Members toelessfoot Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 Sorry for this brutal thread but Im in store right now about to buy the Peavey Xr1212 powered mixer and this pro audio guy is telling me that I need to always have a load on the mixer or else it'll damage the amps. I've heard the oposite before and just need to know what you guys think since I plan on running the mixer with only active speakers once in a while. He also said that running only 1 speaker isn't enough load. So what's what? Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jwlussow Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 No you do not.... I believe this was true of older technology (tubes, maybe) but not with solid state amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NUSound Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 Define 'Pro Audio Guy'... The amps will be fine if they don't have a load on them... there is nothing fundamentally different from them and a standalone power amp. Just make sure you don't use the powered outputs to send the signal to your powered speaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dboomer Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 Define 'Pro Audio Guy"... : heheheeee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shaster Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 He's an old schooler like me. Current thinking on the newer amps is that you do not. Tube guitar amps are a different story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Danny (NS::U) Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 I find myself disagreeing with the pro-audio associate's assessment. If we're talking about a modern, solid-state amplifier, then I can't imagine that there's a "blowable" output transformer to worry about. I also disagree with the idea that "one speaker" provides an incorrect load to the power amplifier. Again, I find it enormously unlikely that a modern, "meant for musicians" power amplifier would have some sort of problem dealing with what would be very likely to be an 8 ohm load. (Indeed, what if somebody took this gentleman's advice, and put two 4 ohm boxes across the output in parallel. Can the amplifier handle 2 ohms? When somebody says "one box," they need to provide the nominal impedance of the box for that statement to even be really meaningful...) If you connect your powered speakers to a line-level output of the mixer and go from there, I would be pretty surprised if you encounter a problem. (Now, if you connect your powered speakers to the power amplifier output, you may end up letting the factory-installed smoke out of your speakers.) Just my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members malcatron Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 Solid state amplifiers require no load. I bought a powered mixer and later upgraded by running the signal to a more powerful amp and the mixer runs just fine with no load. Valve (tube) amps are a different matter, running one with no load can damage the output transformer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 Find a new pro audio guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jwlussow Posted January 21, 2010 Members Share Posted January 21, 2010 Did your pro audio guy just happen to have a couple "perfect" speakers for that board? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 Did your pro audio guy just happen to have a couple "perfect" speakers for that board? Or, does he DJ on the side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coaster Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 sounds like the audio guy was the one with the load. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oldschooler Posted January 22, 2010 Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 Or, does he DJ on the side? HAHAHaaaaaaaaa.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members toelessfoot Posted January 22, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 22, 2010 hahah yeah he's an older fellow... I don't think I'll be asking for his advice that much anymore, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted January 22, 2010 CMS Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 No you do not.... I believe this was true of older technology (tubes, maybe) but not with solid state amps. It only applies to amplifiers that have an output transformer. Even with those, it only matters if the amplifier sees a signal and has no speaker or resistor load. There were a very few solid state amps *back in the day* that had xformers. Nothing you'll see today does. I wonder what rock that guy crawled out from under. What a lame way to sell a speaker. I imagine if you told him that adding a second speaker in parallel (which is the only way you can connect them without custom-building a series speaker cable) would reduce impedance by half, his head might explode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.