Speakon strain relief gripper

[Charles Jenkinson]

I bought this cheap 12 gauge speaker wire, after seeing a coyple of the other guys going for it, but I guessed i would have a problem with figuring out the strain relief gripping thingy in the speakon jack. How do people typically bulk out these types of cables so the gripper works?

(i appreciate this type of cable is slightly cheaping out, but on the whole now I have 4 core x 4mmsq cable you could run over with a tank, and then this stuff. I dont seem to have hit middle of the road on correct spec. )

[Grant Bunter]

It doesn't apply strictly to speakons, however:

When I have a cable that the gripper doesn't close down to, I wrap electrical tape around the outer of the cable to bulk it up a bit, until the gripper will grab and compress it some.
3 or 4 winds does it more often than not.

I usually only find myself in this situation with thin cabling in , say, my rack unit (where I've used multicore as patching between rack and desk etc).

Applying it to your situation, as it's a speaker cable and could otherwise be stepped on or grabbed etc, I would provide further strain relief. Gaffa the cable (or use velcro straps) etc, to the stand (with a bit of slack inbetween the speakon and the extra strain relief), so that if that happens, you don't end up with an accidental disconnect via wires being pulled out of the speakon...

[Bruce Weldy]

A solution other than wrapping it with tape is to take a piece of rubber jacket off of a "good" cable (you're bound to have an end laying around somewhere, right?) and slide that over the cable.

I always keep short cut-offs for this kind of stuff....surprising how often it comes in handy.

[Grant Bunter]

Good idea Bruce

Also: heatshrink

[Michael Ewald Hansen]

I know you already got cable, but if you need some really nice high quality 2 core cable, this is really nice:

http://www.audiospares.com/product.php? ... 705&page=1

[Charles Jenkinson]

Thanks Grant, all good ideas. One of the reasons I bought the cheaper cable is because of the extra strain relief I would have needed using the tank-proof 4 core, especially into the back of the J12's on speaker stands - I would have needed to velcro the cable to the speaker stand tube just under the cab then only a small-ish loop is supported by the jack socket at the back of the cab. As you write, it makes sense to do this anyway, whatever size of cable one is using - I will get some velcro ties. I have some amalgam type electrical tape - I'll try that for bulking out, but if it doesn't look like it will stick very well to the cable sheath (though under the pressure of the clamp I would have thought it would), I'll use electrical insulation (sticky) tape instead.

...you're bound to have an end laying around somewhere, right?

I haven't made any cables yet Bruce.

I know you already got cable, but if you need some really nice high quality 2 core cable, this is really nice:

http://www.audiospares.com/product.php? ... 705&page=1

That's the sort of thing I wanted originally, but at the sell-off I was checking out, they'd run out of the nice 2 core stuff and I ended up kind of impulse buying (over the bloody phone - should've hung up) the 4 core, for 2 reasons: (1) heavy duty (and now I know it, heavy weight), and (2) there'd been a discussion on here about using all 4 cores from a margin of safety point of view at the time I bought my cable. Ultimately the law was given that 2-core is all that is needed, but I had wavered off the straight and narrow by that point.

[DJPhatman]

...cheap 12 gauge speaker wire...

Why such heavy guage? 16 guage is more than enough to handle runs of 17 meters or less for the tops. I keep finding it on clearance at my local home supply big box store.

A big +1 to tying the speaker cable to stand for "strain relief". I tied mine to the leg of the tripod speaker stand.

[Bruce Weldy]

The following is the sole opinion of the writer and in no way reflects the views of this station or it's advertisers.


After all the time, effort, and money that I've spent building my PA - "good enough" aint' good enough for me.

I use 12ga rubber-jacketed Rapco speaker cable for every speaker - subs, mains, monitors. They are all interchangeable and I've got plenty of 'em. Build 'em yourself and the expense isn't too bad.

I know I could get by on higher gauge cable - but I like knowing that they are going to give me everything, every time. They lay flat with no coiling or kinks and they certainly look more professional.

And in my (not-at-all-humble) opinion - if you need additional strain relief on a 8 foot hang of speaker cable.....you need better speaker cables.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled rant-free programming.

[jswingchun]

I use 12ga rubber-jacketed Rapco speaker cable for every speaker - subs, mains, monitors. They are all interchangeable and I've got plenty of 'em. Build 'em yourself and the expense isn't too bad.[/i]

I'm with you on all of this except I use 14ga for cables 10ft long and below. Saves a bit of weight for the short runs.

[racertomtom]

"Buy once cry once" only applies to drivers. Not plywood, amps, rack cases, trucks and trailers and certainly not input and output cables. Right?

[sine143]

"Buy once cry once" only applies to drivers. Not plywood, amps, rack cases, trucks and trailers and certainly not input and output cables. Right?

bahahaha

I mean, ideally we'd all start with 100k and only have to cry once... but who can really start with crown Itechs, and a jetfueled 20 foot box truck that fits in an 8 foot space lol.

[racertomtom]

Had I started with $100K, I wouldn't have cried even once.