Members doyouknowmydad1 Posted August 2, 2011 Members Share Posted August 2, 2011 Debating whether to daisy chain powered monitors together or to run 4 passives (2 daisy chained on each channel) off a power amp. I currently have a yamaha emx512sc powered mixer, and 1-12" passive wedge. I wasn't even aware you could daisy chain powered monitors together, but a guy at guitar center insisted. I guess some powered monitors have "unpowered" outputs? If that's the case, do some have "powered" outputs so I could still use my passive wedge? My initial idea, since we already had 1 passive monitor, was to run a line out from the "unpowered" monitor output on the mixer, to a 600-watt amp. with 2-12" passive wedges daisy chained on each side. I thought it'd be plenty since we aren't but maybe 1-2 meters away from the wedges. thanks for any help! i'm just learning this stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted August 2, 2011 Members Share Posted August 2, 2011 I'm guessing this is for live sound, yes? Powered monitors have amplifiers inside. You have choices in terms of how to use them. Generally, discrete signals are sent to the left and right speakers, allowing for stereo reproduction. However, most are also able to have a signal sent to a single speaker and then have a "thru" output to go to the other. Either way, you probably don't want to send signals off a power amp into another power amp. That's the point of using a powered monitor in the first place. Can't tell you more unless I knew more about what you're trying to accomplish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doyouknowmydad1 Posted August 2, 2011 Author Members Share Posted August 2, 2011 sorry bout that. yeah, it's for running a monitor set up in a live setting (small venues/bars). that's kinda what i thought about powered speaker to powered speaker. it seems like buying an amp to power some passives is a more reasonable approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted August 2, 2011 Members Share Posted August 2, 2011 Well, the only thing that's stopping you from not buying an amp are your passive wedges, it would seem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doyouknowmydad1 Posted August 2, 2011 Author Members Share Posted August 2, 2011 yeah. that sounds about right. i'm just not sure i can get down with daisy chaining a bunch of powered speakers together. my luck i'd end up blowing 'em all up or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paul McCartney Posted August 2, 2011 Members Share Posted August 2, 2011 if your powered speaker have a line out (pre gain mix out), then you can "daisy chain" the active loudspeakers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members D Charles Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 I've got the Yammy emx 312 so almost the same head. You could get another passive wedge and run the two monitors from one side of your head and your mains from the other. Just be careful with ohm loads. I think the Yammy will only handle 4 ohm loads which is two monitors (as most of them are rated 8 ohms). If you want more monitors, you could also pick up an active wedge and run it from a line out and even run another passive monitor off of it's amp. This is in addition to the set up I described above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Passive monitors have impediances just like any speaker does and your power amp that drives them have a minimum impedianceyou can load the amp down. Daisy chaining monitors is not a term used in speakers because it suggests there is no additional loading, just an expansion. Heres the thing you have to deal with. If your power amp is rated for say minimum of 2 ohms, and your monitors are 8 ohms, you can connect a maximum of 4 monitors in parallel to the amp. (If its a stereo monitor amp you can run 8) If the monitor amp is rated for 4 ohms, you can run 2x8 ohm monitors. If the amp is rated for 8 ohms, you can run one 8 ohm monitor. Or you can rewire the monitors to match the amp. You can wire 4x8 ohm monitors is series parallel for 8 ohms, use 2x16 ohm monitors in paralleland get 8 ohms, use 4x16 ohm monitors and get 4 ohms, use 8x16 ohm monitors and get 2 ohms, use 4x4 ohm and get 4 ohms, use 8x4 ohm monitors and get2 ohms or 8 ohms. You can get other combinations using mixed impediances but its not recomended because the power outputs of the speakers wont be even. So it comes down to knowing what your amps ratings and knowing what your needs are. Just remember connecting extra passive monitors have consequences. Dealing with powered monitors is different in the fact the only loading your doing is on the line level input to the speakers. The term daisy chaining is better applied there because the loading down of the signal input is much less and you can run allot of monitors from the same line level input with littel consequences damaging something. The signal input does get weaker as it gets split between monitors. How much depends on the input impediance of the self powered monitors. If its faiely great, then buffering or a line level driver amp can be used. Both systems work. The self powered monitors do require power to run so you will have more cables on stage to plug them in. The advantage is if one self powered monitor blows its unlikely to take the others out. If a passive monitor amp goes, all monitors go down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted August 9, 2011 Members Share Posted August 9, 2011 Most powered amps have a line level out the allows daisy chaining them to feed several amps, all with line level. It works great for me. The other posters are right: You would never ever want to feed a speaker-level signal into the line in of a powered monitor or PA main. But most of them make it impossible to do so anyway, by having no access to the the speaker-level signal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doyouknowmydad1 Posted August 15, 2011 Author Members Share Posted August 15, 2011 thanks for your help everyone!! i think for simplicity's sake, we're gonna daisy chain powered monitors. seems to make the most sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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