Speaker output switching circuit - is there such a thing?

I'm toying with the idea of trying to tinker with a Panasonic sound-bar. The 'subwoofer' section attempts to throw 60w at a pair of 3" drivers. What I want to do is add 'subwoofer out' terminals for passive subs which cut output to the internal drivers when connected to external speaker, not dissimilar to way a headphone socket cuts output to the speakers.

Am I over complicating this? Is it better to use a rocker switch?

 

Speaker output switching circuit - is there such a thing?

I'm toying with the idea of trying to tinker with a Panasonic sound-bar. The 'subwoofer' section attempts to throw 60w at a pair of 3" drivers. What I want to do is add 'subwoofer out' terminals for passive subs which cut output to the internal drivers when connected to external speaker, not dissimilar to way a headphone socket cuts output to the speakers.

Am I over complicating this? Is it better to use a rocker switch?

Use a quarter-inch jack with switched contacts, it will take enough current to deal with 60W of audio.

 

The full 60 W is almost 3 A rms into 8 ohms. Assuming that switching action is not occurring right in the middle of a peak volume event, and that 3 A is more of a carry requirement, I still would probably go with a DPDT switch rated for 5 A or more. An advantage of a switch is that you can toggle (!) back and forth between the two sets of speakers without having to fumble around in the back of the sound bar.

ak

 

The amp driving the speakers may be bridged, so both speaker terminals are "hot". I'd use a DPDT switch and a connector that has 2 (or more) isolated pins, not a 1/4" phone jack.

 

The amp driving the speakers may be bridged, so both speaker terminals are "hot". I'd use a DPDT switch and a connector that has 2 (or more) isolated pins, not a 1/4" phone jack.

For BTL amps, you might need a 4PDT switch, 2 poles per channel. The wording in post #1 is ambiguous

To the TS: How many audio channels do you want to switch? You mention two 3" drivers. Is that one per channel, or are both driven from a single mixed-mono signal.?

ak

 

Use an insulated jack such as this one
https://www.neutrik.co.uk/product/nmj4hfd2
and I see no problem with its being a bridge-tied-load.