Wiring Speakons in Parallel
Printed From: Speakerplans.com
Category: Plans
Forum Name: 1850 and 186 horns
Forum Description: Discussion / Questions about the 1850 and 186 horns
URL: https://forum.speakerplans.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=17915
Printed Date: 24 April 2024 at 1:31am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.06 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Wiring Speakons in Parallel
Posted By: drivebycar
Subject: Wiring Speakons in Parallel
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 12:15pm
|
Hi, Basically I have 2 186 horns, and an amp. I am going to run the horns parralel, bridged off the amp all running at 4r.
I have read up and understand this bit, the next bit baffling me is how to physically wire up speakons into parallel. I understand that I need two speakon connectors per cab, but what I need info on is how to wire it internally/externally.
Any help much appreciated, diagrams would be VERY much appreciated
 cheers!
|
Replies:
Posted By: Wrighty
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 12:31pm
|
I can't be bothered to draw a diagram but it's easy. Instructions are per cab. You need a pair (one red and one black) of short wires (15cm or so - depends on Speakon spacing) and a pair of long wires (50cm or so, depends on distance from Speakons to driver terminals). I use 4mm^2 wire because I can make a neat job of getting 2 x 4mm^2 wires on a Speakon terminal. Others may find 2.5mm^2 easier. It's a good idea to put heatshrink over the individual terminals or insulation tape at a bare minimum. Take the first Speakon socket and solder a short and a long red wire to 1+ and a short and a long black wire to 1-. Take the second Speakon and solder the other ends of the short wires to the same terminals, ie. red to 1+ and black to 1-. The other ends of the long wires go to the driver terminals. Feel free to substitute wire colours. Red/black and brown/blue are common conventions. Mine happen to be yellow/blue, as I had access to about 2000m of each in 4mm equipment wire at the time. ------------- ALL YOUR BASS ARE BELONG TO US. |
Posted By: drivebycar
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 12:47pm
|
wicked, cheers for that.
So if i do every cab like that, then if i want to run them parralel i can just go amp to speakon one, speakon two to second cab speakon one etc
|
Posted By: Wrighty
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 12:59pm
|
Yeah, that's right. Unless you're going to the nth degree, it doesn't matter which of the two Speakons you use for the input or output. There are other things which will matter far more. Incidentally, what amp are you using? Is it capable of being bridged into a 4 ohm load? ------------- ALL YOUR BASS ARE BELONG TO US. |
Posted By: drivebycar
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 1:03pm
| Im using a peavey 2.6 to run 2 pd186's. So am i right in thinking if i run them in parralel with the 8ohm drivers they will be at 4r, and the amp can run bridged at 4r as well? |
Posted By: Wrighty
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 1:32pm
|
I can't get the Peavey website to work at the moment, so I can't say whether that amp will cope or not. If you parallel up the speakers, you'll end up with a single 4 ohm load. When you bridge an amp, each channel sees half of that load, so each channel is effectively driving into 2 ohms. Unless the amp is rated at 2 ohm stereo / 4 ohm bridge mono, it won't last long! I'll try and get on the Peavey website again later to give you a better answer. ------------- ALL YOUR BASS ARE BELONG TO US. |
Posted By: Mark James
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 1:55pm
|
it wont last long, i used to have a few of these, dont bridge them into 4 ohms, it just thermals realy quickly to be honest, I killed all of mine rapidly! ------------- me so horny me love you long throw horn loaded for her pleasure |
Posted By: tweeter box
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 2:03pm
|
http://speakerplans.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17198 -
This should help you;
http://speakerplans.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17198 ------------- PRECISION SOUND SYSTEM. Feeding the peoples needs for Roots Music. Strictly premium grade reggae and dub steppers from the early 70's to present day. |
Posted By: drivebycar
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 2:14pm
what amp should I go for in that case? I was only going to get the peavey coz it was on the cheap 
|
Posted By: Wrighty
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 4:07pm
|
The only "2.6" amp I can find info for on the Peavey website is the 2.6C which only does 130W into 4 ohms - I assume this isn't the one you've got or are looking at buying?! It all depends how much money you want to spend, but something like a second hand Crown Macro-Tech 2400 will do 2400W (or thereabouts) into 4 ohms bridged. Or a Crown K2 (I've got a couple, each one bridged into a pair of 8 ohm bins). Or there's the Matrix XP3000, which will do 1000W per channel into 8 ohms, so you could run a bin off each side of it (albeit with a bit less power output). I'm sure other people will suggest other amps but those are some I own or use regularly, which I know will do the job! ------------- ALL YOUR BASS ARE BELONG TO US. |
Posted By: drivebycar
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 4:35pm
|
cheers for the input mate. Its a pv2.6 2600w i was tlaking about. I dont really have the budget for crown as much as I would like them! I was looking for more reasonably priced but still decent amps. Maybe something along the line of matrix or something?
Ive got a budget of probably up to £300, maybe a bit more at a push.
|
Posted By: rich21
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 4:45pm
|
dont forget to link out the 2+ & 2- as well you never know when you will need it ( i often run bass down the pins 1 and mid-hi down pins 2) |
Posted By: Wrighty
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 4:47pm
|
Fair comment. The only time I use 2+ and 2- is for the HF in my hi-mid boxes and my rig is 4-way active, so little point in linking 2+ and 2- through anywhere else.
------------- ALL YOUR BASS ARE BELONG TO US. |
Posted By: rich21
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 4:52pm
|
not just for mid -hi also means i can do 1 bass bin on each core or subs + kick too many options you miss out on .. just because you didn't wire the pins 2 it also works for me as i always use 4 way spk-on leads edit to add: i have just read my own post and it sound like iam having a go i dont mean it to .... what i mean is I HAVE FOUND IT VERY USEFUL and therefor i would all ways link pins2 |
Posted By: Wrighty
Date Posted: 30 June 2008 at 5:07pm
|
Yeah, as I said, fair comment - no offence taken :) I didn't mention it, mainly because I don't use it, I guess! Until I expanded my rig to 4-way active (building new hi-mid cabs in the process), I didn't have any 4 core Speakon cables. My bass bins are on 2 core 4mm, with an independent run from each one back to the amp rack, to minimise cable losses and maximise damping factor (another topic...). ------------- ALL YOUR BASS ARE BELONG TO US. |