Karaoke Forums

I just read the following at Prodj's DJU.

"Here's the most important note about speakers I can pass on to you. NEVER use 1/4 inch phone plugs for speaker connections. That would be best compared to having a 2 inch water pipe coming from your street to your house, having a 1 inch water pipe running to all the faucets in your house and connecting the two by reducing each of them to a half inch connector. When you use a 1/4 inch plug and jack for speaker connections, you have less connection area than you would have if you touched the tip of one fingernail with another. This translates into a loss of power. We have tested two identical speaker cabinets powered by two channels of the same amp using a speaker cord with 1/4 inch plugs on both ends for the left speaker and on the right speaker we used a cord without any plugs so we connected the wires directly to the red and black binding posts on the amp and the speaker. Everyone in the room could hear the difference in volume between the two speakers."

I do understand the concept, and just like hydraulic fluid the amps have to flow freely without restriction. My question is, what if the speaker cabs only have 1/4" jacks? Unless you know how to change the receptacle to one which offers less restriction, you're kinda' stuck aren't you? Could the existsing 1/4" jacks be intentionaly engeneeered to limit power? Or is it just a manufacturing cost limitation?

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EveningStar Entertainment & Events
JR & Michele LaPorte
Peoria, AZ

#1 - There's always someone who can change your jacks. Talk to your local Guitar Center if you cannot do it yourself.

#2 - ALWAYS make sure your speaker polarities are correct! You don't want your membranes to "suck" (move negative) when they're supposed to push the air.
Case study - 2 Identical speakers with identical jacks, but the one polarized wrong will clearly give a lesser volume of sound.

#3 - 1/4" jack prices compared to XLR, a 10 fold difference, but not everyone can afford XLR's

for the past four years, I've used Subzero speakers (Pioneer horn and woofer with a custom built cabinet and interface) with 1/4" connections, and never had anyone complain about the sound. In fact, I'm complimented on it all the time!

1/4" plugs used to be the standard & many still use these in both karaoke AND pro-audio engineers. However the NEW standards are Speakon connectors. 1/4" connectors don't make anything sound better or worse. If there was a noticeable difference, i'd also look at the polarity of your wires.

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