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I've been told before that if you run the same amount of amp power through a Speakon cable and a 1/4" cable, the Speakon cable actually transmits slightly more of that power to the speaker than the 1/4".

I can't find anything on the Internet to back that up. I have been using Speakon for years, but want to prewire everything and run through a 1/4" patchbay. Any drawbacks, other than the secure connection?

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I am sure there is a measurable difference but seriously doubt anyone, even those with "golden ears" could tell the difference. I use Speakons for the security as you mentioned, plus the durability. 1/4 jacks/plugs seem to get noisy after a few years.

Curious: What exactly are you using a patch bay for on speaker connections?

Never heard that idea floated and certainly I would have serious questions for anyone that claimed that. I don't see any way that a Speakon (NL2) connector could be globally said to transmit any more or less power than a 1/4" plug. Both use the same shielded speaker wire, both have two conductors (+ and -) so the only difference there could be would be if individual brands/models of connectors have higher or lower resistance in those conductors. There's nothing inherent to the design that would allow an NL2 to conduct more electricity than a T/S plug.

If you're looking to use a commercially available patch bay to transmit speaker level signal, I would recommend doing some major research. The patch bays like are designed for line level signals not the higher current flow of a speaker level signal. Impedance, common link from Shield to Ground and other potential design issues could be at play here. Make sure if you buy a patch panel that it's specifically stated that it's designed to handle patching speaker signals, most I believe are not. In my experience, we've always built our own speaker patches like you've described.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Is it possible the reference is to the amount of contact the jack plug has in the socket compared to a speakon?
The jack contact area is minuscule.

I had read at one time ( cannot find the page anymore) from Speakon website that the Speakon connector is able to handle more power than a standard 1/4" connection. The example I remember them giving was that a 1/4" plug can carry 100-150 watts without any king of signal loss while a Speakon has been rated to up to 1000 watts without any loss. Maybe they have changed that claim as I cannot find the page anymore. The links I did have in favorites are no longer valid.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I am aware that I should not run actual wattage power through the patchbay. However, the current final "main out" of my system is from a DB Driverack PA to powered speakers, and I thought I could patch that through a denormaled patchbay to save the connector and provide for faster connections. Do I have the wrong idea?

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Not at all, but then I don't get the conversation about 1/4" versus Speakon. Speakon would only typically be used for Speaker level signal. Based on what you're planning to do, any normal 1/4" or XLR patch bay would be fine and there would be no consideration about Speakon at all (I can't remember seeing any powered speaker with a Speakon connection, although at one time XLR connections for speaker-level signal on passive boxes were used). You weren't confusing XLR and Speakon were you? In your situation, I would recommend the XLR patch bay over the 1/4" for purposes of noise cancellation.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

I use a patchbay for all my connections from the rack to my powered speakers and it speeds setup significantly.

I use a 1/4" patchbay for this purpose and use only 1/4" TRS connections (balanced) on both sides.

No need to go to XLR - just use the appropriate cables and a balanced patchbay.



If you don't want to use a patchbay, you can have a custom panel made - even if you need speakon or other powered connections.

I would NOT run speaker level (amplified) connections through a 'traditional' patch panel.

IMO the two useful types of speaker-level connections are SpeakOn and banana jacks. The banana jacks are easy to reconfigure while SpeakOn are SAFE and durable. In my amp racks I have SpeakOn connectors for going to the speakers, and the backs of those are leads to either bare wire (for my amps without banana jacks) or banana connectors. This allows me to re-patch the amp rack fairly easily, and have safe connections with no exposed current-carrying parts outside of the amp rack.

A speaker-level signal on a 1/4" connector absolutely can shock you. Careful with those when the amps are turned up!

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

I like Speakon connections just because they're a positive lock solution.. unlike 1/4" jacks and Banana plugs that can get yanked out pretty easily.

Plug in, twist, and lock.

As to them being able to handle more power? I think that's either total crap, or the power they're talking about is like 10,000 watts vs. 50,000 watts.

But even then.. I doubt it.

My most recent set of main cables I put together have 1/4" on the speaker side, and HAD banana jacks on the amp side. The hot sides started getting loose on me, so I said the hell with it and took 'em off and for the time being, i'm just running the bare wires through the binding posts.

I gotta order some raw Speakon connectors to put on there.. but all the local music shops want like $12 an end.. and i'm sure I saw 'em online for more like $6.

Are they better connectors? They're certianly a more positive, locking solution and probably more durable.. but do they SOUND any better than 1/4" or capable of handling more power?

I seriously doubt it.

Depends on your use.
Jack for small signal level.
Speakon has more surface area contact.
Can carry greater loads.

The contact a jack makes is like a 1/4 inch ball bearing sitting on a metal sheet.
How much surface area?
Speakon is like a razor blade sitting on it.
Far greater surface contact.
In any case the contacts are the week link in the chain.

If you really care, I guess you can buy a really good ohm meter and measure a bunch of 1/4" connections, which vary from connector to connector and are not standardized; and then measure some SpeakOn connections.

But like I said, the reason to use SpeakOn is safety; and as theCheese points out, they also will not fall out when some person yanks on the cord.

This web sites sells many connectors, including NL4, for a good price: http://www.audiopile.net/products/Adapt ... page.shtml Our amp rack patch panels are all parts from Audiopile.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Why on god's green earth would you ever have an exposed quarter inch plug connected to an amp that is powered up and feeding live signal? I would assume that everyone here would understand that you don't bring the amp up until after there's a load present (i.e. the cable's plugged in) and if you the plug gets knocked out or something you shut the amp down before you plug it back into the speaker.

The ability of a speakon to lock in place is actually not even as significant as it was previously as there are now locking 1/4" jacks available and most new speakers come with those connections. Even my Mackie S215's in my Karaoke rig have locking 1/4" jacks (although I do still choose to use the NL2 connections instead).

Honestly to me the real value of the Speakon connector comes when you have a bi-amp situation where you're using NL4's to use a single connection to carry both signals. Of course, just like we now have quad XLR cables (a pair of wires connected to each pin) I've heard of guys doing the same with NL4 connectors. I don't know of any manufacturer that's wiring their boxes this way though so these guys are modifying the speakers to handle this, but it would provide some extra fault tolerance.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

That is a nice feature of the Speakon, being able to wire it up for bi-tri - even quad amping one single cabinet. I had on old pair of JBL SR4738 3 ways that we tri-amped and re-wired the cabinet with an 8 conductor Speakon plug on the speaker wired to each driver. Some bulk 8 conducter cord from Carvin & split the amp ends into 3 standard 4 conductor Speakons that plugged into the corresponding amp for highs, mids & lows. Alot nicer running one wire as opposed to 2 or 3 or more.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I have seen more than one person get a shock from being uninformed in this manner. I like safety.


That is why I made the patch panels; I have 2+/2- going to my subs and 1+/1- going to my passive top boxes. If I ever get around to it, I am going to make a cable like the one you mentioned for my downstage monitors, with a break-out box on the stage end. Will probably have NL4 tails on the amp end like your cables, because my monitor amps do not have banana jacks (thanks for that, Crown.)

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Well you can thank the English government for that, since they basically outlawed banana jacks.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Heh heh, sounds like a fun prank to play on the new guy on the crew, well at least until his hair starts smoking

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke