Speaker connections
You may use bare solid or standard wire up to AWG 12, spade lugs, banana or dual banana plugs with the
HCA-2200II "5-way" terminals. The 2nd pair of terminals is for bi-wiring (see below). If you use bare wire
without spade lugs or plugs, make sure you strip only enough wire to fit into the hole that runs across the
metal shaft of the terminal. Before inserting the wire, twist all its strands tightly to prevent strays that could
cause a short circuit b and - terminals!
Polarity
It is important to observe correct polarity when using the stereo mode. One side of the speaker wire will
have some sort of mark, either printing, a raised ridge on the insulation or a different color of conductor. This
permits you to know which wire you had connected to the + and which to the - speaker terminals so you can
do exactly the same at the power amplifier terminals.
Mono lnput and Output
For mono, you will connect your single speaker to only the Left channel red + speaker terminal and the
Right channel red + speaker terminal. The Left and Right black - terminals are not connected. You must also
move the Mono/Stereo toggle switch up to mono before turning on the amplifier to avoid damage to your
amplifier or speaker. You only need to connect the mono input lead from the signal source to the HCA-
2200II's Right channel XLR or RCA input jack.
Mono/Stereo Switch
Never move this switch while the amplifiers turned on!
If you accidentally leave this switch in the mono position, you will find stereo output very weak and dis-
torted. Turn the unit off before switching back to stereo.
Minimum Mono lmpedance
The minimum recommended load for mono is 8
Ω
. If you know that your speaker has a uniform impedance
curve and you do not plan to drive the unit to maximum sustained high levels, you may use a 4
Ω
mono load.
These restrictions result from the mathematics of the bridging circuitry. In the bridge mode each channel of
the amplifier functions for only the + or - half of the musical waveform. Thus, each channel "sees" only half
of the speaker's impedance. Use of an 8
Ω
speaker means that the load for each channel is 4
Ω
. And for a 4
Ω
speaker, it results in only 2
Ω
.
