools of wiring dangling inside your cabinet....

Duuhhh. Sorry.
User avatar
ekwatts
A series of tubes
Posts: 24579
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Bongchester

Post by ekwatts »

This: http://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/produc ... -Jack.html

It has two legs on one side and two on the other. So I take it I just plug the wires from both speakers to the right sleeve/tip bits on either side? Or if it's switched, does that mean only one side will work at any one time?
Image
Brandon W wrote:you elites.
User avatar
laterallateral
Traynor or Death
Posts: 5950
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:15 am
Location: Montery Howl

Post by laterallateral »

yep, these are for the "two jack" method.

You would have your 8 ohm load connected to one set of tabs, the two other tabs would be connected to a two way switch which would be connected to your one side of your 16 ohm load and the other side of that would be connected to the two tabs on the other connector. That way you can toggle between 8 ohm mono operation and 16 ohm stereo.

But you're going the three jack route so you can straight up disregard the extra set of contacts on these jacks.
User avatar
ekwatts
A series of tubes
Posts: 24579
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Bongchester

Post by ekwatts »

Ahhh, soooo... I have clip-on wires. How do I work it that way? I'll have four wires but only two connectors. Will I have to unwrap two of the wire ends and curl the ends of two wires into each clip?

The wires have ends like these: http://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/produc ... lated.html
Image
Brandon W wrote:you elites.
User avatar
laterallateral
Traynor or Death
Posts: 5950
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:15 am
Location: Montery Howl

Post by laterallateral »

if you only have two of these clippy things available for your 8 ohm side and insist on using them, you're going to have to splice your wires together, yeah.

You could crimp two wires into one clippy thing but then it might be unnecessarily messy. I would splice my wires as close to the speakers as possible to avoid this but that's just me.
User avatar
NickS
.
.
Posts: 13769
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:08 am
Location: Down at the end, round by a corner

Post by NickS »

One jack socket has two tags (unswitched) and one has four (switched), right?

On the 4-tag socket, one speaker should be connected to the two tags that each have a long contact that gets pushed up when you put the plug in. Connect the other two tags to the tags on the 2-tag socket.

When you only have a jack in the socket with two tags, the speakers will be in parallel because the contacts are closed on the 4-tag socket = 8 ohms

When you have a jack in the 4-tag socket it will break the connections between the long and short contacts. That socket will then only connect to the one speaker, and the 2-tag socket will be connected only to the other speaker = 2x 16 ohms.