NOTES:
Speakon™ is a trademark of Neutrik, and refers to their 4 and 8-pole connectors used on many brands of speak-
ers and audio amplifiers and the cables that connect them. The CBT-375 Cable Tester can test cables with
Speakon-to-Speakon, Speakon to 1/4”, and Speakon-to-Banana connections, but only for the 4-pole version of the
Speakon connector. (This tester cannot test cables equipped with Neutrik’s 8-pole Speakon.)
Not every cable made with a Speakon connector at each end will test the same. That’s because depending upon
the intended application, cable manufacturers will use 4-conductor cable, or they’ll use 2-conductor cable with a
choice of wiring schemes. Below, we show the most-often used Speakon cables, but there are others, too. (Again,
it depends upon the application.)
Biamping is the practice of using an electronic crossover to separate high frequencies from low frequencies before
they are amplified, and then amplifying them separately. Typically, then, one amplifier would handle the low fre-
quencies and another amplifier would handle the highs, and two sets of cables would be employed; one set for the
high-frequency system, and one for the low-frequency system.
The Speakon connector may be used for normal, full-range speaker applications as well as in applications where
biamping is employed. Its four inner contacts or “poles” allow it to be connected not only to a standard, two-con-
ductor full-range speaker cable, but also to a four-conductor cable, which can then be used to carry both the ampli-
fied high-frequency and low-frequency signals while maintaining their separation.
The Speakon’s 4 poles are called “+1”, “-1”, “+2” and “-2”. Typically, the +1 and -1 poles are paired to carry one
amplified audio signal, and +2 and -2 are paired to carry the other. Often, the high-frequency speaker enclosure
will have two female Speakon jacks wired in parallel, and only the +1 and -1 contacts are actually wired to the
high-frequency speaker element. The unused jack is for sending the low-frequencies on to the low-frequency
speaker enclosure, which has a female Speakon jack, Pins +2 and -2 of which are wired to the low-frequency
speaker element.
Rather than using separate speaker cable runs between the
two amplifiers and their respective speakers, we’ve used one
4-conductor cable (2 Bananas to one Speakon), and a short
Speakon-to-Speakon jumper cable, which really only needs to
be a 2-conductor cable wired for +2 and -2.
YOUR TALENT. OUR CONNECTIONS.
HOSA TECHNOLOGY, INC. 6650 CABALLERO BLVD., BUENA PARK, CA 90620
WEBSITE: www.hosatech.com
A color version of this Applications Guide is
available online at www.hosatech.com.
