Some new Neutrik Speakon Combo jacks are now available

[Bryan316]

Allright. Last summer I modded my brother's custom-ordered Mesa 412 cabinet, to have Speakon connections. Not really for the wattage handling, but for all the safety reasons. Cables won't get yanked out when someone trips on them, not touching the collar of a 1/4" jack and getting zapped, and no *POP* when plugging in if the power was on (like when a soundguy yanks it out, and plugs it back in mid-song).

Well, we also understand, that if his main rig goes down, or he needs to use his practice rig, or doesn't bring his modded Speakon cables, or lets a fellow guitard borrow his cab, he can't make his cabinet Speakon-only. Also, we didn't really want to have two Speakons and two 1/4" jacks.



So we used the Speakon Combo jack. The center of the jack has the 1/4" fitting included in the Speakon jack! Hella-awesome design. Great idea. BUT... these contact tabs on the back side of the jack are designed for soldering the jack straight to a circuit board. NOT for clipping on a speaker wire lead, or even to solder a wire to the tab. Made it very very difficult to install.

Well... they now make it easier to install them!



The new horizontal-mount Speakon Combo jacks now have their rear contacts angled downwards, to mount your jack at a right-angle to a circuit board. Because of this layout, the tabs that get soldered to a circuit board are far longer, and give you much more contact surface for a wire clip to fit on. You can kindasorta bend them out a little, and use the nice large wire clips for a tight snug connection. (Yes, I've emailed and bitched to them, that they should make a version that allows wire-soldering to the contacts instead of PCB mounting, I'm glad enough that they even made this version!)

Here's the website details, with the technical drawing in PDF format.

http://www.neutrik.com/us/en/audio/210_ ... etail.aspx


So what are the benefits, you may ask? Easy. Interchanging cable styles, yet keeping the jack plate small and simple. If you do a gig and a Speakon cable, saaaay, gets cut in half in the tailgate cuz your buddy slams it shut without checking, and you don't have a spare Speakon cable, you're screwed. But... damn near everyone everywhere has a spare 1/4" speaker cable! What if you're setting up in a small club and don't want to bring 40 pounds worth of 50-foot Speakon cables, and just wanna use your short 10-foot 1/4" speaker cables? You're good to go. What if you lend your cabs to someone, who doesn't have any Speakon cables? His old cables are still compatible.

This Speakon Combo jack allows you to upgrade your safety and performance, yet retain backwards compatibility. And you can do it, all with only two jacks. No need for four ins n outs. So say you use these jack cups:



These dishes don't have room for extra 1/4" jacks. You'd have to drill holes on the bottom slope, which defeats the water-hazard purpose of these dishes. But putting the Speakon-Combo jacks in there, you're good to go.

[SoundInMotionDJ]

What if I think that not having 1/4" anymore is a "feature" rather than a "problem"... :mrgreen"

and you don't have a spare Speakon cable, you're screwed.

I have several spare speakon connectors in my gear box, and a couple of spare lengths of cable....for just such occasions.

What if you lend your cabs to someone, who doesn't have any Speakon cables?

Dude...sorry...all my speakers take speakons, and all my amps only output speakons, all my cables are speakon to speakon. Oh and all my mixer to amp connections are xlr only. Bummer. I guess you'll have to find some speakers somewhere else. Unless you want to hire me and my full PA system...

--Stan Graves

[gdougherty]

What if I think that not having 1/4" anymore is a "feature" rather than a "problem"... :mrgreen"

and you don't have a spare Speakon cable, you're screwed.

I have several spare speakon connectors in my gear box, and a couple of spare lengths of cable....for just such occasions.

What if you lend your cabs to someone, who doesn't have any Speakon cables?

Dude...sorry...all my speakers take speakons, and all my amps only output speakons, all my cables are speakon to speakon. Oh and all my mixer to amp connections are xlr only. Bummer. I guess you'll have to find some speakers somewhere else. Unless you want to hire me and my full PA system...

--Stan Graves

+1
Except for my 9ga 50ft mains cables, I have a spare of about every major length I carry with connectors already on it. All my speakons are screw terminal so they're quickly and easily field repairable.

[Mark Coward]

I agree with speakon only for PA cabs, for bass or guitar use the combo jacks make a lot of sense. Do note that it is 2 conductor only, you couldn't use the combo jacks and 4 conductor wiring for bi-amping.

[Rick Lee]

However, it's still a good thing. My band is just now starting to consolidate a piece at a time. Eventually everything will be the bands but right now we're all contributing items. And of course everything is still 1/4 inch. I think the combo jacks look good because we won't have to worry about it. In a little while we'll have the $ to have the mains wired right (w/ all new BFMs). The monitors may take a while because we already have adequate monitors and it's gonna be hard to convince the guys to switch those over. Eventually we'll have those wedgehorns...

[gdougherty]

However, it's still a good thing. My band is just now starting to consolidate a piece at a time. Eventually everything will be the bands but right now we're all contributing items. And of course everything is still 1/4 inch. I think the combo jacks look good because we won't have to worry about it. In a little while we'll have the $ to have the mains wired right (w/ all new BFMs). The monitors may take a while because we already have adequate monitors and it's gonna be hard to convince the guys to switch those over. Eventually we'll have those wedgehorns...

Build one wedgehorn and if the sound doesn't do it for them, picking them up will.