Powered monitor volume level

[formerlyfzfile]

Is the power handling / signal level capacity of powered monitors effected by where the volume knob of the monitors is set to.

I have been trying to set and mark levels through my mixer while listening to different reference CDs.

While doing this I have the monitor outs of my mixer ( a Tascam M30) mult-ed out to an UltraCurve set to RTA so I can look at the frequencies of the output. It is a good leaning tool and reference point for me, especially when listening to reference sources to see where the frequency energy is happening for a particlar sound.
Also helps me visually see where a mix might be uneven.

Anyway......I have the CD player going to the Line In of chanels 7/8 and routed to the 3/4 busses.

At first I had the monitors turned up about 2/3's of the way to max.
This let me set the channel faders at 7 (unity being 7 to 8) and the Buss gain at 3/4s and the Master fader at 6....giving me a good loud listening level and clear sound.

But at 1/2dB resolution on the RTA I needed to hit the unit with a little more level to get a good view of the whole freq. range.

So I put the channel faders at 8 and the master up to 7.
The buss VU meters were well below clipping but in order to maintain the same (comfortable) loudness in listening level I had to turn the monitors down to a little less than 1/2 way (about 4 on a 1-10 dial).

But on playing the same reference CD, there was audible distortion
Not a tremendous amount but definitely enough to notice.

I switched back to original settings and no distortion.
Back to second settings....distortion again.

I have sent more signal to the monitors before and not noticed distortion.........although I wasnt listening as criticly as today.

Any ideas as to why this is happening????

-mike

[mixsit]

It's possible the control on the monitor is not actually padding the input to the monitor's first stage. That might explain it. Can you compare the monitor's input sensitivity range spec to the mixer's?
Just a thought.
Wayne

[formerlyfzfile]

I have the documentation to the monitors.
But the mixer I bought used and have no paperwork for.

Its an older (like 80's) Tascam. I could prolly get the specks on the mixer in the Tascam forum or elsewhere online.

-mike

[mixsit]

A down and dirty experiment would be to turn the monitor all the way down and fade-up a sine wave from the mixer. You should hear it clipping in the monitor befor you hit red on the mixer if it's an input/pad/sensitivity thing.
Wayne

[formerlyfzfile]

I just got to trying your idea mixsit.
Thanks BWT for the idea.

No clipping w a 1k sine.

I ended up splitting the difference in the settings....being closer to the way I started.

I can reference using the 1dB resolution most of the time and if I want to get a closer look at something specific then i'll just have to crank slightly for a bit.

-mike