My DIY Speaker/Amp Selector Box w/ Banana Plug Inputs!!

[CAT5e]

I wanted to hook up a single pair of speakers to two separate amps (a surround-sound AVR for gaming and movies but a stereo amp for serious music listening), so I looked into the options available. Turns out there's not much out there with banana plugs, and the available options are way overpriced.

This box can be used for my intended purpose, or it could be used in reverse to hook two pairs of speakers to a single amp (for A/B comparisons).

I had my dad cut and measure for the wood parts, and I did the wiring. This project cost very little to put together.


The banana plug input pairs on the back were bough on eBay for $8.34 total.

Ins and Outs are labeled. I had to add a tiny bit of shrink insulation to each input so they won't all short out on the metal plate.

Switches both to the left means amp #1 is active; both switches to the right means amp #2 is active. Each DPDT switch cost less than $4 at RadioShack.

Under each little leather pad cut from scrap is a screw for easy maintenance.

I added some drops of solder to reduce the chance of the bolts on the back of the posts from coming loose.

I challenged my dad to include a plexiglas viewing window on the bottom. Not only does it look cool, but it lets me check for visible shorts that could develop.

 

[I.R.Brainiac]

I like it!

 

[Mid-Fi]

Me 2! Simple. Just what I need.

 

[ofajen]

Nice! In my studio I built a somewhat cruder but similar rig going the other way, tying a power amp out to a bank of switches that select one of three sets of speakers.

I used standard light switches. Those are SPST, so I can't switch the grounds, I just have them all tied together on each channel.

I was about to add a couple more switches with in-line caps for filtering to one set of speakers, and your project may inspire me to create a nifty housing like this while I'm working on it!

Cheers,

Otto

 

[ofajen]

I used standard light switches. Those are SPST, so I can't switch the grounds, I just have them all tied together on each channel.

As I think about it, this would probably not be the preferred way to tie multiple amps to one set of speakers. Probably best to switch the grounds, too, the way you have done. Not a big deal when driving several passive speakers from one amp, but you might as well avoid possible issues of grounding between multiple amps.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[CAT5e]

Thanks guys.

And yeah, Otto, I figured it would be best to use a DPDT switch for my purpose. My dad actually has an old switch that could have switched everything with one flick (not sure what the name of this switch type would be), but it looks to be 40+ years old and I don't know about its reliability or internal consistency. It has 12 posts on the back so it's like two DPDT switches in one.