7. Loudspeaker Cables

The main function of a speaker cable is to provide a low-resistance path between the amplifier and the loudspeaker. To do this well, a hefty cable made of a pure metal (such as oxygen free copper) is best, but if you're on a tight budget, 30A cooker cable works pretty well! Cable runs should be kept as short as possible, and each speaker in the system should be connected to the amplifier by cables of equal length. Speaker cables require no screening.

Connectors

The most common way to connect a passive (non-powered) speaker is a speakon cable. These are normally found in high power and pro systems. Speakon leads come ready-made in a range of different lengths.

Speaker leads comes also with 1/4-inch jack and 3-pol XLR connectors. Another way to connect a passive speaker is to use bare-ended, 2-core wire, clamped at both amplifier and speaker ends using threaded posts which are tightened and loosened using the fingers. Note that positive and negative connections are denoted by red and black respectively. Always observe the correct polarity to avoid phase problems.