Is it acceptable to 'jumper' speaker wire through a switch?

[DPG]

Hi, I cannot apologise enough given your good intentions. I totally appreciate that this was raised in January, and my interest appears to have been lost. Life issues keep getting in the way of my 'projects'. In this case, the switch has not been used for the fear of breaking things, but I would still like to reach the solution. To that end, I have included some photographs. Funnily enough, since taking the unit to pieces, it seems to have stopped cutting out, but that is a limited observation due to lack of use.
NB Stupidly or not, I did actually try switching 1 and 2 on at the same time, and it seems to result in 'all' speakers working (I didn't have the confidence to play with this, as it is not intended use, so no idea if reduced performance, or even if it causes a problem, as I switched back to 'position 1' quickly).
As you will see, the wiring is incredibly simple. As it looks 'secure', I guess the actual rocker switch is not good quality, hence causing the cutting out and my concerns. I would however appreciate your expert point of view, if you can forgive me.

NB You will see I took the pictures in April, and still didn't have time to get back here ... really sorry
Furthermore, the casing is horrible and I didn't manage to align it properly when putting back together (as feared).

Sadly Lucien has recently passed away. He is greatly missed on the forum.

Hopefully someone will be able to assist with your issue though.

 

[ChrizK]

Sadly Lucien has recently passed away. He is greatly missed on the forum.

Hopefully someone will be able to assist with your issue though.

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry for everyone's loss. That certainly puts life's issues into perspective.

 

[Avo Mk8]

Like everyone here, I'm missing Lucien's perceptive insights on this and other forums.
I do hope his vision of the Museum of Electricity and Electronic Technology will come to fruition in some form or other.

ChrizK - I'll contribute to the limited extent I can, making some assumptions as to what is in your switch box!
I can see it uses small printed circuits as "bus bars" across the input contacts and also across some of the rocker switch pins.
One can see the tracks on the nearer pcb but not on the rear connectors, so I'm making some possibly incorrect assumptions in drawing the scrappy circuit below (with a leaking biro!)
I don't think it is as sophisticated as Lucien initially suggested, but his closing comments are pertinent. I can't really add anything about the behaviour you experience, save to say the following:

By cross-linking the left and right speaker outputs you seem to have created the situation where the 'negative' right and left channel speaker outputs are permanently connected together. Depending on the design of your amp, this may create an immediate problem with its performance and overload protection. If your amplifier -ve speaker output is ground anyway, then it's not a problem.
And then, if you operate both switches simultaneously (which you have generally tried to avoid!) you will connect the amplifier left and right speaker outputs together, which is probably not a good thing. For a stereo signal it will be feeding one amplifier output back into the other channel, so 'fighting' with each other.

Assuming you continue to avoid the above, I think the switch you have ought to do what you want, but I fear Lucien's comments about the quality of the switch contacts is perhaps the answer.

My suggestion of what's in the box:

In my younger day you used to be able to buy, cheaply for a shilling or so, an ex-military Cutler-Hammer 4-pole, double throw, (centre off if you want) toggle switch, with which you could wire up the necessary configuration, without any danger of connecting outputs together etc. I was going to suggest that would be a better approach, but I see the prices have gone up !!

If your amplifier has the -ve speaker output connected to ground you can use a double pole double throw switch rather than the above!

 

[ChrizK]

In my younger day you used to be able to buy, cheaply for a shilling or so, an ex-military Cutler-Hammer 4-pole, double throw, (centre off if you want) toggle switch, with which you could wire up the necessary configuration, without any danger of connecting outputs together etc. I was going to suggest that would be a better approach, but I see the prices have gone up !!

Not fully appreciating the poles, I absolutely love your anecdote
Thank you for the reply. It gives me some confidence, and underlines that I should never switch 1 and 2 to on.

 

[Avo Mk8]

Not fully appreciating the poles

4 poles meaning 4 switches in one!
This sort of thing:

12 PIN 2 POSITION 4 WAY 2 POLE ON-ON 4PDT 240v 10A HEAVY DUTY LATCHING SWITCH | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 12 PIN 2 POSITION 4 WAY 2 POLE ON-ON 4PDT 240v 10A HEAVY DUTY LATCHING SWITCH at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

eg if the amplifier speaker outputs are connected to the middle row of 4 terminals, then the speakers to the outer rows, you can arrange the connections as needed

 

[ChrizK]

4 poles meaning 4 switches in one!
This sort of thing:

12 PIN 2 POSITION 4 WAY 2 POLE ON-ON 4PDT 240v 10A HEAVY DUTY LATCHING SWITCH | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 12 PIN 2 POSITION 4 WAY 2 POLE ON-ON 4PDT 240v 10A HEAVY DUTY LATCHING SWITCH at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

eg if the amplifier speaker outputs are connected to the middle row of 4 terminals, then the speakers to the outer rows, you can arrange the connections as needed

I must admit, I have been staring at the picture of terminals (screw down) for a few minutes, and can't picture how on earth I would wire it up in a similar manner. Please don't feel obliged to answer, but it is interesting that you consider it a solution!

 

[Avo Mk8]

I must admit, I have been staring at the picture of terminals (screw down) for a few minutes, and can't picture how on earth I would wire it up in a similar manner. Please don't feel obliged to answer, but it is interesting that you consider it a solution!

Will get back to you when I've recovered from the grandchildren's birthday party tomorrow, which may take a while!

 

[Avo Mk8]

Just about recovered from yesterday

ChrizK - if I have correctly understood what you were doing with the speakers, the scrappy diagram below shows the connections to the type of switch I was speaking about.
There may be other ways of doing this, but not knowing whether your amp has common -ve speaker connections for example, this is probably the safest way!

 

[BenCos18]

Sadly Lucien has recently passed away. He is greatly missed on the forum.

Hopefully someone will be able to assist with your issue though.

R.I.P
sorry for everyones loss.
never knew that till now and that's auctully sad to hear as I used to read his comments and posts a good bit

 

[ChrizK]

Just about recovered from yesterday

ChrizK - if I have correctly understood what you were doing with the speakers, the scrappy diagram below shows the connections to the type of switch I was speaking about.
There may be other ways of doing this, but not knowing whether your amp has common -ve speaker connections for example, this is probably the safest way!

View attachment 109415

Fabulous, that makes sense. Just to be completely sure ... from the diagram, I jumper the left 'bottom' pair onto the terminals of the right 'top' pair. The terminals of the right 'top' pair also wire into the 'switched left/right' speaker.

NB Your diagram is great, but I am not familiar with diagrams 'strictly portraying' the physical reality! It kinda looks like the positive is spliced into the wire going to the speaker, but I am fairly surely this is just for clarity. Sorry, I am almost embarrassed to ask the question, but just making sure there isn't a reason to do so (again, underlining my ignorance!).

 

[Avo Mk8]

Fabulous, that makes sense. Just to be completely sure ... from the diagram, I jumper the left 'bottom' pair onto the terminals of the right 'top' pair. The terminals of the right 'top' pair also wire into the 'switched left/right' speaker.

correct

NB Your diagram is great, but I am not familiar with diagrams 'strictly portraying' the physical reality! It kinda looks like the positive is spliced into the wire going to the speaker, but I am fairly surely this is just for clarity.

Yes it was just my way of trying to make it 'neat'. Sorry - a bit 'old-school'. If you build it, you take the wire to the terminal, not splice it into the other wire.

Sorry, I am almost embarrassed to ask the question, but just making sure there isn't a reason to do so (again, underlining my ignorance!).

Not a problem. A 'circuit diagram' is to show the concept of the circuit, not the physical implementation. Once you see what is connected to what, you are free to wire it however is most convenient.
(actually this may not be true for radio and high frequency circuits, where it can matter where things go!! - but that is not the case here)

 

[ChrizK]

Firstly, I hope it is ok to discuss the wiring of speakers here...

Thanks for your time.

Just want to close this question with a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone. You have been really patient with me, especially as I have been supplying bits of information over the course of the conversation (and have no idea how my amp works, so can't answer some important questions, making the overall question a bit sketchy).