My network rack was perfect. Except for the 52 speaker cables just hanging there.
When we built the house, I ran speaker cable to every room. Thirteen zones, two speakers each — 52 runs in total, all pulled through the walls during construction, all dropping down the central shaft into the basement rack.
The network side of that rack? Immaculate. Every Cat7 cable labelled, punched down, and documented. The patch panel looks like something out of a data centre.
The speaker cables? They hung there in a bundle for years. Unterminated. Unlabelled. A loose tangle right next to the most organised part of the house.
The reason it took so long is simple: I couldn't find an off-the-shelf solution that actually worked for this. So I had to figure it out myself.
The connector choice
After some research I landed on Neutrik NL4FX Speakon connectors. Four-pin, locking, professional-grade. Standard in live audio installations and built to last. Each cable carries two channels — left and right — so the four pins map cleanly to a stereo pair.
My conductor assignment
| Colour | Channel | Speakon Pin |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Left | 1+ |
| Blue | Left | 1− |
| Brown | Right | 2+ |
| White | Right | 2− |
Einkaufsliste
| Item | Qty | Unit | Total | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neutrik NL4FXX-W-S-D 4-pin Speakon cable connector, screw clamp |
14× | €5.09 | €71.26 | — |
| Neutrik NL4MPXX 4-pin Speakon panel mount, square |
14× | €2.13 | €29.82 | — |
| the sssnake SSK 225 BK 2-core speaker cable |
2 m | €1.89/m | €3.78 | — |
| the sssnake SSK 425 BK 4-core speaker cable |
7 m | €3.59/m | €25.13 | — |
| Thon Rackblende 1HE 16×XLR 1U rack panel, 16 ports |
1× | €11.00 | €11.00 | ⚠ Coating flakes off, surface too rough for adhesive labels |
| FosPower Banana Plugs 24K gold-plated, 12 red + 12 white, 12 pairs |
1× | €29.00 | €29.00 | — |
| Total | €169.99 | |||
