Hi all. I'm shopping for speakers. I stumbled across this forum and found an excellent response that completely cleared up the whole issue of Continuous, Program and Peak power ratings for speakers which definitely helped.
So here is the situation: I was providing sound for an outdoor stage a couple of weeks ago at Seattle's Pike Place Market and really kind of wished I could get a little more juice out of my system.
My amp is a Mackie M1400, great amp, but in stereo mode it pushes 300W per side. So I found a second Mackie M1400 on eBay and its on its way. I was thinking that I could run two matched amps in bridged mode, one per channel, and then I'd be running 1000W per side. That is more power than I suspect I'll ever want or need.
And of course that kind of power is going to punch the cones right out of the old 15" two-way speakers I've been running for the last fifteen years. I don't even know what they're rated at, actually, so now I'd like to replace them with something newer, lighter, and matched to my amps.
I do run a compressor/limiter between the board and the amp, BTW.
When I play in one band and do sound for two others, I get to use my friend's JBL JRX115 speakers, and I really like them. But the power rating is 250W program (I think) and 1000W peak. I read that you really want your amp to be around 1.8 to 2.2 times the program rating of the speaker, yes? So that speaker would be a bad match.
So I could spend the money and go to the JBL MRX 515s, which are rated at 400W/800W/1600W. Not ideal, but I like the company.
If I do that, can I not ever run the speakers on just the one amp at 300W per side? I've been told that if I go below the continuous rating, I could damage the voice coil or other components. That's one question.
Another is do the JBL MRX515s seem like an adequate match for the two Mackie amps?
And the last one is do any of you have a favorite speaker that WOULD be a great match for the two Mackie amps running in bridged mode at 1000W per side?
And one final question: these amps have the usual gain control, one for each side. When I turn that gain control down (say to 50%), am I effectively reducing the wattage by 50% and could go under a speakers' minimum power requirement, or are the two unrelated?
Sorry for the long post, and any help would be appreciated.
Rob
So here is the situation: I was providing sound for an outdoor stage a couple of weeks ago at Seattle's Pike Place Market and really kind of wished I could get a little more juice out of my system.
My amp is a Mackie M1400, great amp, but in stereo mode it pushes 300W per side. So I found a second Mackie M1400 on eBay and its on its way. I was thinking that I could run two matched amps in bridged mode, one per channel, and then I'd be running 1000W per side. That is more power than I suspect I'll ever want or need.
And of course that kind of power is going to punch the cones right out of the old 15" two-way speakers I've been running for the last fifteen years. I don't even know what they're rated at, actually, so now I'd like to replace them with something newer, lighter, and matched to my amps.
I do run a compressor/limiter between the board and the amp, BTW.
When I play in one band and do sound for two others, I get to use my friend's JBL JRX115 speakers, and I really like them. But the power rating is 250W program (I think) and 1000W peak. I read that you really want your amp to be around 1.8 to 2.2 times the program rating of the speaker, yes? So that speaker would be a bad match.
So I could spend the money and go to the JBL MRX 515s, which are rated at 400W/800W/1600W. Not ideal, but I like the company.
If I do that, can I not ever run the speakers on just the one amp at 300W per side? I've been told that if I go below the continuous rating, I could damage the voice coil or other components. That's one question.
Another is do the JBL MRX515s seem like an adequate match for the two Mackie amps?
And the last one is do any of you have a favorite speaker that WOULD be a great match for the two Mackie amps running in bridged mode at 1000W per side?
And one final question: these amps have the usual gain control, one for each side. When I turn that gain control down (say to 50%), am I effectively reducing the wattage by 50% and could go under a speakers' minimum power requirement, or are the two unrelated?
Sorry for the long post, and any help would be appreciated.
Rob