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Speaker power Vs amp output

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Live1052 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 18 March 2019 at 2:03pm
I have a pair of 200 watt speakers and an amp that will comfortably provide 375 watts per channel into 8 ohms, so clearly the amp is well capable of blowing the arse out of the speakers. The amp has LEDs to indicate -30db, -6db and peak and the volume pots indicate -20, -10, -5 and 0db but how do I reliably know when I'm driving my speakers too hard, rather than just listening to see if they're distorting? My old studiomaster 700d had an output of 210w per channel so when the mixer VU was at 0db with the pots wide open I was comfortable everything was in balance. That won't work with my current Studiomaster 1200d though. 

Sorry, I know it's probably a bit of a daft question but...
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mini-mad View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mini-mad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 March 2019 at 4:16pm
It's not. You need a limiter.
If it sounds like a gorilla is trying to escape, turn it down.
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Conanski View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Conanski Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 March 2019 at 6:24pm
Originally posted by Live1052 Live1052 wrote:

I have a pair of 200 watt speakers and an amp that will comfortably provide 375 watts per channel into 8 ohms, so clearly the amp is well capable of blowing the arse out of the speakers.
Technically you have the perfect combo with an amp that does 1.5-2x the speaker rating, but at the same time yes you could blow the speakers depending upon the music type.
There is no protecting the speakers without a limiter of some type and even then you would have to throw away some potential output to make the system totally idiot proof, but if you are the only operator you don't have to be that radical with the limiting.

Turning down the pots on the amp does not provide any protection, it just takes an increase in the signal somewhere else in the signal chain and you're right back to the same situation again.  Listening to your speakers is always a good thing to do, you can tell if something doesn't sound right even from behind the rig, sometimes you can even smell it.Evil Smile


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Chris Grimshaw View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chris Grimshaw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 March 2019 at 2:41pm
So long as the red lights aren't on constantly, you'll be fine.

Chris
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www.grimshawaudio.com
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