8-pole wiring question

[monekh]

Hi everyone,

I have some questions about running subs and biamped mains using 8-pole speakon connections… of course this combination would only use 6 poles anyway.. but leave us the possibility of running a four way system at some point.

It seems the main positive to 8-pole would be only needing one run of cable per side, though obviously connectors and cable would be more expensive, possibly more so than the extra connectors and cable needed for two runs of 4-pole.

Before balancing out the costs properly, I was wondering if using 8-pole connections throughout would be unnecessary, and whether a combination of 8-pole and 4-pole would be possible - i.e. running 8-pole from rack to mains but only running 4-pole down to the subs.

Would anyone recommend doing this? I guess it only really saves one (short) stage of 8 pole connections, and means the subs would have to be last in the chain (maybe not such a big problem), but perhaps it’s not worth it.

Any advice on this and general wiring wisdom much appreciated!

[Bruce Weldy]

If you are only running very large concert events where your speaker stacks are over 56 feet apart, then you could consider doing this. If that doesn't describe what you are doing every time you setup - then don't.

Cabling this way is very expensive, the cables get very heavy, and the whole thing is not at all very friendly to differing setups.

I'd stick with NL4mp connectors on the cabs. Then you have to look at your most common set up and see what makes the most sense - all 2 wire cable or some 2 and some 4.

The first question is what cabinets are you running and how many? Inside or outside.

Personally, I run all single 2 wire cables to all my boxes with the exception of a couple of special 4 wire cables that I built for a specific outdoor application and I do often enough to justify the cost.

Give us a little more info.

[CoronaOperator]

A local sound provider in town uses 8 pole to subs, then 4 pole from sub to mains. I used to rent their subs for additional output for shows and it became really confusing. They had to have an assortment of 2/4 pole to 8 pole adapters to make those subs work for everyone else as amps and retail subs use 2/4 pole. Some times they would give me the wrong 8 pole to 2/4 pole adapters and I'd have to diagnose and re-wire the 8 pole end to make the cables work for me. With all the adapters you need for ad hocing a system together and they all have to be labeled as there are different combinations I wouldn't do it, especially since where your subs sound the best can be (usually) in a very different location than where your tops are. I'd only use 8 pole if I were tri-amping a 3-way box as in all 3 drivers in the same cabinet.

[BrentEvans]

I just finished building NL8 breakouts amd 100ft 12 gauge nl8 cables. My tops are biamped, so this works well for me, and the breakouts allow for configurability. I used a deep surface mount double gang plastic conduit box and 4 NL4 connectors wired 1/2, 2/1, 3/4, and 4/3. This gives me all four pairs on pin 1 of a NL4, and lots of options for configuring. My amp rack is wired Left and Right NL8, with a spare pair for extra subs or sidefills. If I set up small enough that I want to center cluster subs, I can do that with a 25ft cable. As a bonus, I can plug breakouts on each end of a NL8 cable and use Nl4 jumpers on each end for various configurations.

I got the wire on Amazon for $160 for 100 feet, which is really quite affordable. NL8 connectors are a bit more expensive, but this setup will save me lots of time over running three or four NL4 cables out to both stacks.

What I would NOT do is do NL8 all the way around. There's really no point other than daisy chaining large stacks, but then you have to have everything wired just right and can't configure it differently in a pinch.