Making a custom Y cable

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zed32

zed32

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hey everyone, this isnt really about studio, since my question pertains to live sound application, but i didnt know where else to start this thread. anyway, my uncle has some equipment for live shows that he does with his band, and i was looking to help simplify his setup. as of right now, his speakers are connected like this: he has a speaker cable coming out of the amp, which then plugs into a 1/4" female to female adapter, which then plugs into a 1/4" male to two female Y cable, which then connects to two small cables which go to each speaker on one particular side. they are all cheap components and its sometimes a pain in the ass to get it to work.

well i figure i'd help him out by making a custom Y cable for each side, to simplify things. i want to use a 1/4" female jack which splits into two 2 or 3ft 1/4" male plugs to go to each speaker. i've made my own instrument and mic cables before, but i'm not quite sure how to make a Y cable, or if this is even a good idea at all. im thinking its pretty simple but i want to make sure i'm not missing anything important.

the cable i want to use is the Redco 14 AWG speaker cable like so:
http://www.redco.com/shopexd.asp?id=464

the male ends would be Neutrik connectors like so:
http://www.redco.com/shopexd.asp?id=199

but as for the female end, would i need a special type of jack to make this Y cable work properly? or do i just use a normal female 1/4" jack and solder both sides to it? i'm thinking i would need one that has room for both cables to come out of it, and the one at Redco looks like it might be too small. any recommendations?

thanks in advance for the help, and if there's a better way to hook up these speakers, then please let me know, since i dont know too much about live sound as it is. but i'm sure anything will work better than the mess of adapters and crap my uncle is currently using.

oh and here's a diagram of what i was thinking about making, this represents one side as there are 2 speakers on each side.
 

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I take it the speakers don't have two jacks. (if they did, you could just daisy-chain them)

As long as the impedance load is OK, it really is just that simple. +to+ and -to-.
 
yeah the subs have two jacks, but the ones in question here don't. the speakers are 8 ohms each, so wiring with the Y will take it to 4 ohms right? that would work fine with the amp he has. thanks!
 
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