[Speaker Switch]This is such a basic question, iknow, i know

[Ptownkid]

Ok, so i want to make a speaker switch, used to have 2-3 sets of speakers able to be turned on or off all coming from one source.

What the hell kind of switches would i use in order to keep it stereo.

The input would have left and right, both of which have 3 wires each for a total of 6, this is the part i can't wrap my head around.

The answer is gonna be so simple and I'm gonna feel stupid, but i can't hurt my brain anymore.

Cheers

 

[CJ]

Just a hunch, but I bet there is something like what you need hanging on the rack of your local Radio Shack, nice and fresh in that blister pack and everything, along with a pimply Tandy geek, ready to sell you the switch. But beware. If he asks you if you need any batteries or a cell phone, run like hell!

:green:

 

[Ptownkid]

Yeah, but i wanted to make my own and understand it for experience

 

[CJ]

OK, simple brute force would be a bunch of switrches mounted to a panel.
Just get a pen and paper and have at it.

You can elliminate some wiring by tying some minus sides together.

Try a schematic and then post it or send the file to me and I will post it.

Then someone can bail you out. That way you will learn something.

 

[Ptownkid]

i did just realize something though, speakers only use two wires right?

 

[CJ]

well, four if stereo, and there are some issues with using the grounds or minus' together.

But certainly you could connect the three minus wires on the left channel to the left minus of the amp, and the same for the right.

 

[PRR]

2P3T switch.

If you think you must keep the black leads separate, a 4P3T switch. However, speakers usually "float": they have no other electrical connection. So you can leave all the black leads connected, and just connect the red lead (or leadS for stereo).

I assume you only want one set connected at a time. Throwing 3 speakers on one amp will, if not carefully considered, usually overload the amp.

 

[Ptownkid]

Yeah, i just want to be able to switch between them for referencing when mixing.

I have an old RS one here that has two sets of two caps inside, any idea what that's about?

 

[Guest]

[quote author="Ptownkid"]Yeah, i just want to be able to switch between them for referencing when mixing.

I have an old RS one here that has two sets of two caps inside, any idea what that's about?[/quote]

this is kinda cool:

PC controlled speaker switcher

Lautsprecher umschalten zwischen zwei Verstärker

seems to me though that you could do this with a rotary switch.....

 

[BYacey]

A good quality 2 pole rotary wafer switch might do well for this application.

 

[bcarso]

Adcom used to make a pretty nice box for this which would allow paralleling and adding a series internal R to keep the impedance from dropping too low. Of course the damping factor goes to hell but that's life.

When I was in the demonstration switcher biz we used interlocking pushbutton switches with long throw and lots of wiping action. The nontrivial modification involved a mechanical lockout of multiple detents, as well as the "interlock" action of one switch cancelling the other---that is, you could not press two buttons down simultaneously, even momentarily.

The competition used electrical lockout, which daisy-chained the signal through normally-closed contacts of the switch array, and moreover used lossy PCB traces to do it. So things tended to degrade depending on position.

However, their styling was more appealing

 

[PRR]

> this is kinda cool:
PC controlled speaker switcher

That one is for self-amplified speakers: it shorts-out the signal when not wanted. And with a small transistor that would vaporize at speaker-amp power.

Lautsprecher umschalten zwischen zwei Verstärker
switch speaker between two amplifier

Yes, but over-complicated (switches both posts of each speaker, and as you know you only have to break ONE wire to get zero output) and is drawn for one speaker and two amplifiers, while the Kid was looking for the other way round. (Oh, with two amplifiers you DO want to break both wires, unless you can be very sure stray ground currents won't pass between amplifiers.)