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[Arnold B. Krueger]

Hi,

Our small church has recently had a pair of speakers donated to us.  What we would like to do is add these 2 speakers to our hall allowing us to use a side orientation, i.e.

x1 Powered Mixer (rack mount) with only L & R outs.
x2 Speakers (A&B) currently FOH Left and Right
...adding x2 Speakers (C&D) Side Hall Left and Right

Utilisation - I hope this makes some sense:

                                              [          ]  =====[A]
                                              [          ]  =====
Mixer AMP (Spkr Out) L/R====[Switch]        or       
                                              [          ] =====[C]                     
                                              [          ] =====[D]

So the switch needs to allow the end user to select either A/B (Front Speakers) OR C/D (Side Speakers).

The amp is rated as 500W per channel and each speaker 400W (all 4).

I am happy to make a switch but am unsure as to how I go about this.  Thanks for any assistance.

What you need is a 4PDT switch with sufficient voltage and currrent carrying capacity.

Ideally, 30 amp contacts would be good, but contacts rated at as little as 10 amps could give good life, depending on actual duty.

Here's an example of an appropriate 10 amp 4PDT switch:

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/STS-70/4PDT-ON-ON-TOGGLE-SWITCH//1.html

Basically, you wire the center row of 4 terminals up to the 4 speaker terminals fromyour active mixer, and hook the 4 wires from each pair of speakers to one of the outer rows. Be sure to match up the plusses and minuses and lefts and rights in the columns of contacts.

Swtching between paris of speakers while the music is playing full blast into low efficiency, low impedance speakers will stress the swtich contacts. Only changing speakers when the volume is low or off will greatly extend their life.

[Brad Weber]

Would there be any problem with switching the speakers when the amp is powered on?

That depends on the switch and the amp.  A 'make before break' switch would end up momentarily having both sets of speakers in parallel.  A 'break before make' switch would momentarily be driving an open circuit.  Some amps may be fine with either situation as well as the sudden changes, but the amp in a Behringer powered mixer may not.

[Nick Bair]

Radio Shack makes a post-amp speaker selector with 4 stereo outputs:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062682

We have one in our church and it works fine. You shouldn't have to cut power to switch, but I would turn down the master volume when switching to avoid pops.

[ProSoundWeb Community]