Speaker wire colour standards
Printed From: Speakerplans.com
Category: General
Forum Name: General Forum
Forum Description: Open Discussion / Questions
URL: https://forum.speakerplans.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=89819
Printed Date: 19 April 2024 at 7:25am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.06 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Speaker wire colour standards
Posted By: chickenfizz
Subject: Speaker wire colour standards
Date Posted: 10 December 2014 at 1:38am
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Wondering if anybody could shed some light on the 'Standard' way of wiring 4 core speaker cable? The Kelsey/VDC current range should be wired: 1+ Red 1- Blue 2+ Green 2- Yellow Easy enough, but until a few years ago VDC were using Black, Red, White and Yellow as the first 4 conductors which I've usually seen wired: 1+ Red 1- Black 2+ Yellow 2- White (but also seen the white and yellow reversed) Which is 'correct'? What about cables with Red, Black, Green and White(or yellow) cores? Or 4 core mains cable, Brown, Blue, Black, G/Y? I'm really looking for standards from manufacturers' specs or as used by large, established hire companies rather than what makes sense to you personally. Many thanks.
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Replies:
Posted By: dlyxover
Date Posted: 10 December 2014 at 1:41am
this is usefull http://www.kelseyweb.co.uk/Info/Technical/Charts/SpeakonPinouts.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.kelseyweb.co.uk/Info/Technical/Charts/SpeakonPinouts.html ------------- In the Truth there is no news, and in the News there is no truth |
Posted By: chickenfizz
Date Posted: 10 December 2014 at 3:06am
| It's not the slightest bit useful to my question, but thanks for the response. |
Posted By: Grubbah
Date Posted: 10 December 2014 at 1:42pm
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http://forum.speakerplans.com/8-core-color-coding_topic89773.html
I made a thread about this last week Have a read. There is a VDC colouring chart in there for up to 8 cores
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Posted By: Earplug
Date Posted: 10 December 2014 at 2:14pm
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The lesson here is that if under any doubt, use that cable checker, or just open up and look. No big drama. Standards change, manufacturers 'improve' their products and goalposts move. JBL speaker polarity, or amp specs are prime examples. I remember the first P-Audio SN12MB´s I bought. For some strange reason they followed the old JBL norm as regards cone movement. Luckily I checked before using them, as I once received a couple of recones that had been put in in reverse, so have developed the habit of always checking cone movement with a battery. No big deal, but saves the tears later. ------------- Earplugs Are For Wimps! |
Posted By: chickenfizz
Date Posted: 10 December 2014 at 3:40pm
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I'm really surprised that nobody here seems to be able to answer this! Is there a standard for Red, Black, Yellow, White or not? I'm grateful for people's time and effort responding but as stated in my first post I do know the current VDC/Kelsey colours, so please don't just list that again. I'm asking specifically about the other common cable colours (that are inherently incompatible with the list that's been posted). Just so we're clear, I can't connect Red to 1+, Black to 3-, White to 3+ and Yellow to 2- because it's 4 core cable and a 4 pole speakon. Same applies to the other cable types I mentioned. cheers
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Posted By: Grubbah
Date Posted: 10 December 2014 at 4:55pm
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There is obviously no uniform standard between manufactures of speaker cable, only the standard wiring they publish themselves with their products which by the sounds of it changes! I know people use 4 core mains cable for speakers, but I'm pretty sure outside of its intended application there would be no standard for how you would wire it. (I also doubt you would find another 4 core cable with brown / black / blue and G/Yellow that wasn't intended for mains use). So id say 'No' is the answer to your question. How you wire it is dependant on the brand and its colouring guide and anything else is down to your own discretion. I would assume all large established hire companies would use updated products from known and established (VDC / Kelsey etc) cable companies and follow the appropriate wiring of said brand.
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Posted By: ceharden
Date Posted: 10 December 2014 at 7:16pm
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The VDC/Kelsey colours already mentioned is the only real convention I've come across. You could ask the same thing about colours for marking lengths of cable. Each big hire company seems to have their own standard for that. Personally I (and usefully a few other local companies) work on 2x Resistor Colour Code to a point. Eg Brown =2m, Red 4 or 5m, Orange 6m etc etc.
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Posted By: AndyWave
Date Posted: 11 December 2014 at 6:02am
Sorry to being picky but did the recones made their way out of the garage all way to the street or did they fail on the driveway ------------- torturing electrons since ...... |
Earplug wrote:Posted By: Earplug
Date Posted: 11 December 2014 at 9:27am
No, they actually worked ok, just reverse polarity. The guy that did them for me must have been very busy that morning. ------------- Earplugs Are For Wimps! |
Posted By: burningbush
Date Posted: 11 December 2014 at 10:41am
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I colour mine in with markers so they match. ------------- music is the message |