Solid State Guitar Amp Forum | DIY Guitar Amplifiers

Hey everyone,

can anyone rationalize why in the Alesis RA-100, two parallel 18 gauge hookup wires go from each power amp board to the speaker out terminal, but from the return terminal to ground, there is just one 18 gauge wire (per channel?)

Quote from: Kaz Kylheku on July 15, 2011, 01:39:50 PM
Hey everyone,

can anyone rationalize why in the Alesis RA-100, two parallel 18 gauge hookup wires go from each power amp board to the speaker out terminal, but from the return terminal to ground, there is just one 18 gauge wire (per channel?)

Is the return to ground a physically shorter wire?

Hard to say.  In a low power amp like this, currents are not very high, and the wire runs are quite short anyway.  SO 18ga is plenty, and I seriously doubt wire resistance was a concern.


If I had to hazard a guess, I might think the board was stuffed with pre-cut wires, and they would be terminated at the speaker connections upon assembly.  Then perhaps that board assembly was used in more than one model or version, with differening speaker connections.  But on your model, one of the wires became redundant, so it was just terminated next to the other one.

Quote from: Enzo on July 15, 2011, 06:40:36 PM
If I had to hazard a guess, I might think the board was stuffed with pre-cut wires, and they would be terminated at the speaker connections upon assembly.  Then perhaps that board assembly was used in more than one model or version, with differening speaker connections.  But on your model, one of the wires became redundant, so it was just terminated next to the other one.

You're probably dead on with that assumption.