Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Speakers Wire Size: Things to never do !

This is topic Speakers Wire Size: Things to never do ! in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jean-Michel Grin (Member # 1360) on 07-06-2003, 04:48 AM:

Recently a friend asked me:
Hey Bud, I know that you work as technician in a movie theater; could you check the instalation in my club and tell me why the sound is so crappy ?
In fact the sound had no hight frequencies, and a dramatic losses of loudness.
I opened all the speakon connectors and it was IMO the worst instalation a ever seen. all the connections to the 4th speakers was made with stereo line level cable of 0.25 sq mm ± 25 AWG ? could You immagine the result ?

More surprises for me when I checked sthe speakon connector for the 700 W RMS subwoffer: the cable inside was equivalent to 16 AWG, and take a look to the insulation...

[IMG][/IMG]

It took me one week of my vacation to exchange all these cables in the whole club ! Could You imagine that some installers ask for monney to make so dirty job ?
Have You seen some instalation made this way in Yours theaters ? I'm just curious...
Two more pics: Here is the sound rack with the power amplifiers before I checked all:

And here is the new sound Rack After I did the job !

Now it's sounds really terrific in this club....
A better installation pay ! [Smile]

Posted by Michael Harlow (Member # 1353) on 07-06-2003, 07:53 AM:

This reminds me of a "problem" that i saw not so long ago. A club just down the road from me asked if i could help. Their speakers were making a burning smell. Anyway, the speakers were Tannoy Puma's and they had been driven so hard that the crossovers had caught fire.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-06-2003, 08:01 AM:

Nice re-do Jean-Michel! Great Job! Congrats!

>>> Phil

Posted by Jean-Michel Grin (Member # 1360) on 07-06-2003, 11:34 AM:

Thank You Phil ! [Smile]

Michael,
The same happened in the club who I fixed the problem: They had four DAS DS-8 Speakers for the lobby and the bar of the discotheque. Every speakers could handle 150 W RMS but the power amplifier was a Electro-Voice EV-Q66 who delivers more than 300 W RMS onto 8 ohms !
All the drivers was burned out and the guy din't understand why [Big Grin]

Posted by Michael Harlow (Member # 1353) on 07-06-2003, 11:50 AM:

Jean-Michel, As Phil said, that is a nice rack you have made there. It has often made me wonder (being a club owner myself) why there arn't more serious fires. Esp if your friend had his system wired with .25 wire, they must have been getting hot!

DAS do make good stuff and infact i have a DAS rig (9KW) in one of my clubs, very nice but expensive.

Posted by Mike Fitzgerald (Member # 1304) on 07-06-2003, 12:22 PM:

Nice job on the redo. Just think how many locations need the same fix up.