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First build . Got the skills just not the skills

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Larry23 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Larry23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 January 2026 at 8:22pm
Originally posted by fudge22 fudge22 wrote:

Quote 3 x metres 2 core 2.5mm speaker cable £3.81


With 6 drive units, each cable is 0.5m long. How does that work? I would have suspected a typo, but Blue Aran's price of £1.27 per metre x 3 metres = £3.81 says not.

If using 4 pin Speakons with two drives in the top cabinet,  4 core cable would be a better option than 2 core. Using Blue Aran's price of £3.20 per metre, and a more realistic length of 6m each (still short), gives 24 x £3.20 = £76.80.

Personally, I don't see the point in quoting prices for second hand equipment. I managed to buy a low use Sennhiser wireless mic, with a 865 capsule, plus the receiver and case, for £40 off ebay. I doubt that is typical. Prices can vary considerably. Searching for the XTA DP226 bought up prices from £567 to £1200 on ebay. Given that the main aim of going the second hand route is to keep costs down. Even at the prices you quoted, your amp rack combo totals £1445.

Buying new (Thomann prices), A DCX 2496 crossover, TSA 4-700 and NX6000 comes to £883. Additionally it comes with a guarantee, and as a bonus, the total rack weight will be less than the weight of the EV amp. The badges on the second hand stuff might get you a few kudos points on forum like this, but in reality, at a gig, no one will care or be able to tell the difference.

Hi Fudge :)

I was accounting (badly) only for the cable needed internally in the speaker cabs. That would possibly be nearer 5m, so ~£2.50 extra on the total. The size of room wasn't specified, so I didn't include speaker cables, or XLR's. I'm not sure why you'd use 4 core for the bass cabs? It would be appropriate for 2-way mid/tops. So, 12m of 4 core at £3.20, and 17m of 2 core at £1.27, 4 Neutrik Speakon NL2's at £3.74, 4 NL4's at £4.94, 6 XLR's at £2.70. Total is £110.91, which doesn't put us far over the target (not at all if we're using your new electronics). 

I personally have a bunch of DP224's for sale, hence the price. There's others on Marketplace.

Maybe it's not always the best, most reliable route, but there is kit that has stood the test of time, is very serviceable, will remain so, and sounds very good. If you are going to invest in decent quality drive units, and potentially spend time crafting your own boxes, components like the MC2 and Lab Gruppen on mid/tops especially, will sound lovely. Punters might not immediately notice, but I strongly believe there will be a palpable difference. 
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fudge22 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fudge22 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 January 2026 at 12:41pm
Sorry, my reply wasn't that clear in explaining my reasoning.

The point that was trying to make was that if you are going to itemise the cost of a build down to pence, you really need to include everything. That includes interconnecting cables between amplifiers and speakers, crossover and amplifiers. What about speaker grilles and a rack for the amplifiers? If you buy a ready made, 10m, 4 core speakon cable from Blue Aran, it is £57. If you buy the parts and make your own it is still £42. If the mid/tops need raising up add on the price of speaker poles and fittings. All these items add up, and given that the budget was £1500 to £2500, presumably closer to £1500 would be better. £150 of cables and connectors then becomes 10% of the budget.

I acknowledge that the cost for these parts will be similar whatever the rest of the system is, but so is a box of screws. When working within a fixed budget, all parts need to be taken into consideration. Without them the system is useless. Yay, you came in within budget, but it is a bit sad if you your mum wants her kettle lead back mid gig.

The OP doesn't say what the signal source is. Is he simply using the headphone jack of a tablet/laptop? Does he need a small mixer, or does he already have this part of the system? Is there an additional budget for this? In the end whoever is designing/building the system has to make their own cost list, bill of materials, or whatever you want to call it. We can only assume that his budget is for everything downstream of the mixer and work from that.

The reason for using 4 core cable is that having consistent cable types means less specificity. You just have speaker cables which will work with any cabinet. Given that the OP was asking about a complete system he'll need 4-way for the mid/tops, so may as well get all 4 core. As For use inside the cabinet you can always strip off the outer insulation and use two cores.
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Larry23 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Larry23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2026 at 8:11pm
OK.. LOL

My original point was simply that a system could be built for less than the OP's budget. I broke down as much of the costings as I could to illustrate that, but did miss out a few things (silly me), and there was room to improve on the electronics budget. Now we've worked that out, anything like speaker grilles, other cables etc can be budgeted for, problems solved Thumbs Up

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