Audio Systems: speaker connections, crossover point, bass bins

Question
Hi Dan, i am a club singer, i recently bought a set of peavey messenger 15 speakers with base bins, this may seem like a stupid question but do you know how to wire them to my amp properly? i have a mackey 808s amp with 2 speakon speaker sockets, the peaveys have 2 speakon and 2 jacks in each speaker including the base bins, so 16 holes in all. so the question is after connecting my speaker leads to my amp do i go to the tops first or the base bins first? and do i connect to the inputs or outputs?. i have been told all sorts of different ways to wire them i wonder if you could clear this one up for me? Thanks, Alvin Hawkins

Answer
The connections all depend upon whether a crossover is in the picture.  I don't know your exact speakers, but usually bass bins are without crossovers.  The typical setup for your type of system would be to run the signal to a crossover first with the output from that going to the amp.  The crossover should split the frequencies into high and low.  The crossover point is usually aroung 120Hz or so.
The high goes to channel 1 on the amp with the speakers connected to channel 1 being the upper end.  Channel 2 gets the "lows" and the bass bins are connected to channel 2 output.  I am assuming that both the messenger 15s and the bass bins are 8 ohm cabs.  In parallel, these would present a 4 ohm load to the amp.

Dan