PA Speakers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chopvai
  • Start date Start date
C

Chopvai

New member
Hey folks,

I just bought a pair of PA speakers from the bay,.. and was wondering what power amp i should get to run them...

They are 350W RMS and 600W max each...

So do i get a poweramp that runs 700W (350W+350W) or would a higher poweramp of 1200W work also?

Let me know... I'm preety new to hooking up devices like this. :)
 
It sort of depends on a lot of stuff....speaker impedance (ohm rating) they're probably either 4 or 8, sometimes 16. the power rating on a power amp is usually only what it will put out (haha...put out) at 2 or 4 ohms. So a 1200W power amp is not neccessarily going to give you 1200W. Probably more like 4 or 5.

If its a 600W max and 350 RMS I would get maybe a 400 or 500 W amp and start there. If you get comfortable with it and at some point decide to risk blowing a speaker get a 600 or 700.

Also be aware that max ratings are never exact, they are very subjective. You might be able to eek out a little more power than its rated at. Its rare that it won't supply at least the max rating though. (Why would a manufacturer say it can handle 600W if it could only handle 525?)

Disclaimer: I'm not a pro sound guy. I just have some basic knowledge of it. Someone with more expertise might be able to tell you some more exact information.
 
Hey. Thanks for replying...

The ohm rating is 8 nominal...

also typo error, they are 300W Rms...
 
my understanding

is that you want the amp to be rated

significantly higher than the speakers

power-wise

for the best (least distorted) sound



an amp may be rated at a given wattage (power)

but distortion tends to increase

as this power is approached



the caveat in this is that you can

blow your speakers

if you turn the amp gain way up

so be careful



of course, if you're driving monitors

you want to mix at about 85 dB

so this shouldn't strain anything
 
Cannabis has a good point that I hadn't thought about.

I've also heard, and experienced, that placing a more powerful amp in the signal chain makes the system a little less sensitive to feedback. Our practice room used to have monitors hooked up to a Peavey CS800 amp and it was tough to get the gain on the mixer set right. But when we put a QSC PLX2000 in the chain, it was much more calm.
 
you can always turn a more powerfull amp down... but you can't make up for the nastyness of a distored underpowered amp. Run a limiter so you don't blow them though. (and MUTE BEFORE you plug or unplug)
 
its all about having headroom, the more power the cleaner the sound. Basic rule of thumb, double the continuous power rating if at all possible. so if you have a 300w cont. see if you an obtain a 600w rating from an amp @ 8ohms stereo. Disreguard anything you see about bridged power. Will a 300w-400w amp work? Yes, but get as much power as you can. Obviously you dont need 1200w a side @8 ohms thats getting to be a little silly. Also depends on dampening factor and input sensitivties and so on. I can throw you a list of amps with power ratings if you would like.
 
As a side note. If you ever get more cabs or higher handling cabs you don't have to buy a new amp to power them...
 
Distortion from an underpowered amp has blown far more cabs then good clean signal from an overpowered amp...

But hard limiting is an excellent idea...
 
Thanks for the replies peeps..

So let me see if i got all this...

Ive got the 300W speakers, and I should buy a poweramp of e.g 1200W...

So.. the output power 8ohm of each speaker will be 400W....

this wont harm the speakers right?
 
yea they are sneaky when it comes to power rating because most dont know what it all means. im gonna guess they are 8 ohms. so when you look at power ratings on an amp look at what the power is at 8 ohms each side. more is power is better.also a singer i work with kept blowing his yamaha speaker. the sticker on the cabinet says it was rated at like 500 watts. the repair guy said the speaker was nothing more than a eminance brand-100 watt speaker inside. i think they all stretch the real info.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top