Members Bob O'Brian Posted February 13, 2007 Members Share Posted February 13, 2007 Hithis has probably been asked before and I thought I knew what I was doing, but yesterday I was talking to a sound technician about my planned upgrade to our PA and now I'm confused... cos he says it won't really work.We have a Peavey powered desk putting out 2x100w into 8 ohms. Up till now we have been running an 8 ohm cab on either side, but we have everything cranked up to full and then a bit of gain on top of that (it's handling mics only but I'm not a very powerful singer).I have acquired a couple more 8 ohm cabs, and I want to slot these in in parallel so that we are running 4 ohms per side... which according to the Peavey's manual gives us 2x200w... which I think should allows us to turn everything down a bit... and that will give us more headroom (at the moment the PA redlines every time I hit a note, which can't be good for the sound quality). Anyway, sound tech guy told me that the only way to buy more headroom is with a bigger amp. So who is right? Cheers, Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twostone Posted February 13, 2007 Members Share Posted February 13, 2007 Simple fix tell every body to turn down if not why bother singing if you can't hear your self sing plus it's less wear and tear on your vocal chords and PA equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rbts Posted February 13, 2007 Members Share Posted February 13, 2007 I am not sure, but I do think that "daisy chaining" two more cabinets (one per side) onto what I guess is a stereo system WILL get it louder, and if the Peavey manual discusses doing this and taking the load to 4 Ohms, (and raising the output to 2x 200 watts), you should be OK. I would not try going any further than this, as putting more than a 4 Ohm load on a ampa that is not specifically designed to handle such loads is NOT adviseable. Please do not take this wrong, but when you are using equipment that has 100 or even 200 watt outputs, you are not going to have very much "headroom". If you are actually trying to get "loud", you will be pushing your equipment hard, and should be careful that it is not distorting, and sounding bad instead of good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted February 13, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 Hithis has probably been asked before and I thought I knew what I was doing, but yesterday I was talking to a sound technician about my planned upgrade to our PA and now I'm confused... cos he says it won't really work.We have a Peavey powered desk putting out 2x100w into 8 ohms. Up till now we have been running an 8 ohm cab on either side, but we have everything cranked up to full and then a bit of gain on top of that (it's handling mics only but I'm not a very powerful singer).I have acquired a couple more 8 ohm cabs, and I want to slot these in in parallel so that we are running 4 ohms per side... which according to the Peavey's manual gives us 2x200w... which I think should allows us to turn everything down a bit... and that will give us more headroom (at the moment the PA redlines every time I hit a note, which can't be good for the sound quality).Anyway, sound tech guy told me that the only way to buy more headroom is with a bigger amp. So who is right?Cheers,Bob You're right, but not by much. By going to a 4 ohm load, you've in effect 'bought' yourself more power, and by doing so with twice as many speakers, you've stumbled into the 'better' way to do so. Your sound tech associate, if he suggested only getting a bigger amp and not more speaker, is making the common mistake made today....just throw more power, not more power plus speakers, at the problem. Having said that, you will only gain perhaps 3dB....it'll seem louder, and with luck you won't push the system into clipping again. But I suspect that if you're clipping it now, you should be satisfied with just keeping the same levels but not clipping...clear sound seems louder than distortion, and is much easier on the ears from a fatigue standpoint. A rbts wrote, you're not looking at a whole lot of power for a SR system. On a different tack, you might consider instead of buying that second set of speakers, simply upgrading the existing system with more efficient speakers that'll likely be better quality overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted February 13, 2007 Members Share Posted February 13, 2007 Of course whether the volume goes up or down depends on the efficiency of the new speakers too. If your existing speakers are particularly inefficient, you can buy yourself some more output by just using more efficient speakers. But, as has been said, there's only so much you're going to be able to do with that amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted February 13, 2007 Members Share Posted February 13, 2007 Of course whether the volume goes up or down depends on the efficiency of the new speakers too. It will never decrease (unless there is a polarity problem) and will increase based on the AVERAGE log efficiency of the combination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.