Connecting speakers to amp.

daveza

daveza

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My two main speakers each have 4 wires , two positive and two negative.

So I have 4 wires from each speaker which are twisted and paired to go into the + and - connections on the amp.

Thing is when the two wires are joined they are too big to fit into the jack so I presume there should be some kind of adapter which will allow me to join the two wires into a single jack which will fit the connector on the amp.

Hope that makes sense - any ideas ?
 
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Beachless

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Do you know what the voice coil resistance is on each set of wires? It may also be split into sub/mid and high so have a look if you have more outputs on the amp.

Some pictures or at least make model would help as well.
 
daveza

daveza

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The speakers are JPW ML 1010

jpw.png

The rear connectors look like this ( image of the ML 510 speakers. )

ml510.jpg

They connect to an Onkyo HT-R548 amp.

im_rear.jpg

Those connectors are too small to take a pair of twisted wires.
 
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Beachless

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You need to wire the fronts to "Front A" and to "Front B" I cant see from the pic if the speakers are labled but they usually also have an A and B on the connectors.

So wire the top conectors of the left speaker to the "L Front A" and the bottom connectors from the left speaker to the "L Front B"
 
daveza

daveza

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As I understand it the Front Speaker B connections are for a separate set of speakers, possibly in another room.

I need pair the two + cables and the two - cables coming from

ml510.jpg

and connect them to the Front Speaker A + and - connectors on the back of the amp.
 
daveza

daveza

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So the answer is banana pins - would I get these from any audio shop ?

And would the banana pin fit into the amp connectors ?
 
R

riscbroker

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It's unlikely that banana pins will fit.

I'd suggest you find the manual for that amp and the specs for the speakers - if you present the amp with a load that it cannot deal with it's likely to release the magic smoke.

Edit:

You could just bridge the 2 separate connector posts on the back of the cabinet, and then run a single cable to the amp - that will have the same effect as joining two separate cables and then connecting that to the amp - but I really wouldn't recommend that. There are two sets of connectors on the back of the speaker cabinets for a reason.
 
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Bewlen

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Banana plugs would fit the speaker connector side, not the amp. Its also not really required on the speaker connector side, you could just screw the cable down.

To fit the biwire cable to the amp connector, you can just take a side cutter and trim the cable to fit when twisted, shouldnt be much.
 
daveza

daveza

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Bewlen said:
Banana plugs would fit the speaker connector side, not the amp. Its also not really required on the speaker connector side, you could just screw the cable down.

To fit the biwire cable to the amp connector, you can just take a side cutter and trim the cable to fit when twisted, shouldnt be much.
Click to expand...

Even when I twist them and pinch with small pliers they don't connect securely to the sockets - seems like they are not very deep.
 
daveza

daveza

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This looks like it could work if the twisted pair could fit into the open end.

adaptor.JPG
 
waynehooper

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You need bridging plates - see http://www.homecinemabuyer.co.uk/speakers/how-to-bi-amp-your-speakers/

Your amplifier does not support bi-wiring so bridging plates are the way to go - you then run one + & - from each speaker to your amp

daveza said:
As I understand it the Front Speaker B connections are for a separate set of speakers, possibly in another room.

I need pair the two + cables and the two - cables coming from

View attachment 408656

and connect them to the Front Speaker A + and - connectors on the back of the amp.
Click to expand...
 
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Beachless

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Can the amp not run a+b at the same time?

But anyways you can also run one wire from the amp to a single connector and then run a short wire between the 2 connectors.

Or since the amp supports up to 16 ohm you can also connect the single speaker in series. Depending on how powerful the amp is this may not be loud enough though.
 
daveza

daveza

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waynehooper said:
You need bridging plates - see http://www.homecinemabuyer.co.uk/speakers/how-to-bi-amp-your-speakers/

Your amplifier does not support bi-wiring so bridging plates are the way to go - you then run one + & - from each speaker to your amp
Click to expand...

That makes sense.

Two questions - where would I find bridging plates,

and what would happen if if just somehow put the twisted pair into the spring clip on the back of the amp ?

ps: the bridging plate looks like it just connects the two positives together and same for the negatives - could I not just join them with speaker wire ?
 
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SauRoNZA

SauRoNZA

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Ignore the second set on your speakers since your amp doesn't support it anyway.

Simple as that.

****

And yes if there isn't any bridging plate then I'm sure just doing it with speaker wire would be fine.

Odds are though that the manual would tell you which to use if you weren't using bi-polar connections.
 
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