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[Kevin Russcher]

I am an electrician at a small college in Washington State and I have very little knowledge on speaker/PA systems. They have an existing system they want me to look at for the baseball diamond that the college and minor league team uses. The minor league general managers says they have been having issues with the speaker horn on the base line but while I was there it seemed to be working fine.  They  have their own mixer/amp they hook up when they play on the field but it seemed to work fine with the colleges setup. There are 2 speaker horns on the base lines(unsure of watts) on the "bridge" channel and 2 300w speakers on the announcer booth on the left and right channels.  Should I be concerned that a 300w speaker is hooked up to seemingly a 180w channel? or that it says not to use the left and right channel with the bridge and they are? If they wanted to replace the speaker horns on the baseline light poles what would you recommend I replace them with? https://imgur.com/a/8FmWizJ

[David Allred]

It appears that the amp/head is set to Main / Monitor, and the EQ kind of implies that the ART300 are on mains and the horns are on Monitor.  The Red tape on the speaker cable partially confirms this.  Can you confirm the other speaker connections?
The Bridge output (probably) should only be used in Left/Right mode.  It would likely allow for 3 speakers sets to be used... 1 left, 1 right, and 1 bridged if the combined impedance of the Right / Bridged is 8 ohms or higher and the same for the Left / Bridged. 
Can you provide any info about the horns?  How they are connected to each other, brands, ohm rating, etc?

Seems like both on the ART300's should be on the mains output (4 ohms) and both horns should be on the Monitor output.  Nothing on the Bridge output.  But that is a guess without more info.

[Kevin Russcher]

Can you provide any info about the horns?  How they are connected to each other, brands, ohm rating, etc?

Seems like both on the ART300's should be on the mains output (4 ohms) and both horns should be on the Monitor output.  Nothing on the Bridge output.  But that is a guess without more info.

I haven't got a lift out to look at the horns as they are about 20 feet up a pole, maybe tomorrow I will go out there and try to figure out how they ran the wires but as far as I can tell only 1 comes into the announcers booth. I'm also going to try to get more info on the setup that the minor league team uses.

[Brian Jojade]

The first thing I see is it looks like you're using 1/4 to speakon adaptors.  This is certainly a point of failure. If the 1/4" plug gets pulled out just a little, it results in a shorted connection which can damage your amp, or at least cause it to shut down.  Lop off the 1/4" connectors and install speakons to the existing cables.

The amplifier you have has 3 output jacks, however, that doesn't mean you can use all 3 at the same time.  You either use left and right, or you use the bridged output.  Page 5 of the manual has that in BOLD print with an exclamation point and the word NEVER in all caps and underlined.  Bold print, all caps, underlined AND an exclamation point typically means they're serious.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/249810/Behringer-Europower-Pmx2000.html?page=5#manual

As far as your concern of the 300 watt speaker and the 180 watt amp, no that's not an issue. 300 watts on a passive speaker means you should use an amplifier that can deliver up to 300 watts without blowing up the speaker.  If you use a larger amp, you have the capability of turning it up to a point where it will blow. (you can still blow a 300 watt speaker with a 180 watt amp, but you have to really push the amp beyond limits to get there)

Using the amp you have, one side should connect to the horns, and the other side should be connected to the 2 speakers you have.  You can daisy chain the 2 speakers off of each other, or set up a speakon splitter at the amp to drive them.  Either way, that's a 4 ohm load on the amp, which is what it's rated for.  The size of that amp may not get those speakers up to the volume that you want, so a larger amp may be in order.

Regarding the speaker that sometimes isn't working, again, first thing is make sure the connections on the ground are solid.  Next step would be to go up to the speaker and make sure the connections there are solid.  While you're there, check to see that the speaker is indeed an 8 ohm speaker, and not something with a transformer tap that would need a 70 volt line.  There's no real risk of damage using a 70v line speaker on your existing amp, but you won't be getting the volume you would expect out of it if it is.

[David Allred]

The first thing I see is it looks like you're using 1/4 to speakon adaptors.  This is certainly a point of failure. If the 1/4" plug gets pulled out just a little, it results in a shorted connection which can damage your amp, or at least cause it to shut down.  Lop off the 1/4" connectors and install speakons to the existing cables.

Could be that the other mixer/amp is 1/4" only. 
That is still a lot of plugging and unplugging that could easily cause a shift from the originally intended speaker hook-ups.

The bridge + Left + right concept was first (as far as I know) put forward by Marty McCann at Peavey in the 90's.  Of course it was in the days of banana posts.  It was a way to use a LCR set-up on one amp where the C was the primary zone and needed more volume than R&L.  Three 8 ohm speakers... L&R plugged in normally and the 3rd plugged into the + of the backs of each L&R, making the "Center output" a 4 ohm load.  I was grasping at straws as to what they "could" be doing if the horns were perhaps 16 (or more) ohms.  Then, again, the amp in the above set-up while "bridged", was not in "Bridge mode".  As Brian showed in the manual...  B'ger says don't.

Info on the other mixer would be beneficial... and "one wire" going into the booth, but 3 wires plugged in is troubling.

[Lee Douglas]

The amplifier you have has 3 output jacks, however, that doesn't mean you can use all 3 at the same time.  You either use left and right, or you use the bridged output.  Page 5 of the manual has that in BOLD print with an exclamation point and the word NEVER in all caps and underlined.  Bold print, all caps, underlined AND an exclamation point typically means they're serious.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/249810/Behringer-Europower-Pmx2000.html?page=5#manual

It's also on the back of the amp, right above the Speakon jacks.

[Mike Caldwell]

It's also on the back of the amp, right above the Speakon jacks.

Yes! I just noticed that when I looked at pictures!!
Your amp is set to left right stereo mode.

Regardless of the brand powered box mixers are kind of a one trick pony.
In all honesty I would ditch the Behringer and have someone put together a small rack properly setup for your system. With a simple rack strip mixer, a decent basic power amp and some simple processing you would surprised how much better it would sound.

[Kevin Russcher]

Info on the other mixer would be beneficial... and "one wire" going into the booth, but 3 wires plugged in is troubling.

the one wire goes out to the horns and is spliced in an ground box then splits to the horns, I did find in the ground box they wire nut'd the splice and it was corroded bad so i fixed that up with a heat shrink but crimp and the static they were hearing went away but they said it was still too quite... I got one of our IT guys to look at it and he said they had everything set up wrong on the mixer and he made some adjustments and it sounded loud enough to me but we will see what they say. Also their amp and mixer is a bit different and I think they have it hooked up correctly where both the booth speakers goes to a main and the horns go to a monitor. Their setup takes the 1/4 connectors which is why the colleges has speakon to 1/4 adapters for easy swapping.

I ordered a adapter that goes from 1 speakon male to 2 speakon females so i can hook the horns to the main and the booth speakers to the monitor. Would that be the correct way to solve the bridge issue? I also took some photos of the horns and found some cracks in them that may be an issue? Would also like some suggestions on what to replace them with if it comes to that. Thanks everyone!

https://imgur.com/a/LrOY3sD

[Brian Jojade]

the one wire goes out to the horns and is spliced in an ground box then splits to the horns, I did find in the ground box they wire nut'd the splice and it was corroded bad so i fixed that up with a heat shrink but crimp and the static they were hearing went away but they said it was still too quite... I got one of our IT guys to look at it and he said they had everything set up wrong on the mixer and he made some adjustments and it sounded loud enough to me but we will see what they say. Also their amp and mixer is a bit different and I think they have it hooked up correctly where both the booth speakers goes to a main and the horns go to a monitor. Their setup takes the 1/4 connectors which is why the colleges has speakon to 1/4 adapters for easy swapping.

I ordered a adapter that goes from 1 speakon male to 2 speakon females so i can hook the horns to the main and the booth speakers to the monitor. Would that be the correct way to solve the bridge issue? I also took some photos of the horns and found some cracks in them that may be an issue? Would also like some suggestions on what to replace them with if it comes to that. Thanks everyone!

https://imgur.com/a/LrOY3sD

The plastic cap with a crack in it is mostly cosmetic, but also will impact weather proofing.  Sealing it up with epoxy wouldn't be a bad idea.

The speakers are tapped for 40 watts on a 70 volt system.  If you don't have a 70 volt amp, these are tapped as 125 ohm speakers.  Moving the tap over to the 16 ohm tap would give you significantly more volume with your existing amp.  These horns are rated at 100 watts, if I remember correctly, so paired with the behringer would be a good load and they should get loud enough to rip your face off.  However, realize that they have a limited effective frequency response.  If you try to send low frequencies to them, you'll quickly overdrive them.  Dropping everything under 200hz on the EQ would be a good idea to maximize what you can get and would be perfectly fine for voice. Music will sound like a horn, no matter what you do.

[Kevin Russcher]

The speakers are tapped for 40 watts on a 70 volt system.  If you don't have a 70 volt amp, these are tapped as 125 ohm speakers.  Moving the tap over to the 16 ohm tap would give you significantly more volume with your existing amp.  These horns are rated at 100 watts, if I remember correctly, so paired with the behringer would be a good load and they should get loud enough to rip your face off.  However, realize that they have a limited effective frequency response.  If you try to send low frequencies to them, you'll quickly overdrive them.  Dropping everything under 200hz on the EQ would be a good idea to maximize what you can get and would be perfectly fine for voice. Music will sound like a horn, no matter what you do.

If I change one do I have to change the other horn as well?

[Lee Buckalew]

The plastic cap with a crack in it is mostly cosmetic, but also will impact weather proofing.  Sealing it up with epoxy wouldn't be a bad idea.

The speakers are tapped for 40 watts on a 70 volt system.  If you don't have a 70 volt amp, these are tapped as 125 ohm speakers.  Moving the tap over to the 16 ohm tap would give you significantly more volume with your existing amp.  These horns are rated at 100 watts, if I remember correctly, so paired with the behringer would be a good load and they should get loud enough to rip your face off.  However, realize that they have a limited effective frequency response.  If you try to send low frequencies to them, you'll quickly overdrive them.  Dropping everything under 200hz on the EQ would be a good idea to maximize what you can get and would be perfectly fine for voice. Music will sound like a horn, no matter what you do.

They are rated at 60 watts and Atlas specifies a 300Hz crossover in the typical style for 70v horns.  Simple 6dB/oct with a single 4 microfarad capacitor when tapped at 40 watts/70v.  If running 16 ohm the recommended capacitor value jumps to 33 microfarad.

https://www.atlasied.com/vcf/ATS001741B-PD-30T-60T-5V-Install-Sheet.pdf

Lee

[Kevin Russcher]

They are rated at 60 watts and Atlas specifies a 300Hz crossover in the typical style for 70v horns.  Simple 6dB/oct with a single 4 microfarad capacitor when tapped at 40 watts/70v.  If running 16 ohm the recommended capacitor value jumps to 33 microfarad.

https://www.atlasied.com/vcf/ATS001741B-PD-30T-60T-5V-Install-Sheet.pdf

Lee

What does the capacitor do for the speaker? I don't have to worry about the cross over frequency since I don't have a 70v system right?

[Lee Buckalew]

What does the capacitor do for the speaker? I don't have to worry about the cross over frequency since I don't have a 70v system right?

The capacitor functions as a first order high pass filter. 
Since you have a limited frequency response driver in that horn that has no built in protection against low frequencies a crossover (or some way to limit the amount of low frequency) reducing the low frequency to the driver is required or you will damage the driver itself.  This has nothing to do with the speaker being run through a 70v transformer or not.  It is about the speaker design itself.

The rating of the capacitor would change depending on the tap that you use on the speaker input.  This is shown on the table at the bottom of the document that I linked.  This is also shown there but to emphasize it "Use non polarized electrolytic capacitors rated at 150VDC or greater, wired in series with the positive lead of the speaker line, one per driver." 

Lee

[Mike Caldwell]

In addition to Lee's comment 70 volt systems need to also be high passed based on the transformer at the speaker or horn so the transformer does not saturate from high levels of low frequency, when that happens the amp sees more or less a dead short.

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