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Valued Contributor
RoadRanger
Posts: 9,726
Registered: ‎02-12-2009

Re: Question about powering subs.

[ Edited ]

Yup, the problem is that a cab's "program power" rating is usually meaningless and usually just 2x its "rms or continuous power" rating - which is too much for long life on subs in particular. QSC is in the business of selling you bigger amps for more money, they don't really give a damn if you burn your shit up.

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Valued Contributor
RoadRanger
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Registered: ‎02-12-2009

Re: Question about powering subs.

Oh, and on subs in particular the failure mode is usually that the suspension wears out which makes them sound bad or the tinsel leads separate due to over-excursion, rather than the voice coils actually burning out.

"We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us" - Walt Kelly

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guitarman3001
Posts: 8,589
Registered: ‎04-11-2006

Re: Question about powering subs.


RoadRanger wrote:

Yup, the problem is that a cab's "program power" rating is usually meaningless and usually just 2x its "rms or continuous power" rating - which is too much for long life on subs in particular. QSC is in the business of selling you bigger amps for more money, they don't really give a damn if you burn your shit up.


Ok, now we're getting somewhere.  So you're saying that QSC's amps, or at least the GX7 in question, puts out more power than the Crown 802 even though they are respectively rated almost identically?

Re: "continuous power rating", isn't it very uncommon to run an amp or speaker at its sustained "rms" rating for a long period of time?  Even a loud concert is a series of peaks and valleys volumewise and is not a consistent sustained continuous tone.   If what you're running through the subs is primarily the frequencies coming from the kick drum, which is a very short attack, wouldn't you be more concerned with the peaks than with "continuous" power?  Or am I looking at this wrong too?

Looking at the rms power you guys are mentioning for these subs, it seems like 200w and 250 watts is going to be very underpowered for subs that need to fill even a small room.  I run my monitors with 200 watts.  I can't imagine feeding my subs only 200 watts.  Actually, I can...I've done it and it was pathetically underpowered.  

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RoadRanger
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Re: Question about powering subs.


guitarman3001 wrote:

Ok, now we're getting somewhere.  So you're saying that QSC's amps, or at least the GX7 in question, puts out more power than the Crown 802 even though they are respectively rated almost identically?

No, there is no such thing as "program power" on an amp
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Super Contributor
Mogwix
Posts: 7,147
Registered: ‎07-12-2006

Re: Question about powering subs.

Power them with an amp that's between 375W - 500W at 8 ohms and you should be just dandy. 500W is the ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM you should be giving these speakers. The GX7 puts out 725W at 8 ohms and is a recipe for disaster.

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RoadRanger
Posts: 9,726
Registered: ‎02-12-2009

Re: Question about powering subs.


guitarman3001 wrote:

Re: "continuous power rating", isn't it very uncommon to run an amp or speaker at its sustained "rms" rating for a long period of time?  Even a loud concert is a series of peaks and valleys volumewise and is not a consistent sustained continuous tone.   If what you're running through the subs is primarily the frequencies coming from the kick drum, which is a very short attack, wouldn't you be more concerned with the peaks than with "continuous" power?  Or am I looking at this wrong too?
Re-read my post about overexcursion.
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dboomer
Posts: 6,612
Registered: ‎05-01-2004

Re: Question about powering subs.


RoadRanger wrote:

Yup, the problem is that a cab's "program power" rating is usually meaningless and usually just 2x its "rms or continuous power" rating - which is too much for long life on subs in particular. 


It's not too much "available" power in my experience.  Typically with 2X available power you will never deliver power equal to half of the continuous rating of the speaker.

 

It does OTOH have greater consequences when you have stupid mistakes.  It also makes over excurion of the driver a greater possibility.  If you rely only on the amp's built-in clip limiter this could be a problem.  If you use proper a properly set external comp/limiter you could have more protection and a better sound.  Internal clip limiters do not perform like comp/limiters.  When the amp goes into "limiting" it takes down the entire signal that is happening so it's simlutaneously taking down the quiet stuff as well.  External procession only limites the portions that cross above the threshold.  (but that's a different discussion)

 

The OP's problem is simply he does not have enough speaker to cover his expectations ... pure and simple.

 

Don Boomer
Line 6, inc.
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Mutha Goose
Posts: 1,785
Registered: ‎02-13-2010

Re: Question about powering subs.


dboomer wrote:

The OP's problem is simply he does not have enough speaker to cover his expectations ... pure and simple.

 


Bingo!

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guitarman3001
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Re: Question about powering subs.


dboomer wrote:

RoadRanger wrote:

Yup, the problem is that a cab's "program power" rating is usually meaningless and usually just 2x its "rms or continuous power" rating - which is too much for long life on subs in particular. 


It's not too much "available" power in my experience.  Typically with 2X available power you will never deliver power equal to half of the continuous rating of the speaker.

 

It does OTOH have greater consequences when you have stupid mistakes.  It also makes over excurion of the driver a greater possibility.  If you rely only on the amp's built-in clip limiter this could be a problem.  If you use proper a properly set external comp/limiter you could have more protection and a better sound.  Internal clip limiters do not perform like comp/limiters.  When the amp goes into "limiting" it takes down the entire signal that is happening so it's simlutaneously taking down the quiet stuff as well.  External procession only limites the portions that cross above the threshold.  (but that's a different discussion)

 

The OP's problem is simply he does not have enough speaker to cover his expectations ... pure and simple.

 


The bolded part is what I was trying to get at in my previous post.   Based on what everyone has said, it looks like I'll be ok running these subs daisy chained on one channel.  If not, I'll come back and let everyone laugh at me.  

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Super Contributor
dboomer
Posts: 6,612
Registered: ‎05-01-2004

Re: Question about powering subs.


guitarman3001 wrote:

 

Re: "continuous power rating", isn't it very uncommon to run an amp or speaker at its sustained "rms" rating for a long period of time?  Even a loud concert is a series of peaks and valleys volumewise and is not a consistent sustained continuous tone.   If what you're running through the subs is primarily the frequencies coming from the kick drum, which is a very short attack, wouldn't 


 

You are simply delivering energy (power).  You are always delivering peak and avarage at the same time. Those terms just denote the way you are looking at it.  For example if you were using pink noise as a source and delivering continuous power "X" you would likely be also delivering somewhere between 50 and 200 peaks of "4X" every second.  Typically your power amps will hit their internal limiters when you are putting out only 1/10th to 1/3rd of the rated continuous power.  From this point you can't develop any more power.  That's why manufacturer's have a program rating for speakers.  Remember that continuous rating for a speaker is at least a 2 solid hour rating.  That's a long song 

In big general terms peaks are not as damaging to speakers when they are above the tuning of the box.  It all depends.

Again I'd recommend trying adding a comp/limiter to your kick channel and you will hear it get louder with no additional power.

Don Boomer
Line 6, inc.
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Valued Contributor
agedhorse
Posts: 42,845
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Re: Question about powering subs.

My point is that for mechanical reasons, an amp of between 300 and 500 watts "RMS" (sometimes referred to as continuous) is about right.

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Super Contributor
guitarman3001
Posts: 8,589
Registered: ‎04-11-2006

Re: Question about powering subs.


dboomer wrote:

guitarman3001 wrote:

 

Re: "continuous power rating", isn't it very uncommon to run an amp or speaker at its sustained "rms" rating for a long period of time?  Even a loud concert is a series of peaks and valleys volumewise and is not a consistent sustained continuous tone.   If what you're running through the subs is primarily the frequencies coming from the kick drum, which is a very short attack, wouldn't 


 

You are simply delivering energy (power).  You are always delivering peak and avarage at the same time. Those terms just denote the way you are looking at it.  For example if you were using pink noise as a source and delivering continuous power "X" you would likely be also delivering somewhere between 50 and 200 peaks of "4X" every second.  Typically your power amps will hit their internal limiters when you are putting out only 1/10th to 1/3rd of the rated continuous power.  From this point you can't develop any more power.  That's why manufacturer's have a program rating for speakers.  Remember that continuous rating for a speaker is at least a 2 solid hour rating.  That's a long song 

In big general terms peaks are not as damaging to speakers when they are above the tuning of the box.  It all depends.

Again I'd recommend trying adding a comp/limiter to your kick channel and you will hear it get louder with no additional power.


Hrmm...I don't know anything at all about limiters.  I understand the basics of compression when used on vocals but I'm not sure I understand how limiters work and precisely how they'd protect my speakers from being overloaded.  Basically I don't know squat about limiters. 

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Super Contributor
dboomer
Posts: 6,612
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Re: Question about powering subs.

Then you should invest in self powered speakers.  Then you won't have to think about any of this.  You can then just make music

Don Boomer
Line 6, inc.
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Super Contributor
twostone
Posts: 9,295
Registered: ‎03-06-2005

Re: Question about powering subs.

[ Edited ]

 If it were me I'd sell those mismatch pair of entry level subs off and go with pair of  Yorkville LS808 since the GX7 would match up perfect and out perform the entry level stuff by a 2 to 1 margin.

Plus if you get low end feedback with that amp it would be a matter of a seconds before you'd see a puff of smoke bellowing out of them. 

If funds are low might look in the used market since a lot folks are dumping their older higher end PA gear to update to newer gear.

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guitarman3001
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Re: Question about powering subs.


twostone wrote:

 If it were me I'd sell those mismatch pair of entry level subs off and go with pair of  Yorkville LS808 since the GX7 would match up perfect and out perform the entry level stuff by a 2 to 1 margin.

Plus if you get low end feedback with that amp it would be a matter of a seconds before you'd see a puff of smoke bellowing out of them. 

If funds are low might look in the used market since a lot folks are dumping their older higher end PA gear to update to newer gear.


hrmm...actually, we just bought one of those entry level subs.   We're a small and poor band and can't really afford much more.   Hey, we've come a long way since the days when the only thing we ran through the PA, which consisted of a pair of Yamaha A12s with an old Nady 800 watt amp pushing about 200W/ch into each speaker, was the vocals.  We didn't even mic the kick drum. 

Now we have a full PA with two subs, a couple of decent amps, we're running everything through the board, and despite this stuff being considered "entry level" to many people, it's a big step up for us and it's about as close to a "real" PA as we've ever had.   Maybe in another year or so we can start looking into replacing the gear we just bought but for now, it works great for the size rooms and type of gigs we play.   Main thing I'm wondering about is how to power the subs and it looks like I got my answer.  Daisy chain them off of one channel so each one gets 500W.  

I'm also curious about the limiter someone else mentioned and how adding one would increase the perceived volume of the kick drum.  The board we have has a single knob compressor on each channel.  Would it help to use that on the kick drum?  Right now I'm just using it on vocals.  

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Valued Contributor
RoadRanger
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Registered: ‎02-12-2009

Re: Question about powering subs.

[ Edited ]

Well, I might be the only one here that's run cheap crap like that sucessfully so I'll describe a similar rig I've run:

  • DBX 223 crossover with the 40 Hz HPF engaged.
  • GX5 sub amp
  • Pair of PV118 subs

To get any punch out of them the amp is run wide open and the low out knob on the crossover at +6db. I run the master of the mixer up as far as needed - sometimes as much as 3-6db past where the sub amp limit lights start flashing. You'll hear the subs start to sound compressed and not get louder past that. That's all those subs are good for - more power will just tear them up. DO NOT turn things up to the point where the bass guitar lights up the limit lights - they should only flash on the kicks! Beware of the kick mic feeding back - that can smoke those subs no prob. I usually use a gate on the kick mic to help with the low frequency feedback.

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Super Contributor
Posts: 1,124
Registered: ‎09-29-2011

Re: Question about powering subs.

using a DBX 266 compressor for bass and snare drum 

 

http://www.dbxpro.com/product_downloads/Owner_Manuals/266%20Owners%20Manual.pdf

 

page 5. 

 

Also if you read in there is a section on gating. 

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Super Contributor
guitarman3001
Posts: 8,589
Registered: ‎04-11-2006

Re: Question about powering subs.

[ Edited ]

RoadRanger wrote:

Well, I might be the only one here that's run cheap crap like that sucessfully so I'll describe a similar rig I've run:

  • DBX 223 crossover with the 40 Hz HPF engaged.
  • GX5 sub amp
  • Pair of PV118 subs
To get any punch out of them the amp is run wide open and the low out knob on the crossover at +6db. I run the master of the mixer up as far as needed - sometimes as much as 3-6db past where the sub amp limit lights start flashing. You'll hear the subs start to sound compressed and not get louder past that. That's all those subs are good for - more power will just tear them up.

Cool.  BTW, I was under the impression that the Yamaha Club series was fairly highly regarded in that low to mid level of gear.  When I was looking for new mains the Clubs were what everyone was telling me to look for.  Now I get one of the Club series subs and suddenly they're cheap crap?   Call me confused...   yeah, I know it's not the same quality as Yorkville or EAW or the higher end JBL stuff but it's a little confusing when just a month ago everyone is telling me to get Yamaha Clubs and now that I do, it's suddenly cheap entry level crap that should be immediately replaced.  lol.....can't win around here....

That said, I do appreciate the advice and answers to my questions....it's the only way I'm going to learn.   

And yes, I know about the Peavey sub and its limitations.  We've been running with just a single sub for a while.  That's why we picked up the Yamaha.  Needed something else to give us a little more low end and balance.   

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Super Contributor
Posts: 1,124
Registered: ‎09-29-2011

Re: Question about powering subs.

They were telling you to get Yamaha subs cause they were the best fit in your budget (low) at the time. 

 

 

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Super Contributor
guitarman3001
Posts: 8,589
Registered: ‎04-11-2006

Re: Question about powering subs.

[ Edited ]

nchangin wrote:

They were telling you to get Yamaha subs cause they were the best fit in your budget (low) at the time. 

 

 


And they still are.  Unfortunately we were never able to find any Club series Mains but we did find one sub.  

I just found it funny that I was recommended the Yamaha Clubs and as soon as I buy one, it becomes cheap crap that must be immediately replaced.    lol....   

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