Section 3-Making the Connections
Now that you've got your speaker placed prop-
erly, it's time to connect them.
Before you begin
connecting your speakers, turn your system
components OFF. That way, you won't run any
chance of "shorting" your amplifier and possibly
damaging it as you're hooking up your speakers.
And remember to turn your system back on...
then
you're done! No, we're not being funny
here. You'd be amazed how many people forget
that little step!
3.1 Connecting Your Speakers
All Rocket ELT Series speakers feature a single
pair of heavy-duty binding posts for connecting
the speaker cable from your amplifier, each com-
posed of a red binding post (positive or "+") and
a black binding post (negative or "-"). Each ter-
minal is a "four way" binding post that will accept
bare wire, or wire terminated with pins, spade
lugs, or single banana plugs. ELT binding posts
do not accept "dual bananas," a concession to
the safety standards in force for our European
customers.
If you choose bare wire, pins, or spade lugs, sim-
ply unscrew the terminal's end cap (the piece
with the red or white stripe on it) to expose the
hole in the center of the shaft. If you're using
bare wire connections, make sure you've
properly prepared the wire first. Expose about
3/8" of each conductor by stripping the insulation
with a wire stripper or sharp knife. (BE CAREFUL,
please!) Make sure you twist all the individual
strands of each conductor together before you
insert the end into the hole in the shaft. Then
tighten the end cap down over the wire so that
there's a firm connection.
For pin and spade lug connections, follow the
same general guidelines. If you're attaching pins
or spade lugs to your speaker cables, read the
instructions supplied with the termination you've
chosen. Make sure that you don't leave any loose
strands of wire exposed as you're attaching the
pins or lugs. If you're using pre-terminated
wires, the manufacturer has already taken care
of this potential problem for you. With a pin ter-
mination, unscrew the end piece, insert the pin
through the shaft hole, and tighten carefully. If
you're using large spade lugs, unscrew the cap
and place the lug so that it straddles the entire
shaft. If you're using a smaller lug, you'll proba-
bly have to insert one leg through the shaft hole.
In either case, tighten carefully and you're done.
With banana connectors, you don't have to un-
screw the connector's end cap. Simply insert the
banana plug into the hole on the end cap's rear
surface.
A Question of Polarity
If you're like most of us, you'll simply run
speaker wire from the appropriate output of your
receiver to the connectors on each speaker.
However, you need to observe the proper
polar-
ity
as you connect your components. This simply
means that you should connect the positive ter-
minal on your receiver or amplifier (may be
marked "+" or be colored red) to the positive
terminal (red) on your Rocket ELT Series
speaker. Then connect the negative terminal on
the amplifier ("-" or black) to your speaker's
negative (black) terminal.
Don't worry about
damaging anything if you inadvertently make a
mistake here. Sound quality will suffer but you
won't ruin anything.
We'll explain this further in
below.
If you're still concerned about the procedure,
here are step-by-step instructions for connecting
the Left front output from your receiver or ampli-
fier to the Left front speaker.
1. Locate the Left front speaker output on
the receiver or amplifier. Note that there
are two connectors - one marked "+" (the
positive terminal - usually red in color)
and one marked "-" (the negative termi-
nal—usually black).
2.
Look at your speaker wire. You'll see that
it has two different conductors. If the insu-
lation is clear, the conductors themselves
may be of different colors - silver and cop-
