More of a live setup question about speakers

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quadrajet

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My PA's output says it's minimum load is 4 ohms. I know that if I daisy chain two speakers together that are 8 ohms a piece, that puts me at the 4 ohm minimum. But - what if I run one 8 ohm speaker daisy chained into two more 16 ohm cabinets? Does that put me at a safe 4 ohm load as well?

I was never any good at figuring this stuff out....
 
quadrajet said:
My PA's output says it's minimum load is 4 ohms. I know that if I daisy chain two speakers together that are 8 ohms a piece, that puts me at the 4 ohm minimum. But - what if I run one 8 ohm speaker daisy chained into two more 16 ohm cabinets? Does that put me at a safe 4 ohm load as well?

I was never any good at figuring this stuff out....
I believe you'll end up with more like around 5.3 ohms which would be a nice safe load.
 
The formula is 1/x=1/a + 1/b + 1/c +.... where x is the total impedance, and a, b, c and so on are the individual speakers. So, in this case... 1/x = 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/16 = 1/4, so x = 4 ohms. You're golden.
 
Oh yeah... annoying part is that they'll probably be significantly different volumes, if you care...
 
johnny5dm said:
Oh yeah... annoying part is that they'll probably be significantly different volumes, if you care...

Thank you for the help!
I didn't realize they would be different volumes though, let alone "signifigantly different". In the example I'm considering...
Speaker A is an 8ohm EV force subwoofer that I currently own
Speaker B and C were each Kustom cabinets with 12 inch woofers and horns at 16 ohms per cabinet. I was considering buying these to kind of "spread out" the sound of the mains and still be able to use a subwoofer.

Are you saying this will sound like crap?

If so, my current setup is all stuff I already own......
Speaker A is the aforementioned 8 ohm sub, daisy chained into speaker B - an 8 ohm cabinet that has a 15inch woofer and horn. Therefore I only have a single "stack" operating as mains.

Either way I'm not running in stereo, so am I better off keeping the setup I have now? I know most people would just throw 2 15 inchers out front as their mains and call it a day, but I love the sound of that kick drum pounding through the subwoofer!

So now that I know I'm not going to blow my amp, I guess I've highjacked my own thread with a new question -
Am I better off to run 1x subwoofer + 1 15" cabinet as mains, or...
1 subwoofer daisy chained into 2 12" cabinets?
 
Hmm... interesting questions. First question for you would be this: have you HEARD the Kustoms? Now, granted, I've used some Kustom monitors that were nice because they were really light and small, but sound-wise, they were pretty pitiful. So, you first need to make sure you'll be happy with the sound.

Next question. If I remember correctly (I've used some of those EV subs... pretty nice), the Force subs have a built-in passive crossover. Do the Kustoms? If they do, you can do like you said... if not, you may need to consider some alternatives. The Kustom cabinet will most likely distort if you run low frequencies into a 12" woofer without a crossover. What are you using this for? Venue size/number of people? Type of music?

As far as volume differences, this may actually work out decently. Because you're using two 16 ohm mains with a 8 ohm sub, the mains together get about the same power as the sub. This volume difference is more of a concern if you were talking about monitors or 3 mains.

So... answer the above questions, tell me about your amp, and I'll tell you what I think. Are you mainly trying to go for a wider sound distribution from your mains?

PM me if you don't hear back soon.
 
shouldn't sound too bad as long as the sub has it's passive crossover... if not you can expect mush...
 
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