Alto TS115a Peaking into red

[JSideFx]

Hi I recently bought a pair of these speakers and on testing they are peaking into the red not constant red but slight flashes with heavy bass, It is probably something i'm doing wrong but I dont have much faith in them yet?
The Speaker volume is at 11 oclock
I'm using a behringer xyenth mixer with the chanel fader at 12 oclock and master on mixer at 1 ocklock

Are these set up wrong?

Thanks

[paulg]

Depends how hard you are pushing them really. When you say heavy bass, do you mean that you are cranking up the bass on your mixer. If you are, the Alto's aren't that good at low frequencies so you might just be driving them too hard

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Are you running XLRs or 1/4 inch into them?

I run my laptop at full volume, mixer at unity, xlr's into the Alto's and usually have it set to between 10 and 12 o clock and it's never clipped once...

[Excalibur]

Hi I recently bought a pair of these speakers and on testing they are peaking into the red not constant red but slight flashes with heavy bass, It is probably something i'm doing wrong but I dont have much faith in them yet?
The Speaker volume is at 11 oclock
I'm using a behringer xyenth mixer with the chanel fader at 12 oclock and master on mixer at 1 ocklock

Are these set up wrong?

Thanks

I had this problem with my QTX running into the clip lights too early, and blamed it on them being cheap units, as the Titans I used formerly never lit them. They were always amply loud enough, so I simply assumed they were just way better than the QTX.

It did occur to me that I was not following my own teachings, as with the actives I was setting volume at around twelve o'clock, and bringing the line control to a similar setting. ( The QTX basically have a full mixer on the back. Two mic inputs and a line, all with gain controls. )
So, one night, I had time to have a play, and started with master gains at max. The line gains were obviously now a lot lower, and the difference was amazing. Far more headroom, and the clip lights came on much later, and only flickered. Result.

So, it's worth turning the speaker gains right up, and see if it helps. Re your mixer settings, just keep it out of the red, and you're fine.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I had this problem with my QTX running into the clip lights too early, and blamed it on them being cheap units, as the Titans I used formerly never lit them. They were always amply loud enough, so I simply assumed they were just way better than the QTX.

It did occur to me that I was not following my own teachings, as with the actives I was setting volume at around twelve o'clock, and bringing the line control to a similar setting. ( The QTX basically have a full mixer on the back. Two mic inputs and a line, all with gain controls. )
So, one night, I had time to have a play, and started with master gains at max. The line gains were obviously now a lot lower, and the difference was amazing. Far more headroom, and the clip lights came on much later, and only flickered. Result.

So, it's worth turning the speaker gains right up, and see if it helps. Re your mixer settings, just keep it out of the red, and you're fine.

I might be wrong here but the Alto's gain knob has 2 "stages" shall we say - Up until noon = your line and after noon = a mic direct in. I've not tried it to find out but the shop I bought them from said to make sure I don't go past noon on them.



I don't know much of the technical side of power speakers but if you set it higher than 12 but it isn't clipping, is it likely to do any damage?

[Excalibur]

I might be wrong here but the Alto's gain knob has 2 "stages" shall we say - Up until noon = your line and after noon = a mic direct in. I've not tried it to find out but the shop I bought them from said to make sure I don't go past noon on them.

Oh crap, the Mackie solution again.

Jim, you and the shop are absolutely correct. Do not go past 12 for a line input. I was looking at a drawing in the manual, and didn't see the detail. Well done that man, thanks.

In my very humble opinion, that's a poor method of controlling the output.
Contrast it with my QTX. Two mic inputs with gain controls on each channel, one line with gain, a master gain, and tone controls. I know which one I prefer.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Jim, you and the shop are absolutely correct. Do not go past 12 for a line input. I was looking at a drawing in the manual, and didn't see the detail. Well done that man, thanks.

Even if it's not clipping?

[Excalibur]

Even if it's not clipping?

I honestly don't know. You'd think it would be alright, but I can envisage possible problems. Possible.

[DazzyD]

I haven't got active speakers but do have a powered mixer (mixer and amp combined) and the manual states that when setting the output to turn the gains and EQ until the red light starts to flicker. Then you have maximum output/gain for that channel. I would've assumed the red light flickering on the speaker is fine so long as it doesn't stay on solid. I've got a separate clip (Peak) light on each channel and when the mixer is set up properly then the clip light very very rarely even comes in to play. Is this not the case for active speakers?

[dalzeah]

I'm using these as well and have to say I was disappointed at them clipping on red on what I would consider to be not overly loud volumes. I concur with the poster who said to stick your master on the mixer on unity and pull the individual channel back. Certainly gave me a bit more to play with and yes, don't stray over 12.0'clock on the speaker gain. I love them otherwise.