Amp at full strength

[xstatic]

It all depends on the size and amount and quality of the amps compared to the size, amount and quality of the speakers compared to the amount of needed and/or wanted output volume. In a well spec'ed system though, the amps will stay wide open.

 

[pdadda]

Thanks for all the feedback. I ran sound last night using a lot of gear I had never used before. I ended up with the amps almost all the way up. It was a Mackie board, so my main fader was usually right around the unity mark. Worked great...well, except it was in a giant reverberant room.

 

[cusebassman]

Take enough uHaul moving blankets to cover all the walls and surfaces 5x over!

...people also make a great sound absorber.

When I played a social hall last Novemeber, the room was a giant rectangle, and the reflections were awful during sound check. We couldn't hear ourselves properly on stage. Filled with people? You could barely notice it

 

[dementedchord]

I believe if you turn those amps down, you are restricting or eliminating that reserve power zone, (that vital buffer zone.)

RD

all of your sarcasm aside i agree for the most part... but it doesnt limit your amps head room at all... in fact arguement could be made that it increases it...

 

[RawDepth]

With today's big systems and high rated speakers, we need all the watts we can get. We buy amps that are correctly matched to the speakers they will run.

Why buy an amp of a given size if you are not going to use it all? If you feel you have too much power then why didn't you save some money and buy a smaller amp?

 

[MOFO Pro]

all of your sarcasm aside i agree for the most part... but it doesnt limit your amps head room at all... in fact arguement could be made that it increases it...

I believe you both agree on that point... that's how I read it... and I agree with you both...

 

[TexRoadkill]

so in MOST cases your better off running the output of a stage hotter and then padding it down at the next... as opposed to running something wide open and padding down the previous stage....

Not with a quality system. Your best SNR is always going to be with everything at Unity. Usually the worst SNR is going to be at the mic or mix buss so the amp noisefloor shouldn't be an issue. Even a nice midrange mixer like a Soundcraft Ghost has a measly 80db or so of real world dynamic range after it goes through a couple busses. A nice power power amp will be close to 100db SNR.

The hotter the power amp the lower you have to push your preamps and mix buss and the lower the overall noise.

Now if the PA was fucked up and had a bad hiss or ground buzz then it would be best to run it as low as possible. But if everything is clean then open it up and let her rip.

 

[The Axis]

I don't think there can really be a hard-and-fast rule about this. One little-known fact is that many modern digital amps actually have their lowest distortion when they are running at full rated power (flat out !).

But if they are amplifying a small signal, then the noise is greater in relation to the signal. On the other hand, too large an input signal could distort or clip the input stages. So there are always compromises.
As a practical matter, I usually try to set everything at about 75% in my signal chains. ....unless we are talking about guitar amps.

 

[boingoman]

But if they are amplifying a small signal, then the noise is greater in relation to the signal. On the other hand, too large an input signal could distort or clip the input stages. So there are always compromises.

That's the way all amps work. Also, that page you linked to deals with solid-state analog amps, not digital.

As a practical matter, I usually try to set everything at about 75% in my signal chains. ....unless we are talking about guitar amps.

So essentially you have no idea what you are doing, you just turn it on and hope for the best.

Sorry- instead, let me ask, what does 75% mean, and why choose that?

 

[MOFO Pro]

Noise an distortion are mostly dependent on the input signal level... too low, noise; too high distortion... as long as your inputs to the board are optimised, the noise floor will remain directly relational on the ouput signal... it doesn't matter how low you go on the fader... turn it up boys...