Need help replacing a wall speaker with 6 wires attached

Blackhawks9999

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
5
0
1,510
I have been tasked with the labor replacing a speaker used in a back room at a church. The sound system is to also go through this one speaker. It is a replacement for one that died recently, and looked to have been from the 70s or 80s if I had to guess. The replacement looks the same, but has more wires.

There is a black, orange, yellow, red, blue, and brown wire on the new speaker. The one that I pulled off the wall had only the usual two wires, and is connected to a single 2 conductor speaker cable coming out of the wall.

The speaker itself is a Model DS-805 from JWD. None of the documentation included with the speaker or that I can find online have any information about how to wire it up.

I took three pictures here http://imgur.com/a/OgvM0 to show what I'm working with.

RikMaEU.jpg

mL1RIaz.jpg

wzSmsh4.jpg


I guess this is maybe an intercom speaker and that's why it's different? Is there a combination of wires that I can wire nut together that will make this work with the 2 conductor speaker cable? Is it safe to even do so?

If they simply bought the wrong kind of speaker and it cannot work without running new wiring, that's ok too I just want to see if this can be made to work first. If not I will purchase a speaker for them instead and have them reimburse.

Thank you for any insight.

 
Solution
Geh, that's what I get for doing diagrams late at night. ^^; Just follow what it says on the volume control itself. Like this:
k3wYWxt.png


It's exactly what you wrote. ^^


Getting mixed up with circuits... But it should work as indicated. If it doesn't work, or heats up, remove it and connect directly. Or buy a dedicated in-line volume control. ^^
Hello.

From what it looks like, it sounds as if you ordered the wrong model. The one you ordered came with a transformer. It can still work, but you will need to remove or bypass that transformer to use the speaker in your setup.

If you look very carefully, only two wires go directly to the speaker itself. Just remove every other piece except those two wires, and you will have a 2-wire speaker, that should work in place.

If you post more pics of the transformer, I can tell you which ones to use. Your pictures should show me underneath or the sides of this here:
http://i.imgur.com/V1k2p4K.jpg?1

Can you post a picture of your old speaker as well? Does the Impedance (Ohms) reading match?
 

Blackhawks9999

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
5
0
1,510
Thank you. Here are more pictures, hope one has the angle you need. I won't be able to confirm the impedance matches until the weekend but I believe it did.

I do see the bare copper going into the speaker itself. It looks like it's soldered to a piece that has the wires going into the transformer. Can I use those wires for the extra length or do I need to attach it directly to the bare copper underneath? And is there any way to be able to use the volume control with just the two wires or is there no way around losing it?

http://i.imgur.com/iZsjCLe.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/parSsiT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/LpytP9e.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yLnwhjh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/YhfSpJA.jpg

 
Okay.
Look here:
http://i.imgur.com/KEWmpWj.jpg?1 (pardon the poor imgur tools)
Do you have soldering tools? If yes, you can try removing the transformer as a whole. Remove the screws (red arrow), and unsolder the two metal pieces that connect to the black plastic. Then, you connect the old speaker wires directly to where I made yellow lines using the solder.

Or use the existing black wires, that connect there. You can always connect it to the volume control but do you really need a volume control though? Isn't it controlled by the amplifier elsewhere?

If you don't have soldering tools, you can always cut off every wire except the two black ones that connect to the copper wires. Just connect the old 2 wires to those two.
 

Blackhawks9999

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
5
0
1,510
They would like separate volume control so the person in that room can turn off sound to that room completely if necessary, and without having to get the attention of somebody in the sound room to do it. The audio is from about 16 sources (mics, cd player, etc) feeding into a sound board, then everything goes through the amplifier out into the auditorium speakers. This back room speaker does not have independent volume control from within the sound room, so that's the issue.

Can the volume control be wired up using the same 2 wire cable? If not, no big deal. They'll just have to live with it.

The built-in volume control knob has three wires attached, and was in this picture http://i.imgur.com/wzSmsh4.jpg

The copper from the speaker on one side connects to the first (left to right) wire on the volume control
The second wire on the volume control is connected to the copper on the other side of the speaker.
The third wire on the volume control is connected to the white wire coming out of the transformer.

Thanks again for all your help!
 
Sorry, had something urgent. The answer is yes, they could use the volume control. The wiring is exactly as written on the volume control itself.

k3wYWxt.png


[strike]Just connect the left and middle to the two black wires on the speaker itself. (where the copper wires go) And connect the middle and right side of the volume control to the wires in the wall. [/strike]

I actually recommend not using this, at it may heat up. If you do use it like that, check for if the resistor (volume control) becomes hot at high volumes.
 

Blackhawks9999

Commendable
Nov 14, 2016
5
0
1,510
One last question. I want to double check the wires you said. Left and middle to the two wires on the speaker matches the picture on my volume control. But you say middle and right goes to the wires in the wall and that doesn't look like it matches up to me.

http://i.imgur.com/wzSmsh4.jpg

Should it be left and right sides (instead of middle and right) from wall to volume control?

So wire 1 from volume control is connected to both the speaker and the wall
Wire 2 only the speaker
Wire 3 only the wall


I will be sure to make sure it doesn't get hot at high volume, thanks for pointing that out.
 
Geh, that's what I get for doing diagrams late at night. ^^; Just follow what it says on the volume control itself. Like this:
k3wYWxt.png


It's exactly what you wrote. ^^


Getting mixed up with circuits... But it should work as indicated. If it doesn't work, or heats up, remove it and connect directly. Or buy a dedicated in-line volume control. ^^
 
Solution