XLR to jack/speakon

[sonofalesbian]

Having just purchaced a new crossover (behringer super x pro) and limiter/gate (behringer composer pro XL) I am wondeing how to connect them up to my amps/speakers.
The input/outputs of these are XLR where as the inputs on my amp are phono or 1/4 jack and inputs on my speakers are speakon. Is it ok just to use some jack to XLR or XLR to speakon leads, im a little confused because i know XLR is 3 pin where as speakon and jack are (the equivilent of) 2 pin.

George

[Ron K]

I wouldn't use XLRs for Amp out to speakers. Not that it hasn't ever been done. I do have some very old Martin Horns that have XLR Jacks used as inputs but today that is almost never done.

XLRs are generally signal level whereas speakon is generally Higher Voltage/Current levels . 1/4" can be used for either but even 1/4" mono phone plugs for Loudspeaker levels are generally a bigger heavier plug casing.

The Behringer preamp Components connected to each other I would use XLR where I could. XLR-1/4" balanced or unbalanced from the crossover to the power amp inputs and Banana/1/4"/Speakon (you didn't specify the amps output connectors) output of the amp to Speakon to the speakers.

Also low level preamp signals should be using Shielded cable and power amp output cables should be of the higher current variety. I'd use a minimum of 14 ga. SOW for speaker cable and possibly higher depending on the necessary current requirements.

For example my Crown Macro 3600s I use 10/4 ga. SEOW for all speaker runs up to 30 ft. I have some 8/4 SEOW for going 50-100 ft if necessary but I cant remember the last time I pulled those monsters out of the cable box!

I try and keep all my signal cabling at 22ga. shielded and always use XLRs if I can.I'm not a great fan of 1/4" connectors and only use them if there's no XLR option.In quite a few cases I've actually replaced any 1/4" connectors with XLRs where I could make the XLRs fit but not on amp outputs to speakers!

[Greg Plouvier]

Do you have a mixer? Your connection scheme for stereo operation would be: Left output of mixer to channel 1 input of compressor, ch 1 compressor output to channel 1 of crossover, crossover ch 1 lo out to your sub amplifier channel, crossover ch 1 hi out to your top cabinet amplifier channel. Right channel out of mixer connect the same. You will need the appropriate adaptors or cables to interface the RCA and XLR connectors. Then you need speaker cables with the connector that matches your amplifier's outputs and your speaker's speakon inputs.
Without knowing more about the equipment you have this is just generalization. A mono connection scheme could be different in that you could utilize the compressor after the lo and hi crossover outputs. Don't bother with the gate function

[Gregory East]

I wouldn't mind knowing what the go is for those XLR connections as they were standard equipment in NZ for a long time and I own a couple of amps with them myself! I suspect same situation is in the UK. We don't all live in USA Ron!

My Trace bin (UK) has xlr + 1/4" jacks but it didn't work when I plugged it into one of my amps a few years ago. It's kind of kitset construction appearance so I'm guessing it's not standard or there is a different standard in NZ from UK.

[Ron K]

I wouldn't mind knowing what the go is for those XLR connections as they were standard equipment in NZ for a long time and I own a couple of amps with them myself! I suspect same situation is in the UK. We don't all live in USA Ron!

My Trace bin (UK) has xlr + 1/4" jacks but it didn't work when I plugged it into one of my amps a few years ago. It's kind of kitset construction appearance so I'm guessing it's not standard or there is a different standard in NZ from UK.

Ohh my mistake and I do stand corrected or at least speaking form A US point of electrical connectivity in the audio field.

Now that you mention it the Martins I have are made in the UK so I suspect the use of the XLR in that regard may very well be a (foreign thing at least foreign to us US users! LOL) So non US users beware. There may be different electrical connection standards in your country of origin.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

3 pin XLRs were never AES approved for speaker connections, though some manufacturers used them anyway. 3 pin XLR was always intended for use on balanced connections between devices, and were different from amp outputs and speaker inputs so that one could not mistake the two; they're even standardized for input/output positioning so that you can't mess that up either. If you have any speakers with XLR inputs or amps with XLR outputs you should replace them with Speakon.

[Tom Smit]

If you need to make adapter cables from the source, and down, as far as your amp, scroll down on this link...http://www.rane.com/note110.html
And a '+1' to what the others have said.

[sonofalesbian]

The output on my amplifiers are speakon, jack and banana plug so nothing to worry there ron.
Starting to get the jist of things, the only thing is most or my work is supplying sound sytems for amature DJ's where the only outputs from their mixers are phono but ill get chopping up some of my cables this week to create some suitable conectors.

ps, that like to the rane website is great, thanks guys

George

[DJPhatman]

Starting to get the jist of things, the only thing is most of my work is supplying sound sytems for amature DJ's where the only outputs from their mixers are phono but I'll get chopping up some of my cables this week to create some suitable conectors.

You would be better served to obtain a level converter, such as the Sonifex RB-UL2, or a small, 4-6 channel mixer, such as the Mackie VLZ or the Yamaha MG series of small mixers.

[sonofalesbian]

You would be better served to obtain a level converter, such as the Sonifex RB-UL2, or a small, 4-6 channel mixer, such as the Mackie VLZ or the Yamaha MG series of small mixers.

That sonifex rb-ul2 seems ideal, but for £175 i don't think so. probaly best for me to invest a bit of money into a decent mixer.

[DJPhatman]

Yeah, I kind of figured it was going to be expensive. Best to just pick up a modern small-format mixer. It will most likely have RCA in at -10 (consumer level) and input gain to bring it up a bit.