Quote Originally Posted by Danny1969 View Post
A locking Speakon mains connector is just a more professional way of ensuring it won't work loose due to heavy vibration. Very common on profession PA kit so just another common lead to me

A 1\4 jack and socket is a terrible design for speaker and amp coupling because just the weight of the cable can cause problems if the socket is cheaply made. Also because both ends are male it's very easy to short out. And you can accidently plug the output of an amp into something expecting signal level ... like an effects unit! All in all it's the worse possible type of moden connector to use to connect amps to speakers

Never seen any balanced in's or outs on any guitar amp so not sure what you mean there ?
1/4" jacks were telephone technology. Back in the early days of electric guitars and combination amplifiers the 1/4" jack seemed suitable for guitar signal compared to the other common alternatives at the time. Pushing speaker level signal through the microscopic contact area is a big no no and that's why people started to use XLR instead of 1/4" jack on speakers in the late 70s. The Speakon connector is a dramatic improvement although given the massive power capabilities of some modern PA Power amps there will soon need to be another common solution. Still it's not as if we guitarists aren't able to embrace new things rather than play 50+ year old designs of... oh hang on.