Good day folks. Some of you probably know that over at this new shop of mine, the boss also owns a couple of clubs and venues and as such sometimes likes to "challenge" us with stuff other than strictly repairing stuff, though still related to electronics one way or another.
Check this out: he brought in a couple of speakers from an outdoor venue of his which is closed during winter and asked us to give them a good scrub. Naturally we just had to try them out as well, which I DO know how to do - it's not rocket science, plus I watched countless tutorials on DJ equipment, wanting to become one myself (which may not be that unattainable with someone like Big Boss around if I play my cards right).
Long story short: two EV X Line subwoofers in our shop need to be hooked up to Dynacord amps...seemed simple enough at first, but I hit a snag: when I got the cables for them, I was thrown off (too bad I didn't snap a picture of them). I'll attempt to explain: the amps use regular Speakon connectors like you'd expect, but the subs use a larger connector, similar to speakon but with 8 pins. From what I gather, these are called NL8FC connectors. I was expecting to see some sort of adapter cable, going from this larger connector to a single speakon connector to fit the amp....which it does, but there's not one, but THREE speakons at the other end, each with 2 wires going into them....ok, so WTH is this ? Which ones do I use ? The first diagram I threw together shows this cable is like a "squid" or "snake": the round things at the right are the 3 speakons and the one on the left is the NL8FC connector (not to scale and not an actual pinout, duuh).
Adding to the confusion is the plate on the back of the sub:
LF1: Pins 1 Paralleled
LF2: Pins 2 Paralleled
Pin 3 and 4 paralleled between connectors....stumped TBH
I thought the cables were hacks someone patched together, but I think they're the actual EV cables that came with them. This is what I think it's happening: the two 18" drivers in these subs are wired separately (hence the word "paralleled"): one driver is wired to one set of pins (say, the teal pins, 1+ and 1-), the other driver to the red pins, 2+ and 2-, (there's no polarity mentioned anywhere, I just guessed). This would make sense, as it allows the single "squid" to carry signal for BOTH drivers without having to run an additional cable, hence the two speakons: they split the cable into two connectors at the amp end....what about the third speakon then (green) ? I think I figured it out as well: I imagine the green pair (3) (and possibly pair 4, orange, though that one is not wired and is taped off for some reason at the speakon end) just "jumps" from one connector to the other on the back to allow a second sub/mid range to run on the same squid cable, so the third speakon would plug into its own amp, then it bypasses the sub entirely and exits out the second connector via pairs 3 (and/or 4 depending on how you wire it)....damn....talk about confusing
I also imagine the "1s" and "2s" are wired to the speakers from both connectors, so it doesn't matter where you plug the "input", as long as it drives pairs 1/2. This would mean however that you shouldn't plug BOTH cables into an amp at the other end because the two pairs could "collide" with each other (one should only be used as an "output"). It would also imply that plugging the amp into the 3s/4s at the speakon end would not power the sub at all, as those would go over to the other connector and not the speakers inside...again, this is just speculating - haven't taken that back plate off to inspect since I suspect it might have a gasket.
So:
The '1s' are the first speaker
The '2s' are the second speaker
The '3s' and the '4s' are bypasses I THINK...any ideas ? Cheers and sorry for the long text
Check this out: he brought in a couple of speakers from an outdoor venue of his which is closed during winter and asked us to give them a good scrub. Naturally we just had to try them out as well, which I DO know how to do - it's not rocket science, plus I watched countless tutorials on DJ equipment, wanting to become one myself (which may not be that unattainable with someone like Big Boss around if I play my cards right).
Long story short: two EV X Line subwoofers in our shop need to be hooked up to Dynacord amps...seemed simple enough at first, but I hit a snag: when I got the cables for them, I was thrown off (too bad I didn't snap a picture of them). I'll attempt to explain: the amps use regular Speakon connectors like you'd expect, but the subs use a larger connector, similar to speakon but with 8 pins. From what I gather, these are called NL8FC connectors. I was expecting to see some sort of adapter cable, going from this larger connector to a single speakon connector to fit the amp....which it does, but there's not one, but THREE speakons at the other end, each with 2 wires going into them....ok, so WTH is this ? Which ones do I use ? The first diagram I threw together shows this cable is like a "squid" or "snake": the round things at the right are the 3 speakons and the one on the left is the NL8FC connector (not to scale and not an actual pinout, duuh).
Adding to the confusion is the plate on the back of the sub:
LF1: Pins 1 Paralleled
LF2: Pins 2 Paralleled
Pin 3 and 4 paralleled between connectors....stumped TBH
I thought the cables were hacks someone patched together, but I think they're the actual EV cables that came with them. This is what I think it's happening: the two 18" drivers in these subs are wired separately (hence the word "paralleled"): one driver is wired to one set of pins (say, the teal pins, 1+ and 1-), the other driver to the red pins, 2+ and 2-, (there's no polarity mentioned anywhere, I just guessed). This would make sense, as it allows the single "squid" to carry signal for BOTH drivers without having to run an additional cable, hence the two speakons: they split the cable into two connectors at the amp end....what about the third speakon then (green) ? I think I figured it out as well: I imagine the green pair (3) (and possibly pair 4, orange, though that one is not wired and is taped off for some reason at the speakon end) just "jumps" from one connector to the other on the back to allow a second sub/mid range to run on the same squid cable, so the third speakon would plug into its own amp, then it bypasses the sub entirely and exits out the second connector via pairs 3 (and/or 4 depending on how you wire it)....damn....talk about confusing
I also imagine the "1s" and "2s" are wired to the speakers from both connectors, so it doesn't matter where you plug the "input", as long as it drives pairs 1/2. This would mean however that you shouldn't plug BOTH cables into an amp at the other end because the two pairs could "collide" with each other (one should only be used as an "output"). It would also imply that plugging the amp into the 3s/4s at the speakon end would not power the sub at all, as those would go over to the other connector and not the speakers inside...again, this is just speculating - haven't taken that back plate off to inspect since I suspect it might have a gasket.
So:
The '1s' are the first speaker
The '2s' are the second speaker
The '3s' and the '4s' are bypasses I THINK...any ideas ? Cheers and sorry for the long text
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