ProSoundWeb Community

Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => SR Forum Archives => LAB Subwoofer FUD Forum Archive => Topic started by: jeffhtg (Jeff Kenney) on December 11, 2008, 06:16:05 PM

Title: calcualting gain structure with labs
Post by: jeffhtg (Jeff Kenney) on December 11, 2008, 06:16:05 PM

So how does this work with horns - and specifically labs?

Title: Re: calcualting gain structure with labs
Post by: Ivan Beaver on December 11, 2008, 07:38:00 PM

Depends on exactly you are trying to achieve.

Gain structure means different things to different people.

In most cases the loudspeakers themselves have no bearing on it.

It is all electronic level adjustment.

One of the most common ways is to have all the system components clip at the same time.  This will lower you noise floor to its lowest level.  But not everybody needs a really quite noise floor.

A very common misconception is that proper gain structure will maximize your headroom.  That is false.  Your headroom is solely determined by the amp size and the loudspeaker sensitivity.  As long as nothing clips before the amps do, you CANNOT get any more headroom, no matter what adjustments you make upstream.

Now if you are trying to calculate a particular SPL at a particular distance and the proper amp size, it can get a bit more complicated.