Removing the Straps

[Johnny Canuck]

Hey guys..haven't been around in a while, enjoying the summer and getting away a little..

I have a question about removing the gold speaker "straps" I guess you call them, you know, the things that join the posts on the speaker.

What does removing these do? I seem to recall Buckeye saying you turn your speakers into 4 ohm speakers doing this. Can someone explain this? I have Polk RTi12's, RTi6s, and a CSi5 centre. Do you get any improvement? I am also running the RTi12's with the Denon 3805 on the highs and the NAD 220 on the lows. Will taking the straps off my oother speakers do anything, particularly the centre channel?

Thanks

JC

 

[j_garcia]

Those are jumpers. What it does is separate the x-over for the top (highs) from the bottom (lows). Taking the jumpers off will mean the side not connected will be getting no power....

 

[majorloser]

Terminal Jumpers

The "strap" is a connection between the two sets of 5-way binding posts. the binding posts divide the tweeter/midrange and woofer sections of the speaker in two. By removing the straps, the speakers can be either bi-amped or bi-wired.

Bi-amping is when you use a separate amplifier output wired to each set of binding posts to power both the tweeter/midrange drivers and the woofer separately. More overall power is available to the speaker. Most of the power requirement for a speaker is used to drive the woofer.

Bi-wiring is when you run separate wires from the SAME amplifier channel to each set of binding posts. The thought is that you have increased the overall wire size and power carrying ability (?).

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

You don't want to disconnect the strap on the center, because you will either lose one large driver, or one large driver and a tweeter (unless you biamp). When you unstrap your binding posts, the top and bottom connections become 8 ohms (each) nominal. When the straps on left on, the combined resistance is 4 ohms nominal.

 

[j_garcia]

Increasing the wire size really only achieves something up to the point where the speaker has sufficient current; after that it does nothing. Just because more wire can carry more current doesn't mean they somehow create more current that is needed or exists.