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[John Roberts {JR}]

You mean someone using "series" when they mean "daisy-chained"?

One of the bad things about wiki is no technical editor....

The term daisy chain may refer either to large scale devices connected in series, such as a series of power strips plugged into each other to form a single long line of strips, or to the wiring patterns embedded inside of devices.

Seriously, while the outlet strip line cords may be in series, the loads are all connected in parallel.



Whenever someone say's "daisy chain" I ask them what exactly do they mean. Apparently daisy chain has become popularly used to describe digital data ring networks.

The best way to think about this is "never connect speakers in series". That was easy.

JR
 

[Mike Sokol]

Often people use the term (wired in series) as being the opposite of having a home run for each speaker.
I could very easily see someone saying "just wire them all in series" and an electrician or someone taking that literally.

I had a long conversation with the design engineer for the company acting as the overall contractor of these installs. He said they've installed this exact same sound system at 170 identical restaurants around the country (fast food joints, remember?) and this is the first one that was miswired. The sub-contracted crew that wired this site had already been fired weeks ago from a bunch of other things they goofed up. I'm guessing the new guy on the crew got to climb around in the ceiling while the supervisors stood outside and smoked. And yes, this will be a simple fix once we get the additional time approved. We just have to go to each speaker and reconnect in parallel instead of series.

[Jason Lavoie]

Apparently daisy chain has become popularly used to describe digital data ring networks.

And that gets to another level of confusion, because device to device, the wiring IS in parallel, but then the overall configuration is a series ring

Jason

[Joseph D. Macry]

The best way to think about this is "never connect speakers in series". That was easy.

JR

Okay, just to be contrary, I have a bass amp with a 4x10 cabinet (Fender Bassman Ten combo). The four 8-ohm speakers are wired series-parallel (two series pairs, which are connected in parallel) to make a 8-ohm system.

[John Roberts {JR}]

Okay, just to be contrary, I have a bass amp with a 4x10 cabinet (Fender Bassman Ten combo). The four 8-ohm speakers are wired series-parallel (two series pairs, which are connected in parallel) to make a 8-ohm system.

That is a musical instrument cabinet, where accuracy is not paramount. DF for tube amps is not a strong point.

JR
[edit] and don't forget the Bose 901... 9 speakers in series [/edit]

[Mike Sokol]

Okay, just to be contrary, I have a bass amp with a 4x10 cabinet (Fender Bassman Ten combo). The four 8-ohm speakers are wired series-parallel (two series pairs, which are connected in parallel) to make a 8-ohm system.

That is the correct way to wire 8-ohm speakers in a 4x10 bass cabinet. The original Bose 901 cabinets had 9 speakers that were 8 ohms each wired in series-parallel. And you can figure out the next number of speakers that will form systems with the same impedance of a single speaker by the squaring the number. So you can do the same trick with 4, 9, 16, 25, and 36 speakers, etc.... But there's always exceptions to every rule. I had four of the Ampeg SVT 8x10 cabinets back in the 80's, and they had 32-ohm speakers. So you wired all 8 of them all up in parallel to get a 4-ohm cabinet.

[John Roberts {JR}]

That is the correct way to wire 8-ohm speakers in a 4x10 bass cabinet. The original Bose 901 cabinets had 9 speakers that were 8 ohms each wired in series-parallel.

Yes at first, but after they started making boatloads of these they tooled up a 0.9 ohm driver that they could wire all 9 in series.

And you can figure out the next number of speakers that will form systems with the same impedance of a single speaker by the squaring the number. So you can do the same trick with 4, 9, 16, 25, and 36 speakers, etc....

Any here old enough to remember the Sweet 16 speaker project? (4 strings of 4 drivers in one huge box). Back in the 70's I built a 16 driver box, and a friend built a 25 driver box... Loud for the '70s home hifi, but the small drivers in a sealed cabinet tuned for >100Hz needed a ton of EQ to make decent bass, and no amount of EQ would cover the top octave properly with those midrange drivers.

But there's always exceptions to every rule. I had four of the Ampeg SVT 8x10 cabinets back in the 80's, and they had 32-ohm speakers. So you wired all 8 of them all up in parallel to get a 4-ohm cabinet.

Without getting too esoteric musical instrument cabinets are different animals with other important considerations (like intentional cabinet interactions, etc)..

JR

[Steve M Smith]

But there's always exceptions to every rule.

Like the WEM cabinets I had with two 12" 16Ω speakers wired in parallel with an engraved plate on the back marked 6Ω.

Or the six small speakers in a Peavey CL-2 which make up 8Ω.  I can't remember if they are series/parallel or just all parallel.  Possibly 3 x 5.3Ω in series twice with each string in parallel.


Steve.

[Craig Hauber]

I had a long conversation with the design engineer for the company acting as the overall contractor of these installs. He said they've installed this exact same sound system at 170 identical restaurants around the country (fast food joints, remember?) and this is the first one that was miswired. The sub-contracted crew that wired this site had already been fired weeks ago from a bunch of other things they goofed up. I'm guessing the new guy on the crew got to climb around in the ceiling while the supervisors stood outside and smoked. And yes, this will be a simple fix once we get the additional time approved. We just have to go to each speaker and reconnect in parallel instead of series.

Are they actual 70V speakers with transformers?
You can wire a bunch of normal 8-ohm ones in series to hook them directly to a 70V line with no matching transformers needed.
-I can't remember the exact quantity off the top of my head but 7 will get you around 100W on the line. (50-ohm at 70.7V)

[Mike Sokol]

Whenever someone say's "daisy chain" I ask them what exactly do they mean. Apparently daisy chain has become popularly used to describe digital data ring networks.

The best way to think about this is "never connect speakers in series". That was easy.

JR

And here's how they connected speakers to the main trunk line. As you can see, they just cut the one side of the line, and connected the speakers in series. Waco eh?

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