How to Wire a Pure Resonance Audio 70 Volt Commercial Speaker Sound System
What is a 70 Volt Speaker System, and Where is it used?
70-volt speaker systems are often found in commercial environments such as restaurants, retail stores, fitness gyms, offices, conference rooms, and schools. They differ from the home theater systems you may be more familiar with, as there is virtually no limit to the number of speakers that can be used. Commercial sound systems permit you to run as few or as many speakers as needed, allowing for easy future expansion.
Pure Resonance Audio commercial sound equipment is built for the demands of operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The 70v sound system has features designed specifically for commercial utilization, such as priority mic ducking, paging capabilities, and built-in Bluetooth.
If you want a background music system in your business, restaurant, retail store, lobby, or any other commercial setting, a 70-volt sound distribution system is what you’re looking for.
How to Wire a 70 Volt Speaker System
If you are self-installing a 70-volt commercial speaker system, the first thing you want to do is adjust the speaker tap settings. The lower you tap it, the softer it's going to be and the higher you tap, the louder it will get. In short, the tap settings determine the loudness of the speaker. Make sure you adjust those before you get started.
After you have set your speaker taps, start with a commercial grade mixer-amplifier like our popular MA30BT or rack mount RMA120BT options. Turn the volume all the way down. Next, attach your 70v speaker wiring to the speaker output on the back of your mixer-amplifier. Commercial speakers should have one black (negative) wire, and one red (positive) wire.
After ensuring the connection is snug, but not too tight, run the wire to your first speaker. Don’t forget what you learned in 4th grade science! Connect the red wire to the “+” terminal and the black wire to the “-” terminal. Ensure your mixer amp is plugged into an AC outlet and turn it on. At this point, you could connect your Bluetooth device and test it out before adding more speakers. Slowly turn up the volume on your 70v mixer amplifier, either from the front panel or the remote (if using the media player).
Most Pure Resonance Audio speakers have a 4-terminal Euroblock, so when you are ready to install your next speaker, simply go out of the second set of positive and negative terminals and run the wire to the speaker. Continue until you install your last speaker. Check out our commercial sound speaker options: The C3 Micro Ceiling Mount Speaker, S3 Micro Surface Mount Speaker, and PD4 Hanging Pendant Speaker.
The beauty of a 70-volt commercial sound system is that you can have as many speakers as your amplifier can handle. Just keep in mind that when you’re adjusting your tap settings, the sum of those settings on all of your speakers needs to be 80% or less of your amplifier’s available power.
For Example If you have a 30-watt amplifier, don’t go beyond 24-watts, which is 80%. It’s important to have enough headroom to protect the equipment. Just as your car engine isn’t built to drive 120 mph every day, the same can be said of a speaker run at max capacity. That will eventually result in distortion and unpleasant audio.
Volume Controls to Speaker Wiring
Just like your speakers, you can theoretically have as many volume controls as you want. When you wire from the 70-volt mixer amplifier to your volume control, and then out to the speaker you can attenuate the wattage that’s going from the amplifier to the speaker itself. Wall volume controls are similar to a dimmer light switch, where there is a wall plate with a dial and you run from your electrical panel to your dimmer knob, out to your light fixture.
Volume controls also have 4 terminals, much like a Euroblock, but with “amp in” and “speaker out” terminals. To control the volume separately in each area and create multiple volume zones, you need to wire multiple runs from the audio amplifier to multiple individual wall volume controls, or in parallel to multiple individual volume controls and then connect your speakers.
If you would like two speakers controlled by a single volume control, first connect your wires to the “amp in” on the volume control, then go from the “speaker out,” and daisy chain your two speakers together. If you want to incorporate multiple volume controls, you can daisy chain these together as well, as long as you go through the “amp in” terminals.
It is important to note that the tap settings and wattage of your volume controls both play a huge part in how much wattage you need out of an amplifier, so don’t forget your 80% rule.
Quick Guide to Wiring a 70v Speaker System
- Adjust the speaker tap settings.
- Turn the volume all the way down on your amplifier.
- Attach your 70v speaker wiring to the speaker output on the back of your amplifier.
- Run the wire to your first speaker, connecting the red wire to the “+” terminal and the black wire to the “-” terminal.
- Ensure your amp is plugged into an AC outlet and turn it on.
- Connect your Bluetooth device and test it out on the first speaker.
- Slowly turn up the volume on your amplifier, either from the front panel or the remote (if using the media player).
- For your next speaker, go out of the second set of positive and negative terminals and run the wire to the speaker.
- Continue this until your last speaker.
As you adjust your tap settings, remember the 80% rule and leave enough headroom to protect the equipment.
If you have any questions on how to wire a commercial speaker sound system, or are looking to purchase audio equipment, give us a call at (866) 676-7804 or email us at sales@pureresonanceaudio.com and we will be happy to assist you.