Sunshine's n00b Guide to PA Systems

[DJ Sunshine]

LoL, forreal though, my packages say "microphone" cable, it's 1/4in to XLR, is that bad?

It's only bad if you meant to buy a speaker cable. The name on the package should have "speaker" somewhere in the title, thus defining it as being appropriate to handle voltage-level signals. Another giveaway that a cable is a speaker cable and not an instrument cable is that the package will often label the wire gauge on it, a concern that you would only have when dealing with voltage-level signals. When it comes to wire gauge, the bigger the better. Even if you are using 10-gauge wire to run a 100W system, you will be able to continue to use those cables if you upgrade to a higher-power system later on. Higher gauge wire also results in better speaker efficiency. In addition, most speaker cables are either raw wire, speakon, banana plug, or 1/4in. TS cables. I have yet to run into an XLR speaker cable, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I have never seen a speakon cable that was not a speaker cable.

[kamjongill]

It's only bad if you meant to buy a speaker cable. The name on the package should have "speaker" somewhere in the title, thus defining it as being appropriate to handle voltage-level signals. Another giveaway that a cable is a speaker cable and not an instrument cable is that the package will often label the wire gauge on it. In addition, most speaker cables are either raw wire, banana plug, or 1/4in. TS cables. I have yet to run into an XLR speaker cable, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

So is it bad that I'm running 1/4 inch to XLR from my VCI-400EGE into 2 powered speakers?

[DJ Sunshine]

So is it bad that I'm running 1/4 inch to XLR from my VCI-400EGE into 2 powered speakers?

No, that is fine. Running from your mixer into active (powered) speakers with an instrument cable is alright, because the power amplifiers are built into the speakers, thus eliminating the need for speaker cables. If you were running your VCI-400 into a power amplifier and then using instrument cables to connect the speakers to the amp, that would be where you would run into problems. But from what you've described, you should have green lights all around, carry on

[kamjongill]

Thank You for clearing that up!

[DJ Sunshine]

Thank You for clearing that up!

It's my pleasure! Glad I could help