mark555 Posted May 26, 2019 Posted May 26, 2019 Can active speaker leads (for use with PA) be used in place of passive ones? If any one can answer that, many thanks.
TalismanRich Posted May 26, 2019 Posted May 26, 2019 I'm not sure if I understand exactly what you're asking. If you are referring to the cable from mixer out to active (powered) speakers vs the cable from an amp to a passive speaker, then the answer is "no". Active speaker leads are akin to microphone cables, as they carry only low voltage line level signals. Typical cable will have wire gauges of 22-26. They should be shielded as well to prevent noise from being introduced into the the signal. Passive cables are typically 10 - 16 gauge cables which can able upwards of 1000 watts depending on the amp and speaker used. This is similar to a mains cable. It's unbalanced, since the noise introduced would be many thousands of times lower than the signal being transferred. Does that help?
mark555 Posted May 27, 2019 Author Posted May 27, 2019 Thanks, that is a huge help and you have answered my question superbly. I need to buy some long speaker cables but all I can find in the length I need are active cables. I'd make my own but I don't know how to. Once again, thanks for helping me.
bobmeyrick Posted May 27, 2019 Posted May 27, 2019 What connectors do you have on the power amp and speakers, jacks or Speakons? Modern gear is likely to be Speakon, and I see that PMT sell 10m cables with either Speakon-Speakon or Speakon-Mono Jack for £19.99. Their Leeds store has them in stock, and that's not to far from you. A quick trip up the M1 is in order...
TalismanRich Posted May 27, 2019 Posted May 27, 2019 Mark, I made my own cables. I used 14 gauge wire bought locally and Speakon jacks bought off Amazon. A few solder joints and I have 2 fifty foot cables (15m) for not that much money. The ones that Bob suggested sound like a decent option as well. Most passive speakers have Speakon connectors these days. You can find wiring diagrams on the internet. They twist and lock in place which is a huge advantage over the 1/4" plugs that we used to have. Just check the back of the speaker to see what type of connectors are needed. Some will have both.
bobmeyrick Posted May 27, 2019 Posted May 27, 2019 Interesting story about speaker cables from the world of hifi I remember reading a few years ago. At a major hifi show the team from Quad arrived and realised they'd forgotten to bring the dedicated speaker cables. With no time to get back to the factory, one of them nipped out to the local DIY store and bought some 2-core mains flex, the orange stuff you might use with a lawnmower. Back at the show they set up the equipment with the mains flex connecting the speakers to the amp. Apparently nobody noticed the difference...
tbonesullivan Posted May 28, 2019 Posted May 28, 2019 How high/low of a gauge speaker wire you need, combined with strand size, is always an interesting subject. Combo amplifiers, even from the big companies like Rivera and Mesa Boogie, will usually be 18 gauge, sometimes solid, sometimes strands. Of course, they are generally only carrying at most, 100 watts of power, and rarely that much continuously. For PA/BASS speakers you need something that is far thicker, due to the increased power, as well as the longer cable runs. This is one reason that you often see more "passive" setup s with just signal. Means you don't need to buy/run tons of heavy cables and lose power to signal loss.
mark555 Posted May 30, 2019 Author Posted May 30, 2019 On 5/27/2019 at 11:51 AM, TalismanRich said: Mark, I made my own cables. I used 14 gauge wire bought locally and Speakon jacks bought off Amazon. A few solder joints and I have 2 fifty foot cables (15m) for not that much money. The ones that Bob suggested sound like a decent option as well. Most passive speakers have Speakon connectors these days. You can find wiring diagrams on the internet. They twist and lock in place which is a huge advantage over the 1/4" plugs that we used to have. Just check the back of the speaker to see what type of connectors are needed. Some will have both. I am aware of Speakon connectors, but the PA I own is somewhat older, although it functions well. As such, it has XLR connectors to both amp and speakers. I've thought about having the speaker connectors changed to speakon connectors, but like all guitar players, I haven't spent a fortune on PA! The only reason I bought a PA was that we could not find a decent singer so i sing... (I'd rather just play guitar). Thanks for the suggestion Bob, ten metres isn't enough , we have fifteen metre cables already and they struggle to cope with one particular venue and we need more lenght. I have thought about just adding a ten metre cable to the ones we have, but I am a bit bothered about making a week point with the connectors.
bobmeyrick Posted May 31, 2019 Posted May 31, 2019 13 hours ago, mark555 said: I am aware of Speakon connectors, but the PA I own is somewhat older, although it functions well. As such, it has XLR connectors to both amp and speakers. I've thought about having the speaker connectors changed to speakon connectors, but like all guitar players, I haven't spent a fortune on PA! The only reason I bought a PA was that we could not find a decent singer so i sing... (I'd rather just play guitar). Thanks for the suggestion Bob, ten metres isn't enough , we have fifteen metre cables already and they struggle to cope with one particular venue and we need more lenght. I have thought about just adding a ten metre cable to the ones we have, but I am a bit bothered about making a week point with the connectors. If you're not confident about making your own cables, you could always get some custom made cables, either from a friendly music shop or from someone like this - https://procables.audio/.
mark555 Posted June 6, 2019 Author Posted June 6, 2019 Thanks Bob, might just buy some shorter ready made ones to extend the ones we have, it seems the cheapest option.
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