Yamaha P1600

[KC Promotions]

Hi,
Dont know if somebody can, or indeed would want to help me with some advice.

We've been running our small disco/ karaoke through a Yamaha P1600 amp which runs at 230watts per channel into 4 ohms and 460 watts in bridged mono, into 8 ohm loads. We run this into 2x250w speakers and 2x200w speakers.

Now, we're not THAT technically minded and i've had limited contact with PA's etc over the years but after a recent gig I felt our sound was rather lacking. The missus said it was fine and the customer is happy enough but somethings just not sitting right with me about the set up. We've quite a few weddings etc coming up and i'm torn between buying a bigger amp and listening to my very limited experience that the amp is the correct size for the speakers. I run the amp at 4ohms but am wondering if I ran the amp in bridged mode would it improve anything. Maybe it isnt the amp? Maybe I need a bigger speaker set up? Am reluctant to do this as we stick to small events and have no desire to take on bigger jobs.

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers

[Excalibur]

Hello Graham, well for a start, can you let us know what your speakers are? Make and model helps. Are both sets full range?

There are various options, but at a guess, first step is a second amp, which would take the strain off the Yamaha, and provide backup in case of problems. Unless of course, you decide that new speakers are the way forward.

Tell us what you've got first, and we'll see what the options are.

[SamV]

Running two different sets of speakers of one amp is never a good idea. They'll have different impedance curves, and phasing issues would mean that the output is a bit all over the place and depending on speaker placement you might also suffer from HF combing.

In an ideal world you would have two sets of the same speakers, and an amp that has enough power plus headroom. So in your case you have 450w per channel at 4r, so what you want is an amp that can safely supply maybe 800w+ rms into those speakers. It'll sound better, have more dynamic range and is kinder to the speakers.

[KC Promotions]

Cheers for the replies.

I decided to start again and purchased a new 2k rig. Just need to find some regular work now haha.