Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums > LAB Lounge

New Generation "High Powered" MI Level Speakers

<< < (4/4)

Brad Weber:

--- Quote from: Bob Leonard on February 07, 2011, 03:20:01 AM ---
Not sure if you may have missed this part of my statement.
 
"2 x 800 watts = 1600 watts. 1.5 can be substituted for 2, and an amplifer which provides 800 watts may work fine depending on the application and as long as the amplifier does not clip."
--- End quote ---
Not missed, just being reinforced.


--- Quote from: Bob Leonard on February 07, 2011, 03:20:01 AM ---I'll state that because regardless of the amplifier size, a person who fails to recognize the limits of their speakers and system can and will destroy drivers regardless of amplifier size, and will destroy those drivers more often with an amplifier rated much lower than most manufacturers recommend. And that manufacturers recommendation will almost always be 2x the long term power rating. I have rarely met the person looking for less power for their cabinets, at least not in my 45 years of working with sound.
--- End quote ---
The context of the 1.5 to 2 times the continuous rating of the speakers 'rule of thumb' is essentially having a reasonable balance of getting as loud as possible with reliability and for many situations that is indeed the goal.  However, in some situations it may not be the only consideration or even a consideration at all and I have seen where the budget or the requirements of the application led to lower power amplifiers being used with totally acceptable results.

In the install world it is common practice to start with determining the desired levels in the audience, add some desired headroom (typically 10-20dB), back that into a required level at 1m and then use the speaker sensitivity to determine the power required.  In that approach the speaker power rating is simply a verification that the speaker can handle the power required and not a factor in determining the amplifier power required.

DBA:
Thanks for the replies.

I guess I should have just asked my question as:

Is it really necessary to power these newer speakers at their program levels to get adequate performance from them, or will they still get loud enough at RMS levels for 90% of applications?

I know as you start to push things close to the limits of power handling the performance vs. input wattage falls off quickly.     I was just curious as to if this means that they can still get as loud as they ever have been able to,   but they are more resistent to letting the smoke out. 

Clearly they dont expect everyone to buy a fricken Itech 6k or 8k to run these things. 

Brad Weber:

--- Quote from: Whit Hutchinson on February 08, 2011, 09:49:59 AM ---I guess I should have just asked my question as:

Is it really necessary to power these newer speakers at their program levels to get adequate performance from them, or will they still get loud enough at RMS levels for 90% of applications?
--- End quote ---
3dB.  That could be 3dB of additional output level with the same headroom or 3dB of additional headroom with the same output level but either way, that's the difference between using an amp rated a the continuous rating of the speaker and one rated at the program rating.  A 3dB increase in level is going to be noticeable and would normally be perceived as somewhere around a 23% increase in loudness or 1.23 times as loud.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page