I think we have a winner with regard to the design. While the Cliff jack approach would work, I like the switch idea. I have a few followup questions on that, though.
1) Is speaker wire 18 gauge? I'll need to get some wire to connect the jack to the switch and the switch to the speaker.
2) Does it matter how I wire the speaker to the switch, the jack to the switch, and the Peavey power amp to the switch? Since the wires going to the speaker carry AC voltage it seems like positive and negative aren't really meaningful in this context.
3) Some quick rough math says that if the amplifier puts 80W through an 8ohm speaker that it needs to be rated for a little more than 3A.
P = I^2 * R
80W = I^2 * 8ohm
10 A^2 = I^2, => I = sqrt(10) ~= 3.1A
I think that I've seen DPDT switches online rated for 5A.
4) I measured the tabs on the speaker and the female connectors that go on the tabs, and they appear to be > 3/16" and less than 1/4". A brief online search suggests that there is in fact a .205" size that is commonly used, which falls between the two. I would think I could just go with 1/4" female connectors and squish them a bit to get them to fit.
Thanks everybody for your input above!
1) Is speaker wire 18 gauge? I'll need to get some wire to connect the jack to the switch and the switch to the speaker.
2) Does it matter how I wire the speaker to the switch, the jack to the switch, and the Peavey power amp to the switch? Since the wires going to the speaker carry AC voltage it seems like positive and negative aren't really meaningful in this context.
3) Some quick rough math says that if the amplifier puts 80W through an 8ohm speaker that it needs to be rated for a little more than 3A.
P = I^2 * R
80W = I^2 * 8ohm
10 A^2 = I^2, => I = sqrt(10) ~= 3.1A
I think that I've seen DPDT switches online rated for 5A.
4) I measured the tabs on the speaker and the female connectors that go on the tabs, and they appear to be > 3/16" and less than 1/4". A brief online search suggests that there is in fact a .205" size that is commonly used, which falls between the two. I would think I could just go with 1/4" female connectors and squish them a bit to get them to fit.
Thanks everybody for your input above!