Changing amp connections

[kevinobrennan]

I'm changing a PA system amplifier, ( Bogen CTS 1060), to a Peavey XRD 680 Powered Mixer. The Bogen has screw connectors for the speakers and the Peavey has 1/4 " jacks. I hope to use the same speakers since they are already wired in the hall. Can I, (should I), solder the wire ends to a 1/4 " jack. If so, which side will go to the tip and the ring, (shield), of the 1/4 " jack?

 

[Thefoxygranpa]

I've always done;

Tip is + =black wire

Sleeve is - =white wire

To be sure you connect right you might want to take a look at the back of the speakers if possible to see how they were wired up at the cabinet end. May be different.

 

[kevinobrennan]

Thanks for the information about tip and ring. I am dealing with speaker wire about 18 gauge that has the sides with or without a ridge. So I'm not dealing with color code but I can access the back of the speaker and find out which side is connected to what. Once I've done that I'm not sure which speaker connector will end up on the tip and which connector on the ring sides of the 1/4" jack.

 

[derekleffew]

...I am dealing with speaker wire about 18 gauge that has the sides with or without a ridge. ...

"Standard" would be smooth side=hot/+ and ribbed side neutral/-, but not everyone knows or follows this, so always best to check the other end.

 

[SHARYNF]

what is more important is to make sure that both of the connections are the same, it really does not matter which is connected to which as long as this same convention is used for ALL speaker connections. You are trying to avoid phase reversal

Sharyn

 

[mixmaster]

Thanks for the information about tip and ring. I am dealing with speaker wire about 18 gauge that has the sides with or without a ridge. So I'm not dealing with color code but I can access the back of the speaker and find out which side is connected to what. Once I've done that I'm not sure which speaker connector will end up on the tip and which connector on the ring sides of the 1/4" jack.

In most cases, speaker positives should wire back to the tip on the 1/4" plug. In most cases speaker positive is indicated by a red terminal at the connection. The exception would be some JBL horn drivers that reverse polarity for some reason. If your speaker terminals are not marked red/black, sometimes positive is marked with a white dot, or sometimes they have different sizes of solder tabs on the drivers themselves that you can trace back. It really doesn't matter what color/convention you end up using as long as you meet two requirements:
1) everything is the same. You shouldn't have the ribbed wire as positive in one spot and negative in another or you will have speakers out of phase. This should require you to check the speakers to see how they are wired.
2) document everything. Whatever you decide on, think about, or observe draw pictures and make notes.

 

[museav]

I'm changing a PA system amplifier, ( Bogen CTS 1060), to a Peavey XRD 680 Powered Mixer. The Bogen has screw connectors for the speakers and the Peavey has 1/4 " jacks. I hope to use the same speakers since they are already wired in the hall. Can I, (should I), solder the wire ends to a 1/4 " jack. If so, which side will go to the tip and the ring, (shield), of the 1/4 " jack?

Stop where you are and slowly step away from the amplifier!

Seriously, don't do anything without first confirming a few things. Via the internal multi-tap transformer, which terminals you connect to and the installation or absence of a COM to GND link, the CTS 1060 is rated at 60W but is capable of driving a variety of loads including not only 8 Ohm loads but also 16 Ohm loads and 25V or 70V constant voltage systems (and all either unbalanced or balanced). In comparison, the XRD 680 is rated at 100W per channel into 8 Ohms but only rated for 4 or 8 Ohm loads.

Thus the first concern is to make sure that the speaker system is even compatible with the XRD 680. If the speaker system was previously wired to the CTS 1060 via the 8 Ohm and COM terminal with the link installed between COM and GND, then it would seem to have been driving an 8 Ohm load and you should be okay as long as the speakers can handle the additional output of teh XRD 680. However, if you have something like a quite common 70V distributed system for your spealer system then trying to drive that with the XRD 680 may not work and may damage the amp. So you might want to hold off any changes until you can verify what kind of speaker system you have and the load it represents to the amplifier.

On a lesser point, if you do have a distributed 'constant voltage' (25V or 70V) system then the level for each speaker is determined by the tap value set at the transformer that is with each speaker. Adding more power won't hurt anything but it probably won't make any difference either.

 

[DuckJordan]

is there something wrong with your origional amplifier or is it just you needed a new board and ended up with a powered one?

 

[FMEng]

Ditto what Museav said. You have to know what the load impedance is. The Peavey could be set up to drive a 25V or 70V line, but it would require an output transformer to do so.

Or, if the Bogen is still functional, use a line output on the Peavey to drive a line input on the Bogen, using the Peavey just as a mixer.