Speaker Kill Switch

Seems the simplest thing is to just not point a speakers at your neighbors house. If it's pointed at the neighbors house, the real answer is "don't do that as you're being a bad neighbor".

Your post seems to indicate that you want to shut down the speaker when you get a complaint, and really, you SHOULD consider in your design that you won't disrupt the neighbors.

"I'll do what I like until someone complains" is not the proper way to do this.

I appreciate your concern, but would appreciate your not editorialising and putting words in my mouth.

There is a patio between the two houses, on which we often entertain. They are invited and, being close friends, often attend. Usually they bring home made BBQ sauce and, just yesterday, enjoying our new sound system, brought over a CD. There is a speaker mounted on the wall of our house, providing excellent coverage of this patio area.

However, when I'm working or relaxing in the rear of the house, I'd like my garden speakers to stay on while the one pointing in their direction is turned off. I happen to be a big believer in being polite and doing things because it's the nice thing to do, which is precisely why I asked this question. "Do what I like until someone complains." Gimme a break.

An L-Pad can be placed between the source and speaker assuming a equalized(impedance balanced 8 ohn line. It keeps a constant more or less load on the sourec while varying the speaker volume.

The Kill switch will wrk with little consequence assuming a robust amplifier and low levels of audio ,ya never know about some amps though to reacting to impedance mismatch

L-Pads are available at any good sound shop. You man make them out of 8-20 OHM wire wound Pots

this out...

MC_a sound tech

E. Lee Dick>

Hey, I didn't: "One speaker points directly towards the neighbor's house"

What happens when you get a new neighbor? "One speaker points directly towards the neighbor's house" indicates a poor layout! Trust me.. I have a neighbor who did this, and then sold there house and it's now a party house for college kids. Poor design, as the volume goes up after bartime! (and cops now know their address)

If you were really being polite, you'd move the speaker, as in your own words, "One speaker points directly towards the neighbor's house". Whatever you do, whatever you install, will only be good for the time that you and your neighbor live in your perspective houses and remain friends. Trust me.. Youre real problem isn't cutting off the one speaker, it's in the layout of your speakers "One speaker points directly towards the neighbor's house". You want tunes in your yard, so maybe the speakers should be on the edge of your yard, pointing back at your own space, as that way you can manage the relected sound. "One speaker points directly towards the neighbor's house" is just plain a poor design

You just can't see this, can you? I'm glad your not my neighbor! (BTW, have you considered the "reflected sound" off your neighbors house? It could be impacting neighbors two doors down on the other side from your friends, even when you want the speaker on, and they bring the BBQ sauce.)

You don't want ANY of your neighbors subjected to your tunes, and would really consider checking with all of them, as it seems your speaker layout leaves alot to be desired.

On this, we agree.

That's not really necessary. Just run one wire through an SPST switch. Open the circuit and there will be no sound. This arrangement will not harm the impedance matching volume control, the speakers or the amp.

What kind of impedance matching control and brand/model of amp are you using? FWIW, any control you build for that speaker should probably be operable remote by your neighbor as well. I can see instances arising where you might not realize the speaker's powered up and your neighbor might want to power it down. And that's even if you're on the best of terms. Accidents happen. Especially if it's X-10! Jim would sleep better, I'm sure, knowing that your neighbors were properly empowered to silence your potentially hostile audio emissions.

Depends on your impedance matching control. It should automatically adjust for the speaker being taken in and out of the circuit. As long as the switchover occurs quickly, there shouldn't be an issue.

Many years ago, when I was considering distributing audio at speaker instead of line level (now I use dedicated amps in each room), I was told you should use a make-before-break double pole DT switch and use a dummy load so that you don't expose the amplifier to transients or have it running at high volumes without a load. The dummy load would also tend to keep the volume level at the other speakers more constant.

-- Bobby G.

Dude, slow down. I think you're reading more into this than is there. I don't think E. Lee is the type to terrorize his neighbor with his stereo system. Now if you were talking about me, well, there's a reason I went the discrete amplifier route. Lots more terror power!

-- Bobby G.

"E. Lee Dickinson" wrote in

Wait, that describes US foreign policy, not E. Lee's audio setup.

It's certainly more clear now that the speaker serves both families and that you have cordial relationships with your neighbors. That probably means you're not often accusing them of "bad behavior" either. (Hint, hint!)

-- Bobby G.

Yeah, yeesh, the preaching is a bit much.

Bobby,

That's old information. Modern consumer amps are not adversely affected by operating with no load. Some of the old stage amps would blow their finals if you disconnected the load while they were operating at high volumes but that won't likely be an issue for his residential gear.

As to make-before-break, that's still important when you're swapping line or mic level sources but not for speaker loads. Since he's only interested in killing the sound to a speaker it's a complete non-issue. In fact, several of the more popular makes (i.e., Russound, Niles Audio) of impedance matching volume controls are offered paired with an A/B speaker selector switch that does not make before break. Some clients even use the A/B as an On/Off switch so they can leave the volume at a given level when switching the room sound on or off.

Those old switches may have gone the way of tubes .. Wait! Tubes are in again, right? At least in the heartland, but back out once again on the coasts. Or ... ;-)

... Marc Marc_F_Hult

Marc is correct. Common switches which may be found at RadShak, etc., should be used with care. Speaker control A/B switches which are commonly used for this purpose do not short the leads. The only other reasons I can think of for using a switch designed for the purpose are (1) it will have the same design as the volume control and (2) it will be rated for the same or greater amperage as the V/C. Other than that, anything that will open the circuit will do the trick.

I have to ask, what brand BBQ Sauce does the neighbour bring over?

Oh, and it is pretty clear that JimM has no idea how to solve the problem so he would rather flame just to see his name up in lights.

I think, typically, there's been a morphing as to what I said. We don't know what kind of amp he's switching, nor do we know what kind of speaker impedance matching controls he has, although we can assume from his message that he has them. That means advice has to be generic because we don't know specifics. If he's using Speakercraft, for example, they use a 12 step ?make before break? switch design in their speaker controllers:

"These premium units have 12-step make-before-break contacts, ensuring a smooth and even transition when changing volume settings."

(No affliation - just the first place Google brought me too)

(3) One of the reasons that people use impedance matching controls is so that when you switch one speaker out, the others don't get louder. How does a simple switch address that problem? I would think one of the things E. Lee would like to avoid is killing the speaker facing the neighbors only to have that power suddenly dumped into the rest of the outdoor speakers. It might even seem like he was turning the volume up instead of down.

-- Bobby G.

They say it's home made! On my street, we have a "thang" for bbq. In my fridge right now I have 8 varieties, collected from Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kroger. :)

Thanks, all, for clearing up about the switch. I'm going to use, for now, a normal waterproof outdoor light switch to open the circuit. I'll check that it doesn't go through a shorting state before I put it in line.

Good point. Agreed.

If you interrupt the load side of the circuit (between the speaker and the V/C) there will be no discernable change in the other speakers. Interrupting the line side (between amp and V/C) could cause a noticable change, depending on the way it's loaded. As a rule, I put an interrupt switch on the load side and a source selection switch (same switch; different application) on the line side. Using moderate volume settings and good quality impedance matching volume controls, I've found that even switching the line side does not usually cause enough of a bump elsewhere to be a problem. Note, however, that most of my multi-zone installations have been larger homes and offices where a large number of rooms are served. If you have nine or ten speaker pairs running and you drop one pair out of the circuit the difference isn't much. Do the same thing with only two pairs running and you'll probably notice the change.

I've done quite a few of these installations, Bobby and many of them have employed A/B selectors before or after the V/C. I honestly can't recall an instance when cutting out one room adversely affected the others. That may be related to the way autoformers work or it might just be that I didn't notice though I do consider myself a somewhat critical listener.

The best BBQ Sause in the world (IMHO) -

and different from anything you've tasted.

-- Hershel