¿Qué conectores usan los parlantes del automóvil?

Tener buenos parlantes para el automóvil mejora su experiencia auditiva y duplica su disfrute, pero ¿alguna vez se ha preguntado qué conectores se deben usar para los parlantes del automóvil?

Por lo general, los parlantes para automóviles usan tres tipos de conectores de alambre con los cables de los parlantes:conectores de horquilla, conectores de anillo, conectores tipo banana, conectores de pala o conectores de clavija, según el diseño del terminal del parlante. Los más comúnmente utilizados en los altavoces para automóviles del mercado de accesorios son los conectores macho/hembra de desconexión rápida.

Por otro lado, tienen conectores tipo hembra estándar para que coincidan con los altavoces del mercado de accesorios.

En este artículo, explicaré cómo conectar los parlantes de su automóvil con cables utilizando diferentes tipos de conectores.

¿Cuáles son los tipos de conectores de cables de altavoz?

Los conectores de cable son una excelente manera de conectar sus altavoces. En lugar de conectar un cable pelado al terminal del altavoz, primero conecta el conector al cable del altavoz y luego lo conecta al altavoz.

Al conectar la radio del automóvil o el amplificador con altavoces, debe buscar conectores que sean compatibles con los terminales de los altavoces, proporcionar una conexión segura y minimizar la pérdida de señal.

Hay muchos tipos de conectores de cable de altavoz disponibles en el mercado y, debido a su diseño diferente, puede usarlos en aplicaciones ligeramente diferentes:

Conectores de postes de unión

Estos conectores tienen una tapa codificada por color y una varilla de metal roscada con un orificio.

Se utilizan para conectarse con un solo cable pelado y pueden funcionar junto con otros conectores, como conectores tipo banana, conectores de clavija o conectores de pala.

Conectores de pala

Son conectores en forma de U. La mayoría de los conectores de pala están engarzados con alambre, pero los que tienen un tornillo sujetan el alambre en el bolsillo. Los conectores de pala se utilizan para altavoces con terminales de tornillo o con postes de unión.

La principal ventaja de estos conectores sobre el cable desnudo es que cubren todos los hilos del cable y aseguran que la conexión sea fuerte, y son más populares en los altavoces del mercado de accesorios.

Tapones de plátano

Los conectores banana se utilizan mucho en el audio de los coches, pero no todos los altavoces aceptan este tipo.

Vienen en dos diseños diferentes, uno usa tornillos para sujetar el cable y otros son estilo postes de unión. Son los más rápidos para la conexión y desconexión.

Conectores de pines

Son una versión más pequeña de los conectores tipo banana sin contacto de resorte y solo se utilizan con postes de unión con orificios en el centro de la varilla roscada.

Conectores RCA

Fueron inventados por la corporación RCA en la década de 1940 y se utilizan en el audio del automóvil para transferir señales entre radios y amplificadores. También se denominan conectores phono.

¿Cómo conectar el cable del altavoz a los altavoces?

Hay muchas formas de conectar los cables de los altavoces a los terminales de los altavoces, pero realmente depende de qué terminales tengan sus altavoces.

Puede conectar el cable del altavoz con los altavoces simplemente soldando el cable con los terminales del altavoz o usando conectores de clavija, conectores tipo banana o conectores de pala.

Al seleccionar los conectores de los altavoces, asegúrese de que coincidan con el calibre del cable de su altavoz. La mayoría de los conectores están diseñados para funcionar con cables de calibre 12 a 18 (AWG).

A continuación, algunos ejemplos de cables con conexiones de terminales:

Conexión de cables desnudos

Un cable pelado es un cable de cobre o cualquier otro material conductor que transporta señales eléctricas.

Puede usar cable pelado para conexiones temporales porque estas conexiones son propensas a fallas.

Para realizar esta conexión, simplemente pele el aislamiento del cable con unos alicates e inserte el extremo desnudo del cable en el terminal del altavoz.

El cable pelado funciona bien con cualquier conector. Hay varios tipos de cables disponibles, como cable sólido, cable trenzado, cable de tira plana, etc.

Conexión de los cables de los altavoces a los terminales de clip de resorte

Algunos parlantes tienen terminales con clip de resorte, lo que facilita la conexión de los cables.

Simplemente pele el cable hasta ½ pulgada y luego gírelo en el extremo con el índice y el pulgar. A continuación, empuje el clip de resorte hacia abajo e inserte el cable en él.

Suelte el clip y la conexión debe ser firme, pero eso depende de la fuerza del resorte.

Conexión de los cables de los altavoces mediante soldadura

La conexión más sólida es soldar el cable con el terminal del altavoz.

Para realizar una conexión de soldadura, debe completar lo siguiente:

• soldador

• flujo

• soldadura

• pelacables

Primero, pele el cable del altavoz hasta media pulgada y caliente el soldador a la temperatura adecuada.

Apple flux onto the soldering iron, place the speaker wire on the speaker terminal and make a joint using soldering iron and solder.

Connecting Speaker Wires to Binding Posts Terminals

Connecting speaker wires to binding post terminals is straightforward. These caps are colored red and black, indicating positive and negative terminals.

• First, unscrew the caps of these terminals until you start seeing the hole in the post.

• Strip the speaker wire up to half inches and twist it at the end, then insert the positive speaker wire into the hole of the positive terminal of the binding post.

• Now tighten the caps until it fully covers the hole. Repeat the same process with the negative speaker wire.

Connecting Speaker Wires Using Banana Plugs

When making solid connections, there are many benefits of using banana plugs with your car speaker wire.

I like the banana plugs, especially when the speaker terminals are visible, like in upside-down connected subwoofers. It is crucial not only for the stable connection but also for its aesthetic.

You can find three design types of banana plugs:

• set screw plastic cover

• set screw metal cover

• binding post style

Banana plugs also come with color-coding:

• red for the positive speaker wire, and

• black for the negative speaker wire

Connection of the banana plugs with the wires is not complicated, and it requires a few steps to complete the task:

• Cut The Wire to the required length. Make sure that the wires are long enough to run in the tight corners through the car chassis. I leave an extra wire of approx a foot long to avoid any surprises.

• Separate Wires. Before removing isolation, you have to work with each individual wire to make the job easier, so pull ends of the cables away from each other for a length of around 5 inches.

• Strip Away the jacket at a length of approx 0.5 inches from the end of the wire. Use the wire stripper, but do not apply too much pressure on it, otherwise, you will cut the wire.

• Repeat the same process on the other wire

• If you do not use solid speaker wires, twist the copper strands to be able to easily feed the wire into the banana plugs. Hold one of the wire ends between your finger and thumb, then turn the hand and twist the wires around each other.

• Once you’ve twisted the wire strands together, next attach the Banana Plugs to the wire. Each pair of cables will use one red striped banana plug on the positive wire and one black on the negative wire.

• When wires are in place, screw the back of the banana plug to lock and secure the wire. This will twist the wire deeper into the connector, giving a better connection.

• Repeat the same with other wire ends, ensuring a solid connection.

• The last step is to connect the banana plugs to the speakers or the amplifier.

What Is the Best Connector for Speaker Wire?

The purpose of a connector, as the name suggests, is to connect two things. However, because many types of connectors are available in the marketplace, it may not be easy to decide which connector to choose for speaker wire.

In my opinion, banana connectors are better than other connectors because they are easy to connect to a wire, can be used with binding posts, and have a lower signal-to-noise ratio.

From all banana plugs, I particularly like Xaugiry 8 pcs banana connectors with gold-plated copper.

This pack includes 4 binding posts style design banana connectors and four screw-type banana connectors. The gold plating protects the pin from rusting and makes good contact.

Other popular connectors are binding posts and spade lugs. However, the pin and RCA connectors are not so popular because of the specific design speaker’s terminals.

Your car stereo may have used more than one type of connector. For example, if your speaker has spring clips, you can use bare wire or pin connectors.

If other parts of the system have binding posts, you should consider banana connectors or spade connectors.

How Do You Connect Speaker Wire to Pin Connectors?

Pin connectors come with a threaded end cap, bushings, and a pin connector. An important thing to remember is to select the correct size of the pin connector to match the wire gauge.

To connect pin connectors with speaker wire, follow the few steps below:

• Take the positive speaker wire and remove insulation from it.

• Twist the strands properly using your thumb and forefinger so that all the wire hairs get together.

• Now take the threaded end cap of the pin connector and put it into the wire with threads facing your side.

• To make the connection tight, insert bushing into the threaded end cap. Now take the pin connector and insert it onto the wire.

• Tighten the threaded end cap to the connector and make sure your connection is secure. Don’t apply too much force while tightening the connector because it may break.

• Repeat the same steps with the negative speaker wire.

Are Spade Connectors Better Than Banana Plugs?

All types of connectors have their pros and cons.

The type of connector you need for the speaker terminal depends mainly on the application type and whether you want to make a strong joint or temporarily connect them.

To hold the speaker wire firmly in spade connectors, you either need to crimp the speaker wire into it with a crimping tool, or there are also available spade connectors with the screw adjustments to make connections solid and reliable.

On the other hand, Banana plugs are not bolted with the terminals. Therefore they may seem less reliable, especially for the installation with lots of vibrations because of the spring-loaded pins, but they are solid when sitting in the matching terminals and can be disconnected easily.

Banana plugs speaker wires are easy to replace in case of a fault in the wire. However, some banana connectors come with a screw, thus making the connections as secure as spade connectors, but they are a bit more expensive than spade connectors.

Are Banana Plugs Better Than Bare Wire?

Banana plug connectors and bare wires are the connections you will see most often in the car audio installation with speakers, amplifiers, and stereos.

You can simply insert both banana plug and bare wire into the binding posts.

There are various advantages of using banana connectors over the bare wire. With banana connectors, you will get a clean installation, and these connectors also boost the signal transfer speed.

You can easily pull off a bare wire, and if the hairs of these wires are not appropriately twisted, they can degrade the sound system’s performance.

If you don’t want a messy system, then use banana connectors. Banana connectors are gold plated, and they didn’t get attacked by rust as bare wires are more prone to rusting. So using banana connectors increases the quality of your joints.

You can use bare wire if you want to make a temporary connection, but to make a permanent, durable and reliable connection, you should choose banana connectors over the bare wire.

Conclusión

Speaker wire connectors make it easy to plug and unplug the speakers from amplifiers or the head unit.

If the space between terminals is confined, bare wire is unreliable because the strands can short circuit with other cables. So, it is easier to insert a connector in terminals than a bare wire.

Apart from this, the speaker wire connectors ensure a solid connection if you follow all the steps correctly. In addition, connectors increase the stereo’s sound quality and minimize signal loss.

I think these reasons are enough to convince you to use speaker wire connectors.