Colin, I have a lot of problems with red lights every time I play at louder gigs using bass bins.
They come on despite my best efforts to make adjustments and if I cut back on the eq to try and cut it out I would have a totally flat non dynamic sound, so I might as well pack up and go home if I cant get the sound I like---never mind the punters.
I do have a manufacturers matched system ---speakers/ powered amp.
It never sounds distorted despite the red lights.
Yes I stand in front of the speakers a lot of the night so I know whats going on.
I havent managed to blow any of the drivers or horns in 4.5 years of this ritual "abuse", and of course on the older amps you didnt have the benefit of the warning lights---distortion told you a lot though.
Do you think this business of worrying about the red lights is a bit overdone--seeing as my speakers are still going loud and strong--plus ive bounced them a few times off the trolley
Even the makers warned me when I went for a demo--as an old fashioned Entertainer going back to the days of valve amps I cant remember much in the way of speaker failures--horn unit after 20 years --I can live with that--and a driver in a Skytec cab--what do I expect
I always bought what I considered reliable speaker makes like Goodmans and Celestion and more recently Peavey and Eminence, I made a mistake buying the Skytecs but I changed the horns and introduced a crossover which transformed them into an acceptable quality for very small jobs.
Am I just lucky ( again )
1300 watts into two 300 watts--now that sounds like an accident waiting to happen
CRAZY K
Yes very lucky, but your not alone and many people copy you,
you are of course right about the earlier amp's with no indication at all and most of us used distortion as the limit.
but as thing have moved on so much and power has increased so much (I started with a 50watt mono amp) the danger to distroy equipment has also increased with it!.
about the not being happy with the sound quality, I've been on a quest for the last 30 odd years to get the sound how I like and dispite having systems from Martin Audio, A.S.S, EV and JBL (the largest being 20k of A.S.S) I'm still trying to get it "right"
I now self build my speaker systems and although I'm getting closer (I'm happy with mid/high) I still have a long way to get the bass right dispite having tried many designs.
what I can tell you is I found the more equipment in the signal chain the more chance of distortion/clipping, so my signal now comes from my soundcraft d-mix into the crossover and then into the amps with nothing else in between, give it a try you'll be supprised how much better it sounds?
to be really honist and blunt if your system is clipping most of the time you need to go bigger, because even if you are getting away with it? it's not good to drive you gear flat out all the time, sooner or later somethings going to give way and it will always do it when you have 2-300 punters in front of you! it aint nice?
Edit: sorry if the spellings a bit off had a birthday party last night and still a bit wobbly
Last edited by colint; 26-04-2009 at 10:52 AM.
Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak
Don't forget that a clip light can be triggered by over-driving the input as well as the output of an amp, if your mixer is putting out too high a signal it will cause the input stage of your amp to clip.
Keep your signal path clean, this will give great benefits.......my signal path never goes above -3db, clean and undistorted all the way!!
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Eh?
I dont understand most of these comments.
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Im pleased to say I havent blown any speakers.
The maximum wattage rms produced at different resistances by the amp is stated by the the amplifiers manufacturer-so it will be stated by the manufacturer to be for example 500 watts at 4ohms or 360 watts at 8ohms which mine is.
I have already stated before--I dont think its correct to say either that you must run the amp at maximum (agree with Beerfunk) or that Actives are better than Passive for matching purposes--my Passive kit is matched by the manufacturer as regards resistance and output levels--only people who buy mixed kit---like different makes of speaker, amp and xover have to make sure they all match--I dont because I bought my four speaker PA and powered amp as a professional package.
I agree with Tony Scott--you need to keep the front end mixer input level down to limit red lighting--I get a bit lazy--if it sounds good and theres no distortion I tend to not bother--which is not good
Im also probably half way through explaining a Barn or Line Dance when I first
notice it--shouting down the mike is the biggest culprit---I do a fair bit of that
CRAZY K
I hope it's not the correct way to use this type of speakers 1.2 k with 1,6. unless you plug a mixer and sound source into the amp