XLR substitution for binding posts - finished!

I have a couple speaker amp boards that I want to play with (a TA2020 and a TPA3116D2) and was thinking of alternate ways to connect up the speakers. In theory, as long as I don't short anything, any connector will work, right? Like if I panel mounted a 4-pin XLR, I could have my speaker wires come to a single connector, saving a lot of space if I wanted to do a really tiny box. Does anyone see a problem with this?

 

Not at all , ran a system at low wattage for a few years from xlr taps for the speakers. I say low wattage as i am not sure they will handle the high currents of a 200w speaker amp
I ran a TA2020 system (old 41Hz kit)

..dB

 

Thanks dB!

 

The end result! Well sort of. Temporary until I can finish building my CNC machine so that I can do a much prettier custom case. Might be awhile...




For those interested, it is a Yuan-Jing TPA3116D2 (50W x 50W @ 4ohms) pre-populated board - a favorite over at DIYaudio. No mods yet, as I wanted to get a feel for it stock. Using an old laptop power supply giving it 3.5A at 19V. Used some 24awg OCC copper in teflon for signal wiring, 18awg OCC copper in polyethylene for the power wiring. I don't know where I got the little box - maybe Partsexpress. All I know is that it was cheap and the perfect size. The Neutrik XLR has each pin rated at 10A and less than 50V, so it should handle even pretty powerful amps unless I am misunderstanding something. No volume pot right now since I am using my Vali 2 as a preamp driving my Energy RC-10s. Sounds great, and better than a TA2020 amp I was using prior. Gives the speakers a little more power, beefing up the bass a bit.

 

This is nice. You could also use:
http://www.parts-express.com/neutrik-nl4mp-st-speakon-connector-4-pole-panel-mount--092-053
and http://www.parts-express.com/neutrik-nl4fc-speakon-connector-4-pole-cable-mount--092-050
Zu uses the 8-pole version in their speakers. See e.g. http://www.zuaudio.com/loudspeakers/omen-def-1b (5th picture)

Edit: Page 7 in the speaker spec shows how they terminate the speakon 8-pole connector.

 

fraggler this is neat, I was looking at those tpa3116 boards, lots of people say they sound great

 

Thanks. It really is quite good, and for the price, worth an experiment. While I still love and partially lust after the expensive, huge hunks of audio gear, I am blown away by what we can now get in such small and inexpensive packages.