Members stratotastic Posted June 28, 2010 Members Share Posted June 28, 2010 My band cobbled together this PA system and we've slowly been figuring out how to use it by taking it to gigs and flailing around with it. We actually haven't been doing half bad with it, but have a couple questions. The system is: Mackie 8-ch boardQSC 1450 (mains)QSC 850 (monitors)Yamaha S115V mainsGemini monitors (I forget the model) The questions are concerning the Yamaha mains, rated at 500 watts/1000 watts peak--we're running two and they're 8-ohms each. If we run the power amp bridged mono and daisy chain the speakers, what is the total load the amp is seeing? My bass player thinks it's 4 ohms (suggesting they're running in parallel?), but I assumed they're running in series at 16 ohm. Would we lose power/volume if we ran them in stereo instead of bridged mono? Last, is it possible to "underpower" the mains, as in we need to pump a certain amount of power into them for best performance? Thanks for your patience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members prosigna Posted June 28, 2010 Members Share Posted June 28, 2010 They are running parallel at 4-ohms.You would lose power running in stereo.More power means more volume.More power does not mean better performance. It is possible to underpower them. I am underpowering mine right now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted June 28, 2010 Members Share Posted June 28, 2010 Speaker connectors are wired parallel. As you daisy chain more speakers, the impedance goes down. Two 8ohm cabs in parallel is 4ohms. Running them in stereo is fine, each cab will see 260W. If you bridge the amp, you'll be giving each cab 700W RMS... maybe not a good idea. Quick answer: No, you can't actually "underpower" a speaker. Speakers react differently to certain situations but generally; more power = worse sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted June 28, 2010 Members Share Posted June 28, 2010 more power = worse sound. I'm not following the thinking there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted June 28, 2010 Members Share Posted June 28, 2010 I'm not following the thinking there. I was going to elaborate about a point of diminishing returns, where you balance peak volume vs distortion and long-term reliability, but the OP wasn't really asking any questions about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratotastic Posted June 29, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 29, 2010 Thanks a lot guys. Appreciate the help. We'd like to run stereo, and at the types of places we're playing, 280 w/ch should be fine. We'll do some more experimenting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members prosigna Posted June 29, 2010 Members Share Posted June 29, 2010 We'd like to run stereo Why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted June 29, 2010 Members Share Posted June 29, 2010 Note those cabinets are 250-300 watts continuous ("RMS") so anything betwqeen 250 and 350 watts is pretty much ideal. 725 watts would be too much IMO because any accident is more likely to send you to the repair shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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