Spectra speaker question?

[alex4659]

hi,

i got my spectra a9 hooked up today and have a question about the speaker...

so i dont have the right speaker, its a midland 21-406 speaker that i bout at frys electronics.

but the connector is different from the one on the speaker

- - - -

midland = 3.5mm headphone jack plug

spectra = a two pin connector (see pic)

the plug for the spectra has a line on each black wire... one seems to be green and the other seems like an orange color; where as the wires on the midland speaker cable are both black but one of them a white line on it.

if anyone knows which one is + and - and/or how to solder the wires let me know please

 

[zz0468]

It doesn't matter. Neither side of the Spectra speaker output is grounded. Just make sure they stay that way.

 

[alex4659]

thanks zz0468,

so i just solder the wires either way right? and of course rap it in some electrical tape...


Alex

 

[alex4659]

oh and one more thing, my spectra is all hooked up; before i solder or even cut the wires, should i disconnect the power from the radio itself; not the control head?

thanks,
Alex

 

[zz0468]

Yes, either way. But make sure the midland speaker doesn't provide a path to ground through either lead. The speaker itself is balanced, it really doesn't have a + or - input. The radio WILL be damaged if either speaker lead comes in contact with ground while the radio is powered up.

And yes, disconnect the radio from power when you connect the speaker.

 

[alex4659]

how do i make sure that the midland wires are not grounded?

the wires were connected to a 3.5 mm plug

also, the box says nothing but 4 Ω 20 watt...

thanks,
Alex

 

[zz0468]

how do i make sure that the midland wires are not grounded?

oh boy... Um, do you have an ohm meter?

 

[alex4659]

sorry that was a dumb question but to answer it, yes i have one as a matter of fact; havent used it yet, still in the box.

thanks,
Alex

 

[James04TJ]

IIRC the standard Motorola speaker connector is a 2 pin molex. You should be able to pick one up from Digikey and various other sources.

 

[alex4659]

ok i tested the wires and its bouncing around at about 4 ohms; i have the meter set to: ohm/x1k

i hope i doing this right

thanks,
Alex

ps - i attached a pic of my meter

 

[CCHLLM]

If the actual speaker terminals on the speaker are not connected to anything other than the speaker coil and the two wire leads, you're safe.

If one or both of the actual speaker terminals are marked for polarity (+) (-), it's because that particular speaker may also be used in other applications that use multiple speakers that may require proper speaker phasing, i.e., so that one speaker isn't acoustically "pushing" while the other is "pulling" while producing a particular tone.

You could disregard these markings since there is only one set of parameters the Spectra audio cares about: neither speaker lead is connected to ground and neither speaker lead is shorted to the other and there's a proper load (the speaker) between them. Spectra speakers are actually 8 ohmers, but more than one Spectra out there has a 4 ohm speaker plugged into it and is running fine.

 

[alex4659]

Thanks wx4cbh,

I figured out a way to hook my radio to the speaker; used some cutco scissors to cut an old rc car battery plug and some pliers to squeeze to contacts so that the would fit into the radios speaker plug... did not even need to cut the speaker sires from the radio itself!

Nothing a little brain storming couldn't help...

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this little project,

Alex