There's one point I think should have been mentioned in the video, and its fairly important. In pro audio, its very common to bridge stereo amps and use them as 1 channel. You need to be careful when you do this for a couple of reasons. Bridging a stereo amp doesn't make it a mono block. Its a bridged stereo amp, and there's a big difference between the 2. Any time you bridge a stereo amp, the amount of resistance the amp sees from the speaker is halved. So, if you have a speaker that's rated for 8 ohms and drops down to 4 ohms, the amp sees the exact same speaker as a 4ohm load that drops down to 2 ohms. This runs the amp much harder, and you're far more likely to damage the speaker from underpowering it. Also, you really can't put too much trust in power amp ratings. There's no standard that manufacturers go by to rate an amps power. This leaves it up to each company to rate them however they see fit.
I will listen to this video several times, take notes 📝 and follow the instructions.. Additionally I have Subscribed to the Channel and will make ample time to continue with understanding your Audio University Message… I have Dasey chained a few high powered Cerwin Vega Speakers with lower Powered Amplifiers, example 3-4 speakers on one channel and the same on its second line. Now I have a total of 3 Crown Amplifiers that no longer give out any kind of wattage, although they turn out, I don’t even hear crickets 🦗… local audio stores are being honest and saying they will cost more money to fix then they are worth. I now have 100lbs of Amps that I bought brand new and only used in my Garage converted Studio.. I have no choice but to try and fix them on my own… Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. If anyone that reads this message has one or two trouble shooting ideas I will welcome them. Best regards from NYC… Cheers 🥂
I have a pair of B&W 804 3D3. They recommend a 50-200 watt amp and they mention nothing of continuous power. I used an Anthem STR 200 watt integrated amp and it sounded great. I switched to separates: Anthem STR preamp + 400 watt power amp. The difference is phenomenal. Definitely got extra headroom for the speakers and the dynamics are wayyyyy improved. At first I thought it was overkill but such is not the case. B&Ws are power pigs. The more watts you throw into them the happier they are, so long as you don’t crank it up to the level that they can’t handle.
I've noticed the wattage/speaker calculations for guitar v power amps are completely different. Bass guitarist here, I was thinking about using a power amp with a preamp as an alternative to a guitar specific amp, and the recommendation for guitar amp wattage is less than the wattage of your guitar speakers, and you are expected to be able to max out the volume of your amp without clipping. I don't know why, but nobody ever talks about headroom for guitar amps, but for power amps you're recommended to get the rms wattage of at least double the rms wattage of your speaker, but isn't the peak power rating the "headroom?" If not, then a power amp with 400 watts is basically equivalent to a 200 watt guitar amp because you arent supposed to push a PA to max, but you are for a guitar amp. I'm not criticizing anyone I'm just confused and looking for an answer, if anybody knows I would really appreciate it.
çok iyi net anlatım yapıyorsunuz ve son derece kaliteli içerik üretiyorsunuz tebrikler. Sizlerden Stereo ve Mono arasındaki farkı anlatan uygulamalı bir içerik üremeniz olacak.
QSC CX254 / 250 watts @ 4 OHMS for Infinity 200 watts (4ohm) speakers. You always want a little head room so you dont get into clipping with classic Infinity's. Just got to show a little restraint on the volume knob.
Good advice , I really appreciate the knowledge you put into these videos. Questions, power Amp, the more turn volume up ,the more power goes to speaker?
I'm finally building my home theater. I'm buying three used gfa-555s to start. I'm gonna bridge them to my front three speakers. It's nice to know I wasn't out of my mind.
Biggest 'problem' is that most people don't know when to stop cranking up the system. So many (mostly starting) DJs for instance, have all their channel gain in the red, plus the total output in the red. And yes, while the mixer would have a clean headroom of say 20 dB, you are driving the amp with more than the maximum 775mV/1V/1.2V that provides the continuous, clean, undistorted sound.
Clipping, speakers and power handling explained: Clipping is the limit of the amplifier not necessarily the speaker. The limit of the speaker could be greater or less than the limit of the amplifier. In multi way speakers with passive crossovers, power handling is frequency band (and also music band - e.g. Slipknot or Michael Jackson, but that's a related topic on the loudness war and frequency spectrum of different songs) dependent. The woofer(s) usually handle more power than the midrange and tweeter(s) (at very low frequencies - especially in a ported or horn cabinet, the woofer can flap around without much power which may damage it mechanically). When you clip an amplifier, it adds harmonics to the music. Your speaker can't tell if the amp is slightly clipping on music with a wide dynamic range, and this is unlikely to cause damage if the speaker is rated to handle the amplifier. However, playing compressed music and turning up 10, even 20 dB beyond the clip point (this sounds really bad, especially through horn loaded compression drivers!) introduces significant extra harmonics. This adds more power to the midrange and tweeter. An amplifier that's too large pushed hard is more likely to stress the woofer, though could also stress the midrange and tweeter. An amplifier that's smaller but pushed into heavy clipping on compressed music can stress the midrange and tweeter but the woofer will probably be fine. Compressed music that's not clipping can put more stress on drivers than wide dynamic range music that's slightly clipping - at the same peak level. Choosing a larger amplifier than the speaker's rating allows you to extract the maximum performance from a speaker - ensuring it's only the speaker that's adding noise/colouration/distortion to the signal. You will have to lock the volume control away from your drunk friends. Choosing a much smaller amplifier is more idiot proof - as long as you are not overloading it with too low an impedance, and you size the midrange and tweeter (or pad them with resistors) to handle crunch city if the amp is heavily clipped at a house party, and you filter out extremely low frequencies that cause the woofer to flap around.
I'd like to add some technical points here. Speakers are usually not driven to their full capacity even at the same continuous (RMS) power from the Amps running at their full capacity (unclipped). That's because music signal amplitude has lots of ups and downs, unless you are playing a continuous, say 1KHz signal. Subwoofer tends to get more average power than mid and highs. So getting same continuous power speaker as your amps are usually wastage of money. Frequency response of audio amplifier are also not flat. Most amps are rated with their power @ 1KHz frequency, higher or lower than that and you tend to get lower or higher power at output. I'd always pick a Subwoofer rated 60-75% of the Sub Amp's max RMS power. But I'd go for 35-50% for the Mid and high speakers. 25% (4 Times) would be too risky, I'd never go to that lane.
@@guanedits6349 What cables are we talking about, the cables between the amp and the speakers, and/or the power cables to the amp? Do not get me wrong, there are some power cables out there where if you load them you may get an unacceptable voltage drop to run your amp, but from that to fire is a long way. Speaker cables that is to skinny will also just create an unacceptable voltage drop no fire there.
So for a speaker with continuous rating of 500W, one should by an amp between 1000 and 2000watt… in many high-end stores they use class A amps with less than a fourth of the speaker’s rating. In this case even 1/10 with a 50watt class A amp….
instead of adding a higher wattage amp in a lower wattage subwoofer / tweeter, mind aswell have the amp matching wattage to the subwoofer/tweeter to prevent the distortion, clipping, overloading and coil burning and smelling
Thanks for making the video! At 4:32, you mentioned that the general guideline is to choose an amp that is capable of providing 2x or 4x of the continuous power rating of the speakers. I'm a little bit confused by this. It seems like to me that you are making an assumption that speakers run at continuous power rating sound the best, but in most cases, we listen to speakers with small volume, meaning we don't even need to get to the point of the continuous power rating. For example, for a speaker that has a 50w continuous power handling, I might only need 10w, because it is loud enough for me. In that case, do I still need a 100w or even 200w amp as you suggested?
Gain on the amplifier turned down to even half does not reduce the wattage coming out of the amp if you still run the amp into clipping. It also depends if the amplifier has a clip limiter in it and what kind of clip limiter. I can run my old crest 8001's, 9001's and 10001's into solid clipping and the built in limiiters never resulted in blown speakers. I run 1,000 watt RMS speakers with 2,000 watt rms amplifier and haven't lost a speaker or sub. But then again, I used to run cerwin vega sl36's and jbl SRX speakers and they let me down more than my bulletproof RCF speakers did.
The volume attenuator knob on the front of the amplifier isn’t linear. 75% of the way up probably will only be 60% of the power. But you’ll only really know for sure if you measure the voltage coming out.
As a sound technician of many years I was taught and would also like to add your amplifier and speakers SHOULD ALWAYS BE TURNED ON LAST!! after everyone else on stage has switched on all their equipment to avoid any sudden surges of signals and popping the drivers, that happend before but it was down to an idiot on stage not following the protocol
Hello I have questions, can you give me a advise? My setup right now : Amplifier : Pioneer SA - 3000 (40 watts per channel into 8Ω) Speaker : Klipsch R-51M (Power Handling = 85W and sensitivity = 93db) Is it okay? Please reply my questions 🙏🏻
excellent video i’m using a 800w amp mixer my Speakers recommended an amplifier that is 400w to 750w so if I want to go louder I should get a 750w amp so I’m not pushing too much gain and volume to achieve that wattage? i’m using Martin audio f10 speakers it says 250w AES, 1000W Peak i’m not sure what AES means
this is very subjective and depending on who you talk too will give different advise - an 8 ohm speaker is nominally 8 ohms meaning 20% of the lower impedance curve is 8 Ohms but impedance of an 12" speaker could be as high as 50 ohms as impedance is frequency dependent. The question is how much power is too much - JBL used to say you could go 10x the driver IEC power without burning the driver - but would cause physical damage , an amplifier with enough headroom to handle the transients is correct here but why would you want to turn it down from the amp end. Turn it down from the DSP end and control there . There are no standards here , amp companies power specification is all marketing 25Ms burst power , Pink noise so called RMS we will never know which is the real rating of the amp . 500W amp at 8 ohms output voltage is 63.24V , 1000w @ 4 ohms = 63.24V ... makes for an interesting discussion
Another great video. While I was already aware of most of the content discussed, you delivered it exceptionally well - clearly and concisely. Subscribed!
I'm a low wattage listener. Allthough I built my own powered speakers using a circuit of my own desighn, I don't know what it's truly capable of as I never listen to my stuff loud, it probably doesn't even break 1 watt at the level I listen.
I take your point about headroom and transients, but I would be wary of generally advising use of an amp that has a significantly larger power rating than the speaker. In the hands of an inexperienced operator (especially if they are not familiar with limiters), clamor from clients or audience for "louder, louder" is likely to result in things being turned up until the speaker fails! It would be useful if there was a simple device that would protect a speaker from overload, or at least warn of this, but I can't offhand think of anything currently available? Maybe a market opportunity for someone?
Back in the 50s many speakers had fuses to prevent actual overheating of the voice coil. It became problematic in professional use so it went away. In most cases amps and speakers are sold with great overkill, so that it’s unlikely that they will be damaged. Of course, the majority of semi-pro systems now use powered speakers with matching amps &speakers as well as limiters.
@@TomCee53 Yes, I remember speaker fuses. As you say, powered speaker systems if designed properly should have built-in limiting to avoid damage from misuse. Of course one CAN use a line level limiter in front of a separate amp/speaker setup, but to get it set appropriately really needs testgear that many people probably don't have access to. I'm pretty much retired from live work these days, but if I were tasked with setting up PA for anything smaller than a stadium-level concert, I'd go with powered speakers.
There is some out there (12 year old kids maybe) that would just grab the volume knob and crank it to 100 but the most of us realize, even in our fancy car radios that it will cause damage. You have a system with an external amp most know the car can overpower the road, so to speak.
Merci pour la video tres instructive, cependant j aimerai noter certains points. La puissance reelle d un aplificateur est trouve en fonction de son rendement donnee en pourcentage, par exemple, un ampli de 1000w peak avec 80 pourcent de rendement donnera une puissance finale de 800watts, ceci dit, utiliser un amplificateur 4 fois plus puissant que la puissance continue du haut-parleur ne sera vraiment pas necessaire a mon avis.Si l ampli est deja 20pourcent plus eleve que la puissance peak, c est deja bien.Ensuite, je conseillerai plutot d utiliser un amplificateur avec le potentiometre tourne a 100/100 et de regeler le niveau d envoi du signal avant d arriver a l ampli. A noter aussi que la charge pour une enceinte basse frequence peut etre differente d une enceinte haute et moyenne frequece.En 8 ans d experience, je ne me souviens pas d avoir fais bruler une enceinte ou un ampli, bien au contraire, j ai eu un meilleur son avec asses de dynamique de cette maniere. eclaire moi si je me trompe.
If continuos power rating of a speaker is 100 watts..program or music power rating is 200 watts and peak power rating is 400 watts.....that means if 400 watts is applied to the spkr the spkr will burst in short period of time..right. ????then what is meant by this music power rating? ??? In some articles i read that music power rating/program power rating is the powr the spkr can handle in 4 to 6 hours ...whethet it is right or not?
My speaker is rated at 60w continuous. My amp is rated at 450wats which is well above the 4x rule of thumb pairing guide. Will I blow my speakers? Or just keep the volume down and it’ll be fine?
Can you explain sensitivity more? I work for a university that has the old QSControl DSP running in to some Meyer active point source boxes, and the DSP gives the option to change the sensitivity between 1.3 vrms, 3 vrms, 9 vrms, and so on. The lower number gives the higher input level. How do I choose?
This is the sensitivity of the device such as amplifier or mixer and specifies the minimum signal voltage to get the full output of the amplifier. Speakers are measured differently, as the sound level produced by 1 watt at 1 meter distance from the speaker. Line level devices like fm tuners or cd players usually specify the maximum output before distortion is noticeable.
5:44 So, if I understand correctly, then all I need to do in a "matched" scenario is avoiding increasing the signal? Thanks, then I think I will be good with the rated power (because it will be loud enough for sure) and this way I 100% won't overpower my speakers....................................
Yes you can, slightly more powerful amp is better because you a4e able to drive speaker at full volume without distortion from amp at full power (clipping and other stuff ) just dont turn volume gauge all the way up haha, although in your situation you acrually can, because impedance will cripple the current, thus lowering the power so now worries buddy💪😎🤙
Here’s my problem,I have passive speakers as well as active speakers. I’m using a powered mixer at present time. What is the proper way I should go about connecting them?
I'm thinking about getting a 32 inch subwoofer driver that's 6000watts rms and the peak power is 12000 watts tbh and the Sensitivity is 105dB ngl this is sub driver is next level stuff @@AudioUniversity
We just brought a Dynacord power amp for church and a month later only one channel works now with sound only coming out of one speaker our piano player accidently switched his keyboard off before we turned off his sound from the mixer any advice on what could of happened and any possible solutions?
Thanks for the video and efforts put in to it. However the reality is quite a lot different. On an average room you only need 4 to 8 watts max for your speakers even if it's an 85db speaker. All this watts hype are just pure b.s. All you need to make sure is impedance matching or the closest between the speaker and the amp i.e. if you have a 6ohm speaker then connect to your 4 ohm amp or binding posts instead of 8ohms, 4ohms to 4ohms and 8ohms to 8 ohms (obviously)
Hello.Would It possible to explain signal to noise ratio ? what i am trying to understand is for example if a speakers sensitivity is 90db at 1 watt and lets say i have 2 amplifiers A and B. Lets say amplifier A is has a signal to noise ratio of 60db at 1watt and amplifier B has a signal to noise ratio of 85db at 1watt given that both amplifiers produce the same 1watt why is it that amplifier B louder or would it be?
No reference continuous | PROGRAM | peak power. If power greater than 2 * continuous, RMS limitation is highly recommended. Thermal limit equals program power (2 * continuous)
At 5:55 you stated that square signal can damage speakers. To me this doesn't make sense because square waves occur in music all the time (synths in electronic music, distorted guitars in rock/metal). Having this in mind, I think rule #3 is invalid. Speakers should play distortion just fine, as long as the power handling is not exceeded. Am I wrong? Please explain.
One thing is a distorted effect we find in the music and another thing is physically harming the speaker. The distortion effect many musicians use today is in fact the sound of a "broken" speaker. Someone once, some time ago, damaged their guitar amp and liked the sound of it and voila! But of course nobody wants to damage their expensive equimpent just to get that effect. So, the effect and the gear was engineered in a way that it presents no harm. Also in the mastering phase, the levels are "polished" in a way that it's playable on a wide range of speakers without presenting any issues. Basically, when the signal sent is too much for the speaker to handle, it causes certain problems that can make it blow. That's uncontrolled distortion and you definitely dont't want that so the rule very valid. It's important to match the equipment and set proper gain staging.
@@katarinamatic1011 Let's say I play a sine wave sample. I monitor it using an oscilloscope. I max out my amp. Will this give a different oscilloscope reading in comparison to digital distortion effect?
When you record a square wave the harmonics (above the audio band ) are filtered out, when an amplifier goes into clipping the harmonics that go to the speaker can go up to several MHz which effectively turns your voice coils into heating elements, this is the principle of induction heating, except an induction heater has a high power, high mass coil compared to the workpiece been heated but in a speaker the mass of metal (magnet) is too great to heat up and the (voice) coil heats up instead!
I do have a 90's Kenwood with 100w/8ohms (100w fr, 20w sur. Frequency response 20hz to 60 Khz. Need some speakers and I not sure what should I buy. Can I buy two speakers that can handle the 100w???
I’m a #1 country music songwriter and have also worked as an independent artist and recording engineer for 20 years. I am fortunate to have near perfect hearing and have never suffered with tinnitus or frequency loss (knocking on wood). I have NEVER been able to hear any more clarity above 44.1/16. While some of my friends have gone completely bonkers with sample rates I’ve never recorded above 48hz/24bit…And actually prefer 44.1. Young music makers listen up. The music is where it’s at. It’s where it’s always been. Stop polishing turds with glossy tech. You’re just wasting RAM and bounce time.
@@dinorockwell7670, only number 1 can write 48hz/24 instead of 48khz/24. And only number 1 records in 44.1 khz for video clips in which the software have to up convert to 48khz during final rendering. Btw, the minimum bitrate for Dolby Atmos is 48khz, everything below has to be up converted 48khz.
>44.1kHz has its uses though, mostly for sampling high-frequency stuff like cymbals and hats for use in drum machines, as the higher sample rate reduces aliasing in the highest frequencies - but you might as well transmux it to a lower sample rate AFTER you record it, since you avoided the aliasing in the recording stage to save on resource use for sure, unless you're about to pitch shift it down a couple octaves or something (obviously doesn't apply to country, but I've made a few decent rave stabs/synths from pitch shifting ride cymbals, snares into kicks, triangles into glokenspiels, etc.). could also be useful if you have a plugin/hardware unit that doesn't provide oversampling but supports higher sample rates, again to avoid aliasing and other artifacting due to pitch shifting
Hi Sir, i do have str-dn1060 sony receiver front speakers are 6 ohm whereas center and surround speakers are 8 ohm . Is this a problem? Usually the front speakers and center are louder than my surround speakers..any advice bear in mind my configuration is 7.1
There's more to it than that. if you looks at the specs for your speakers, you should find another ohm rating for the speaker. Its the lowest possible resistance the speaker can show the amplifier. That's the important one because the lower the resistance, the harder the amp has to work. So, if you just look at 6 and 8 ohms only, the 6 ohm speaker should be more difficult to drive than the 8. However, if you look at the lowest possible resistance, that picture can change quite a bit. That's because the 6 and 8 ohm ratings are averages. The amount of resistance a speaker actually shows the amp is based on frequency. If you take an 8 ohm rating, for example, since the 8 ohms is an average, there is only 1 frequency or note, that when played will show the amp an 8 ohm load. Any frequencies above your actual 8 ohm frequency will be more resistive 9, 10 11 ohms, etc.. Any frequencies lower, will show less resistance. If you now get that 2nd ohm rating I mentioned above, you can use it to figure out what speaker is harder to drive. For example, lets say your 6 ohm speaker can drop down to 4 ohms, and your 8 ohm speaker can drop down to 2 ohms, the 8 ohm speaker is going to be much harder to drive. If you never looked at the 2nd ohm rating. As for your specific problem, I can't give you an exact answer because I don't have all the information. I can give you my best guess, and I'm pretty sure it will be correct, I just can't guarantee it. Its very common in a home theater system to have your 2 main speakers overpower the center. In most cases, its not a volume issue, its a bandwidth issue. The further you move away from a speaker, the more volume you lose. You also lose frequency extremes. The highs are not as high, and the lows are not as low. That's what's called loosing bandwidth. Having 2 speakers in the same room playing at the same volume as just 1 increases your bandwidth. You still lose volume and frequency extremes when moving away from the speakers, but not nearly as much as you do with 1 speaker. You're asking a single, smaller speaker to give you the same bandwidth as 2 larger speakers. You can buy a bigger center channel and play it louder, or do something else that very few people consider. Your center channel is a mono channel. It doesn't have different information going to a left and right speaker. In my opinion, the easiest way to deal with your problem is to get a pair of bookshelf speakers similar to your mains. Put one on each side of your screen. Since you're feeding both speakers with the exact same signal, you'll float a perfect center image exactly like if you were to put 1 center channel behind the middle of your screen. Using 2 speakers will give you about the same loss in bandwidth as your 2 main speakers. Right now you have about half that for the center. That's why its so noticeable.
Speaker cone X-Mas versus frequency versus power is of utmost importance. A 200Watt speaker can easily be destroyed with a 20 watts signal rich in 40 hertz .
The "Continuous Power" is rather quite often referred to as "RMS Watts" on the spec sheets of audio gear- and in my experience, more so actually than the former. He didn't mention this little tidbit in the video unfortunately, but yeah: (Continuous Power = RMS Watts). 👍
here's the thing,while these rules are true,there is another thing not mentioned here,anyone can hear amplifier clipping very easily and turn it down,but i;m not sure how many people can hear a voice coil getting hot before it;s too late,hence,I'd say go for a big amplifier only if you really know your equipment and have limiters set for peak and average,with a lot of care and trial,then yes,the extra headroom for dynamics can be very nice,but otherwise it could be dangerous
Oh, I run into a lot of people who think you can plug any speaker into ay type of unit ignoring the impedance (expected circuit load). They forget crossovers, etc. "But this speaker is bigger!" No, no, no.
another tip, dont ever give 2ohm speakers set (4x8ohm speakers per example) to a 4Ohm amp, the amp need to be 2Ohm stable and these are rare like the montarbo 458 Most use for pro rigs 1 ohm stable amplifiers to use a set of 8 8ohm speakers with it and so on or for 20 speakers you just wire them in series to give the amp 4ohms
Yow, i really feel this was to answer a question i had in a comment a had in one of you videos, whether yes or no, i really appreciate this video man. I really do understand the math and calculations. I think i just want someone to verify something i wanna try with the speakers that I have. So feel free to answer the question. Your videos are great man and its helping me a lot learn about the theory and science in these. Bueno, If i put my 500watts at 8ohms speaker to a 500watts 4ohms amplifier, the speakers will get 250watts if i let the amplifier "run at 500watts" (theoretically speaking, because you want your aplifier to operate lower that its maximum power). If that is true, would it be possible to a "theoretical" 1000 watts amplifier (or greater) so that the speaker can produce 500watts of power as the specs said?
You may ask why would i try that scenario? Its because 8ohms amplifiers are not available commercially and it would cost double buying it online. So im looking for alternatives here. Right now, i am using an 8 ohm amplifier but since they are US made, they run at 110 volts and it is such a hussle to bring AVR everytime we use the sound system. So yeah, thats the situation. Oh i am from the Philippines for your reference.
Speakers and amps should come with “smart” safety features. Circuitry in both amps and speaker should easily be able to clip before damage is done. These days it should not be up to the average DJ or hobbiest to calculate it.
Many do, The featured qsc amps have limmiters built in, so you can set it to the RMS rating of the speaker you're driving. With three maps. Agressive, normal or minimal limitting
Rule 3 is nowadays not really a thing anylonger, I have never seen any professional (and even some cheap) Amplifier which has no limiter built-in to avoid clipping in the last 30 years or so. Without clipping, you can match speaker power to the amp power (800Watts Speaker on 800Watts Sinus (DIN in Europe) or RMS Amp). It will never clip/distort due to the limiter and never overheat the voice coil with giving 1000 Watts to an 500 Watts speaker for longer periods of time. You can hear clipping, but not an overheating of the speaker. Of course, if the "max"-LED is lit up continously, you have an underpowered system, but at least no damage is done to the speakers. Clipping can't be heard with some alcohol drunk, that is basically the death of all cheap "DJ-Sets" with an cheap, non-limiting Amp and cheap speakers (and even some good speakers) - they will be destroyed after the gig, at least the tweeters on 2 or 3-way systems.
Yup...learned this lesson the hard way back in the day. Had two dual voice coil Diamond Audio 10s in my car...wired them all up so it was a continuous truckload of wattage (1200W continuous, 600Wx2, IIRC) and it was DEAFENING. lol Took one of the subs out and forgot to rewire the coils and blew the amp. Womp womp. Lesson learned. lol
Amp big as affordable. Never ever had a problem with too much power. If you blow speakers, it is because you have not studied enough. Also, 50 dollars will get an o-scope good enough for gain levels on audio.
amazing video very informative and at 65 I even understand I live in the Philippines and there are no laws here to prevent me from going full blast with my system I have a 1000w power amp 1000w intergrated amp and passive 1000w 2 ways, 8 ch audio mixer, EQ, xover, bass enhancer, power controller all made by Kevler it's very loud can be heard from several blocks away I plan on adding another power amp and 2 more speakers, so they can hear it in Hong Kong 😂 Rocking the house.
Okay, so it you have a speaker rated at 700W RMS (8ohm) its better to match it with an amplifier that is rated @1400W RMS at 8ohm up to 2800W RMS @8ohm but don't over drive the speaker! 2x ~ 4x at the rated 8ohms as an example. 18" 700W RMS 1000W PMPO (peak music power)
so if i dont know this i shuld not be a sound engineer? and shuld all sound engineers know and onderstand ohms law is it Amature to not onderstand it fully?
That's in a VERY well designed box that takes FULL advantage of your sub's resonate frequency, AND this is no doubt, in a car, or SUV, or some kind of vehicle, that's definitely NOT any home sub system you're describing there, that's for sure!
Too oversimplified! A Hi Fi speaker is not "A" speaker, it's a speaker system, usually a woofer and tweeter or also a mid-range. They never have the same power rating, always less for the tweeter, which gets damaged by the added high frequencies of clipping bass. The impedance rating is nominal and often varies drastically over the range of frequencies, so for the amplifier current rating, only the lowest point matters, not the nominal rating. Amplifier peak ratings seldom are much more than their transient rating unless the power supply is unusually skimpy, so it will not be able to supply the peaks the speaker can handle. Those peaks mostly are bass because the ear is much less sensitive to low bass. Low bass therefore is typically louder. The extreme highs in music are lower or shorter duration, so the tweeter is less challenged by normal music. Heavy metal fans be forewarned. Good audio requires powerful amps, more than the speakers can continuously handle. Most speaker damage occurs while listening under the influence resulting in levels that violate OSHA. There is no magic combination that is idiot proof except for integrated speaker-amplifier designs that have built in limiters that won't allow you to melt the voice coils.
don't connect speakers with the unit on. don't connect sources with the unit on. lower the volume before changing sources...these 3 rules trump the 3 you talk about and will damage speakers easier than anything you talk about.
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Solid advice. Now, if we could only get speaker and amp companies to give us data sheets along with marketing hype!
True.
Reputable companies like EV or JBL usually have reasonable technical information available, at least for their professional products?
There was an attempt in the 70s to legislate it for products sold in the US, but it didn’t really happen.
@@davidhiggen3029Yes, David, these show good attempts, but sure could be even better. Might be a good and convincing selling point as well.
Excellent video man. Your calm demeanour is exactly what I need when thinking about this stuff.
There's one point I think should have been mentioned in the video, and its fairly important. In pro audio, its very common to bridge stereo amps and use them as 1 channel. You need to be careful when you do this for a couple of reasons. Bridging a stereo amp doesn't make it a mono block. Its a bridged stereo amp, and there's a big difference between the 2. Any time you bridge a stereo amp, the amount of resistance the amp sees from the speaker is halved. So, if you have a speaker that's rated for 8 ohms and drops down to 4 ohms, the amp sees the exact same speaker as a 4ohm load that drops down to 2 ohms. This runs the amp much harder, and you're far more likely to damage the speaker from underpowering it.
Also, you really can't put too much trust in power amp ratings. There's no standard that manufacturers go by to rate an amps power. This leaves it up to each company to rate them however they see fit.
You have an excellent teaching capability of relative complex things to audiophiles. Life would be great if everybody spoke the same language.
I will listen to this video several times, take notes 📝 and follow the instructions.. Additionally I have Subscribed to the Channel and will make ample time to continue with understanding your Audio University Message… I have Dasey chained a few high powered Cerwin Vega Speakers with lower Powered Amplifiers, example 3-4 speakers on one channel and the same on its second line. Now I have a total of 3 Crown Amplifiers that no longer give out any kind of wattage, although they turn out, I don’t even hear crickets 🦗… local audio stores are being honest and saying they will cost more money to fix then they are worth. I now have 100lbs of Amps that I bought brand new and only used in my Garage converted Studio.. I have no choice but to try and fix them on my own… Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. If anyone that reads this message has one or two trouble shooting ideas I will welcome them. Best regards from NYC… Cheers 🥂
Very impressed with the depth of knowledge and ability to transfer that knowledge in a short time.
Great forum! Clear, concise and professional. I would subscribe twice if I could.
I have a pair of B&W 804 3D3. They recommend a 50-200 watt amp and they mention nothing of continuous power. I used an Anthem STR 200 watt integrated amp and it sounded great. I switched to separates: Anthem STR preamp + 400 watt power amp. The difference is phenomenal. Definitely got extra headroom for the speakers and the dynamics are wayyyyy improved. At first I thought it was overkill but such is not the case. B&Ws are power pigs. The more watts you throw into them the happier they are, so long as you don’t crank it up to the level that they can’t handle.
I've noticed the wattage/speaker calculations for guitar v power amps are completely different. Bass guitarist here, I was thinking about using a power amp with a preamp as an alternative to a guitar specific amp, and the recommendation for guitar amp wattage is less than the wattage of your guitar speakers, and you are expected to be able to max out the volume of your amp without clipping. I don't know why, but nobody ever talks about headroom for guitar amps, but for power amps you're recommended to get the rms wattage of at least double the rms wattage of your speaker, but isn't the peak power rating the "headroom?" If not, then a power amp with 400 watts is basically equivalent to a 200 watt guitar amp because you arent supposed to push a PA to max, but you are for a guitar amp. I'm not criticizing anyone I'm just confused and looking for an answer, if anybody knows I would really appreciate it.
çok iyi net anlatım yapıyorsunuz ve son derece kaliteli içerik üretiyorsunuz tebrikler. Sizlerden Stereo ve Mono arasındaki farkı anlatan uygulamalı bir içerik üremeniz olacak.
Finally someone that understands the power concept. keep in mind that match that goes into this- Peak, peak to peak, RMS powers-
QSC CX254 / 250 watts @ 4 OHMS for Infinity 200 watts (4ohm) speakers. You always want a little head room so you dont get into clipping with classic Infinity's. Just got to show a little restraint on the volume knob.
Phase Linear 400 / Infinity SM150s. The replacement woofers should be delivered today. Need better restraint here.
Good advice , I really appreciate the knowledge you put into these videos. Questions, power Amp, the more turn volume up ,the more power goes to speaker?
Nice Video...but you could also run a amplifier with an equal power rating but put a limiter to ensure the signal doesnt go into clipping
If the amp has "gain" knobs on it you can limit it down to a whisper at full volume from your source.
Thats also a Solution
Some amps are just build in a way that clipping do not happen even if you overload the input.
Dude!!! Thank you for the knowledge!!
I agree with double the RMS speaker power , but 4 times as much seems a bit excessive.
I'm finally building my home theater. I'm buying three used gfa-555s to start. I'm gonna bridge them to my front three speakers.
It's nice to know I wasn't out of my mind.
Biggest 'problem' is that most people don't know when to stop cranking up the system. So many (mostly starting) DJs for instance, have all their channel gain in the red, plus the total output in the red. And yes, while the mixer would have a clean headroom of say 20 dB, you are driving the amp with more than the maximum 775mV/1V/1.2V that provides the continuous, clean, undistorted sound.
Clipping, speakers and power handling explained:
Clipping is the limit of the amplifier not necessarily the speaker. The limit of the speaker could be greater or less than the limit of the amplifier.
In multi way speakers with passive crossovers, power handling is frequency band (and also music band - e.g. Slipknot or Michael Jackson, but that's a related topic on the loudness war and frequency spectrum of different songs) dependent.
The woofer(s) usually handle more power than the midrange and tweeter(s) (at very low frequencies - especially in a ported or horn cabinet, the woofer can flap around without much power which may damage it mechanically).
When you clip an amplifier, it adds harmonics to the music.
Your speaker can't tell if the amp is slightly clipping on music with a wide dynamic range, and this is unlikely to cause damage if the speaker is rated to handle the amplifier. However, playing compressed music and turning up 10, even 20 dB beyond the clip point (this sounds really bad, especially through horn loaded compression drivers!) introduces significant extra harmonics. This adds more power to the midrange and tweeter.
An amplifier that's too large pushed hard is more likely to stress the woofer, though could also stress the midrange and tweeter.
An amplifier that's smaller but pushed into heavy clipping on compressed music can stress the midrange and tweeter but the woofer will probably be fine.
Compressed music that's not clipping can put more stress on drivers than wide dynamic range music that's slightly clipping - at the same peak level.
Choosing a larger amplifier than the speaker's rating allows you to extract the maximum performance from a speaker - ensuring it's only the speaker that's adding noise/colouration/distortion to the signal. You will have to lock the volume control away from your drunk friends.
Choosing a much smaller amplifier is more idiot proof - as long as you are not overloading it with too low an impedance, and you size the midrange and tweeter (or pad them with resistors) to handle crunch city if the amp is heavily clipped at a house party, and you filter out extremely low frequencies that cause the woofer to flap around.
I'd like to add some technical points here.
Speakers are usually not driven to their full capacity even at the same continuous (RMS) power from the Amps running at their full capacity (unclipped). That's because music signal amplitude has lots of ups and downs, unless you are playing a continuous, say 1KHz signal. Subwoofer tends to get more average power than mid and highs. So getting same continuous power speaker as your amps are usually wastage of money. Frequency response of audio amplifier are also not flat. Most amps are rated with their power @ 1KHz frequency, higher or lower than that and you tend to get lower or higher power at output. I'd always pick a Subwoofer rated 60-75% of the Sub Amp's max RMS power. But I'd go for 35-50% for the Mid and high speakers. 25% (4 Times) would be too risky, I'd never go to that lane.
I m agree.
Is it ok to connect 140W 4 Ohms speakers to Center & Surround channels of a home theater amplifier rated at 500W per channel?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you! I subscribed and I am watching your show from Central Texas
Also don't use skinny cables that can't handle the power or distance needed to run your PA. This is something many forget.
And what will/can happen if we use to skinny cables ? The amp/speaker will blow up or what ?
Fire@@K2teknik.
@@guanedits6349 What cables are we talking about, the cables between the amp and the speakers, and/or the power cables to the amp?
Do not get me wrong, there are some power cables out there where if you load them you may get an unacceptable voltage drop to run your amp, but from that to fire is a long way. Speaker cables that is to skinny will also just create an unacceptable voltage drop no fire there.
All sound information can I add the continuous power specification AES2-1984 is only for two hours!
So for a speaker with continuous rating of 500W, one should by an amp between 1000 and 2000watt… in many high-end stores they use class A amps with less than a fourth of the speaker’s rating. In this case even 1/10 with a 50watt class A amp….
instead of adding a higher wattage amp in a lower wattage subwoofer / tweeter, mind aswell have the amp matching wattage to the subwoofer/tweeter to prevent the distortion, clipping, overloading and coil burning and smelling
Can you give similar advice with active speakers?
Thanks for making the video!
At 4:32, you mentioned that the general guideline is to choose an amp that is capable of providing 2x or 4x of the continuous power rating of the speakers. I'm a little bit confused by this. It seems like to me that you are making an assumption that speakers run at continuous power rating sound the best, but in most cases, we listen to speakers with small volume, meaning we don't even need to get to the point of the continuous power rating. For example, for a speaker that has a 50w continuous power handling, I might only need 10w, because it is loud enough for me. In that case, do I still need a 100w or even 200w amp as you suggested?
My rule of thumb is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
@@ronaldcarson4360 A lot of speakers handles 50w continuous power, but I found it is not very easy to find a desktop amp with 100w output per channel.
I recently gotten a 100w speaker @8ohm when the AV Receiver is rated @90w per channel. Should be fine too for normal use.
Right on the money !
Gain on the amplifier turned down to even half does not reduce the wattage coming out of the amp if you still run the amp into clipping. It also depends if the amplifier has a clip limiter in it and what kind of clip limiter. I can run my old crest 8001's, 9001's and 10001's into solid clipping and the built in limiiters never resulted in blown speakers. I run 1,000 watt RMS speakers with 2,000 watt rms amplifier and haven't lost a speaker or sub. But then again, I used to run cerwin vega sl36's and jbl SRX speakers and they let me down more than my bulletproof RCF speakers did.
I agree with this approach. If you’re gonna run twice the power of the RMS speaker wattage then leave that dial cranked all the way up..
Thanks! So i bought an amp that has gain control. If i turn down the gain to 75% which equates to continuous power of speaker- will it be foolproof?
No. Audio systems are rarely fool-proof. There will still be the possibility of overdriving the input of the audio amplifier.
@@AudioUniversity then i will keep an eye on those clipping indicators.thanks.
The volume attenuator knob on the front of the amplifier isn’t linear. 75% of the way up probably will only be 60% of the power. But you’ll only really know for sure if you measure the voltage coming out.
As a sound technician of many years I was taught and would also like to add your amplifier and speakers SHOULD ALWAYS BE TURNED ON LAST!! after everyone else on stage has switched on all their equipment to avoid any sudden surges of signals and popping the drivers, that happend before but it was down to an idiot on stage not following the protocol
Hello
I have questions, can you give me a advise?
My setup right now :
Amplifier : Pioneer SA - 3000 (40 watts per channel into 8Ω)
Speaker : Klipsch R-51M (Power Handling = 85W and sensitivity = 93db)
Is it okay? Please reply my questions 🙏🏻
excellent video i’m using a 800w amp mixer my Speakers recommended an amplifier that is 400w to 750w so if I want to go louder I should get a 750w amp so I’m not pushing too much gain and volume to achieve that wattage? i’m using Martin audio f10 speakers it says 250w AES, 1000W Peak i’m not sure what AES means
True..!! Great video
What is a line out used for. I don't have a preamp out.
this is very subjective and depending on who you talk too will give different advise - an 8 ohm speaker is nominally 8 ohms meaning 20% of the lower impedance curve is 8 Ohms but impedance of an 12" speaker could be as high as 50 ohms as impedance is frequency dependent. The question is how much power is too much - JBL used to say you could go 10x the driver IEC power without burning the driver - but would cause physical damage , an amplifier with enough headroom to handle the transients is correct here but why would you want to turn it down from the amp end. Turn it down from the DSP end and control there . There are no standards here , amp companies power specification is all marketing 25Ms burst power , Pink noise so called RMS we will never know which is the real rating of the amp . 500W amp at 8 ohms output voltage is 63.24V , 1000w @ 4 ohms = 63.24V ... makes for an interesting discussion
Another great video. While I was already aware of most of the content discussed, you delivered it exceptionally well - clearly and concisely. Subscribed!
perfect advice
I'm a low wattage listener. Allthough I built my own powered speakers using a circuit of my own desighn, I don't know what it's truly capable of as I never listen to my stuff loud, it probably doesn't even break 1 watt at the level I listen.
I take your point about headroom and transients, but I would be wary of generally advising use of an amp that has a significantly larger power rating than the speaker. In the hands of an inexperienced operator (especially if they are not familiar with limiters), clamor from clients or audience for "louder, louder" is likely to result in things being turned up until the speaker fails!
It would be useful if there was a simple device that would protect a speaker from overload, or at least warn of this, but I can't offhand think of anything currently available? Maybe a market opportunity for someone?
Back in the 50s many speakers had fuses to prevent actual overheating of the voice coil. It became problematic in professional use so it went away. In most cases amps and speakers are sold with great overkill, so that it’s unlikely that they will be damaged. Of course, the majority of semi-pro systems now use powered speakers with matching amps &speakers as well as limiters.
@@TomCee53 Yes, I remember speaker fuses. As you say, powered speaker systems if designed properly should have built-in limiting to avoid damage from misuse. Of course one CAN use a line level limiter in front of a separate amp/speaker setup, but to get it set appropriately really needs testgear that many people probably don't have access to. I'm pretty much retired from live work these days, but if I were tasked with setting up PA for anything smaller than a stadium-level concert, I'd go with powered speakers.
There is some out there (12 year old kids maybe) that would just grab the volume knob and crank it to 100 but the most of us realize, even in our fancy car radios that it will cause damage. You have a system with an external amp most know the car can overpower the road, so to speak.
Merci pour la video tres instructive, cependant j aimerai noter certains points. La puissance reelle d un aplificateur est trouve en fonction de son rendement donnee en pourcentage, par exemple, un ampli de 1000w peak avec 80 pourcent de rendement donnera une puissance finale de 800watts, ceci dit, utiliser un amplificateur 4 fois plus puissant que la puissance continue du haut-parleur ne sera vraiment pas necessaire a mon avis.Si l ampli est deja 20pourcent plus eleve que la puissance peak, c est deja bien.Ensuite, je conseillerai plutot d utiliser un amplificateur avec le potentiometre tourne a 100/100 et de regeler le niveau d envoi du signal avant d arriver a l ampli. A noter aussi que la charge pour une enceinte basse frequence peut etre differente d une enceinte haute et moyenne frequece.En 8 ans d experience, je ne me souviens pas d avoir fais bruler une enceinte ou un ampli, bien au contraire, j ai eu un meilleur son avec asses de dynamique de cette maniere. eclaire moi si je me trompe.
good advise
Which amplifier is best between Atom 2.5K Pro & Atom 3.5K Pro for playing one sub woofer power rated 2000 watts rms (model number DB SA302D2) ?
If continuos power rating of a speaker is 100 watts..program or music power rating is 200 watts and peak power rating is 400 watts.....that means if 400 watts is applied to the spkr the spkr will burst in short period of time..right. ????then what is meant by this music power rating? ??? In some articles i read that music power rating/program power rating is the powr the spkr can handle in 4 to 6 hours ...whethet it is right or not?
My speaker is rated at 60w continuous. My amp is rated at 450wats which is well above the 4x rule of thumb pairing guide. Will I blow my speakers? Or just keep the volume down and it’ll be fine?
I'm sorry but that seems excessive to me. I give my 200 watt speakers 250 watts but not 4 times their power rating.
Great video 👍
Can you explain sensitivity more? I work for a university that has the old QSControl DSP running in to some Meyer active point source boxes, and the DSP gives the option to change the sensitivity between 1.3 vrms, 3 vrms, 9 vrms, and so on. The lower number gives the higher input level. How do I choose?
This is the sensitivity of the device such as amplifier or mixer and specifies the minimum signal voltage to get the full output of the amplifier. Speakers are measured differently, as the sound level produced by 1 watt at 1 meter distance from the speaker.
Line level devices like fm tuners or cd players usually specify the maximum output before distortion is noticeable.
5:44
So, if I understand correctly, then all I need to do in a "matched" scenario is avoiding increasing the signal? Thanks, then I think I will be good with the rated power (because it will be loud enough for sure) and this way I 100% won't overpower my speakers....................................
Can I connect my 50w 6ohm speakers to my 40w per channel 4ohms amplifier
Yes you can, slightly more powerful amp is better because you a4e able to drive speaker at full volume without distortion from amp at full power (clipping and other stuff ) just dont turn volume gauge all the way up haha, although in your situation you acrually can, because impedance will cripple the current, thus lowering the power so now worries buddy💪😎🤙
Here’s my problem,I have passive speakers as well as active speakers.
I’m using a powered mixer at present time.
What is the proper way I should go about connecting them?
Check out this video, Bob: th-cam.com/video/ltMPK8gN3X0/w-d-xo.html
I'm thinking about getting a 32 inch subwoofer driver that's 6000watts rms and the peak power is 12000 watts tbh and the Sensitivity is 105dB ngl this is sub driver is next level stuff
@@AudioUniversity
Great 👍 thank you
We just brought a Dynacord power amp for church and a month later only one channel works now with sound only coming out of one speaker our piano player accidently switched his keyboard off before we turned off his sound from the mixer any advice on what could of happened and any possible solutions?
Popped a fuse inside amp maybe?
Thanks for the video and efforts put in to it.
However the reality is quite a lot different.
On an average room you only need 4 to 8 watts max for your speakers even if it's an 85db speaker.
All this watts hype are just pure b.s.
All you need to make sure is impedance matching or the closest between the speaker and the amp i.e. if you have a 6ohm speaker then connect to your 4 ohm amp or binding posts instead of 8ohms, 4ohms to 4ohms and 8ohms to 8 ohms (obviously)
Hello.Would It possible to explain signal to noise ratio ? what i am trying to understand is for example if a speakers sensitivity is 90db at 1 watt and lets say i have 2 amplifiers A and B.
Lets say amplifier A is has a signal to noise ratio of 60db at 1watt and amplifier B has a signal to noise ratio of 85db at 1watt given that both amplifiers produce the same 1watt why is it that amplifier B louder or would it be?
No reference continuous | PROGRAM | peak power.
If power greater than 2 * continuous, RMS limitation is highly recommended.
Thermal limit equals program power (2 * continuous)
At 5:55 you stated that square signal can damage speakers. To me this doesn't make sense because square waves occur in music all the time (synths in electronic music, distorted guitars in rock/metal). Having this in mind, I think rule #3 is invalid. Speakers should play distortion just fine, as long as the power handling is not exceeded. Am I wrong? Please explain.
One thing is a distorted effect we find in the music and another thing is physically harming the speaker. The distortion effect many musicians use today is in fact the sound of a "broken" speaker. Someone once, some time ago, damaged their guitar amp and liked the sound of it and voila! But of course nobody wants to damage their expensive equimpent just to get that effect. So, the effect and the gear was engineered in a way that it presents no harm. Also in the mastering phase, the levels are "polished" in a way that it's playable on a wide range of speakers without presenting any issues.
Basically, when the signal sent is too much for the speaker to handle, it causes certain problems that can make it blow. That's uncontrolled distortion and you definitely dont't want that so the rule very valid. It's important to match the equipment and set proper gain staging.
@@katarinamatic1011 Let's say I play a sine wave sample. I monitor it using an oscilloscope. I max out my amp. Will this give a different oscilloscope reading in comparison to digital distortion effect?
When you record a square wave the harmonics (above the audio band ) are filtered out, when an amplifier goes into clipping the harmonics that go to the speaker can go up to several MHz which effectively turns your voice coils into heating elements, this is the principle of induction heating, except an induction heater has a high power, high mass coil compared to the workpiece been heated but in a speaker the mass of metal (magnet) is too great to heat up and the (voice) coil heats up instead!
I do have a 90's Kenwood with 100w/8ohms (100w fr, 20w sur. Frequency response 20hz to 60 Khz. Need some speakers and I not sure what should I buy. Can I buy two speakers that can handle the 100w???
Looking right now at two different sets of speakers. One set with 140w, 8ohm and the other pair with 100w, 6ohms.
I’m a #1 country music songwriter and have also worked as an independent artist and recording engineer for 20 years. I am fortunate to have near perfect hearing and have never suffered with tinnitus or frequency loss (knocking on wood). I have NEVER been able to hear any more clarity above 44.1/16. While some of my friends have gone completely bonkers with sample rates I’ve never recorded above 48hz/24bit…And actually prefer 44.1.
Young music makers listen up. The music is where it’s at. It’s where it’s always been. Stop polishing turds with glossy tech. You’re just wasting RAM and bounce time.
How lovely to hear someone echoing common sense!
Number 1?
@@dinorockwell7670, only number 1 can write 48hz/24 instead of 48khz/24. And only number 1 records in 44.1 khz for video clips in which the software have to up convert to 48khz during final rendering.
Btw, the minimum bitrate for Dolby Atmos is 48khz, everything below has to be up converted 48khz.
>44.1kHz has its uses though, mostly for sampling high-frequency stuff like cymbals and hats for use in drum machines, as the higher sample rate reduces aliasing in the highest frequencies - but you might as well transmux it to a lower sample rate AFTER you record it, since you avoided the aliasing in the recording stage to save on resource use for sure, unless you're about to pitch shift it down a couple octaves or something (obviously doesn't apply to country, but I've made a few decent rave stabs/synths from pitch shifting ride cymbals, snares into kicks, triangles into glokenspiels, etc.). could also be useful if you have a plugin/hardware unit that doesn't provide oversampling but supports higher sample rates, again to avoid aliasing and other artifacting due to pitch shifting
But wait, can't we just hear to a max of 20 kHz?
Hi Sir, i do have str-dn1060 sony receiver front speakers are 6 ohm whereas center and surround speakers are 8 ohm . Is this a problem? Usually the front speakers and center are louder than my surround speakers..any advice bear in mind my configuration is 7.1
There's more to it than that. if you looks at the specs for your speakers, you should find another ohm rating for the speaker. Its the lowest possible resistance the speaker can show the amplifier. That's the important one because the lower the resistance, the harder the amp has to work. So, if you just look at 6 and 8 ohms only, the 6 ohm speaker should be more difficult to drive than the 8. However, if you look at the lowest possible resistance, that picture can change quite a bit. That's because the 6 and 8 ohm ratings are averages. The amount of resistance a speaker actually shows the amp is based on frequency. If you take an 8 ohm rating, for example, since the 8 ohms is an average, there is only 1 frequency or note, that when played will show the amp an 8 ohm load. Any frequencies above your actual 8 ohm frequency will be more resistive 9, 10 11 ohms, etc.. Any frequencies lower, will show less resistance. If you now get that 2nd ohm rating I mentioned above, you can use it to figure out what speaker is harder to drive. For example, lets say your 6 ohm speaker can drop down to 4 ohms, and your 8 ohm speaker can drop down to 2 ohms, the 8 ohm speaker is going to be much harder to drive. If you never looked at the 2nd ohm rating.
As for your specific problem, I can't give you an exact answer because I don't have all the information. I can give you my best guess, and I'm pretty sure it will be correct, I just can't guarantee it. Its very common in a home theater system to have your 2 main speakers overpower the center. In most cases, its not a volume issue, its a bandwidth issue. The further you move away from a speaker, the more volume you lose. You also lose frequency extremes. The highs are not as high, and the lows are not as low. That's what's called loosing bandwidth. Having 2 speakers in the same room playing at the same volume as just 1 increases your bandwidth. You still lose volume and frequency extremes when moving away from the speakers, but not nearly as much as you do with 1 speaker. You're asking a single, smaller speaker to give you the same bandwidth as 2 larger speakers. You can buy a bigger center channel and play it louder, or do something else that very few people consider. Your center channel is a mono channel. It doesn't have different information going to a left and right speaker. In my opinion, the easiest way to deal with your problem is to get a pair of bookshelf speakers similar to your mains. Put one on each side of your screen. Since you're feeding both speakers with the exact same signal, you'll float a perfect center image exactly like if you were to put 1 center channel behind the middle of your screen. Using 2 speakers will give you about the same loss in bandwidth as your 2 main speakers. Right now you have about half that for the center. That's why its so noticeable.
Exactly the vid I needed. Thank you.
Speaker cone X-Mas versus frequency versus power is of utmost importance. A 200Watt speaker can easily be destroyed with a 20 watts signal rich in 40 hertz .
nice content !
Continuous power capacity? Where do you see that in spec sheet?
The "Continuous Power" is rather quite often referred to as "RMS Watts" on the spec sheets of audio gear- and in my experience, more so actually than the former. He didn't mention this little tidbit in the video unfortunately, but yeah: (Continuous Power = RMS Watts). 👍
here's the thing,while these rules are true,there is another thing not mentioned here,anyone can hear amplifier clipping very easily and turn it down,but i;m not sure how many people can hear a voice coil getting hot before it;s too late,hence,I'd say go for a big amplifier only if you really know your equipment and have limiters set for peak and average,with a lot of care and trial,then yes,the extra headroom for dynamics can be very nice,but otherwise it could be dangerous
Oh, I run into a lot of people who think you can plug any speaker into ay type of unit ignoring the impedance (expected circuit load). They forget crossovers, etc. "But this speaker is bigger!" No, no, no.
another tip, dont ever give 2ohm speakers set (4x8ohm speakers per example) to a 4Ohm amp, the amp need to be 2Ohm stable and these are rare like the montarbo 458
Most use for pro rigs 1 ohm stable amplifiers to use a set of 8 8ohm speakers with it and so on
or for 20 speakers you just wire them in series to give the amp 4ohms
Yow, i really feel this was to answer a question i had in a comment a had in one of you videos, whether yes or no, i really appreciate this video man.
I really do understand the math and calculations. I think i just want someone to verify something i wanna try with the speakers that I have. So feel free to answer the question. Your videos are great man and its helping me a lot learn about the theory and science in these.
Bueno, If i put my 500watts at 8ohms speaker to a 500watts 4ohms amplifier, the speakers will get 250watts if i let the amplifier "run at 500watts" (theoretically speaking, because you want your aplifier to operate lower that its maximum power). If that is true, would it be possible to a "theoretical" 1000 watts amplifier (or greater) so that the speaker can produce 500watts of power as the specs said?
You may ask why would i try that scenario? Its because 8ohms amplifiers are not available commercially and it would cost double buying it online. So im looking for alternatives here. Right now, i am using an 8 ohm amplifier but since they are US made, they run at 110 volts and it is such a hussle to bring AVR everytime we use the sound system. So yeah, thats the situation. Oh i am from the Philippines for your reference.
Speakers and amps should come with “smart” safety features. Circuitry in both amps and speaker should easily be able to clip before damage is done. These days it should not be up to the average DJ or hobbiest to calculate it.
Many do, The featured qsc amps have limmiters built in, so you can set it to the RMS rating of the speaker you're driving. With three maps. Agressive, normal or minimal limitting
Rule 3 is nowadays not really a thing anylonger, I have never seen any professional (and even some cheap) Amplifier which has no limiter built-in to avoid clipping in the last 30 years or so. Without clipping, you can match speaker power to the amp power (800Watts Speaker on 800Watts Sinus (DIN in Europe) or RMS Amp).
It will never clip/distort due to the limiter and never overheat the voice coil with giving 1000 Watts to an 500 Watts speaker for longer periods of time. You can hear clipping, but not an overheating of the speaker. Of course, if the "max"-LED is lit up continously, you have an underpowered system, but at least no damage is done to the speakers.
Clipping can't be heard with some alcohol drunk, that is basically the death of all cheap "DJ-Sets" with an cheap, non-limiting Amp and cheap speakers (and even some good speakers) - they will be destroyed after the gig, at least the tweeters on 2 or 3-way systems.
So can I put a 2400 watt amp on a 600 watt speaker, just keep it down?
Dont to it.
Yup...learned this lesson the hard way back in the day. Had two dual voice coil Diamond Audio 10s in my car...wired them all up so it was a continuous truckload of wattage (1200W continuous, 600Wx2, IIRC) and it was DEAFENING. lol Took one of the subs out and forgot to rewire the coils and blew the amp. Womp womp. Lesson learned. lol
Amp big as affordable. Never ever had a problem with too much power. If you blow speakers, it is because you have not studied enough. Also, 50 dollars will get an o-scope good enough for gain levels on audio.
Sure, but how many beginning audio engineers know what an oscilloscope is, let alone how to use one?
Why isn’t anyone talking about Xmax ?
Which will reach the threshold before the coils give up..
Great video, but bruh! Please tell me you use that speaking voice professionally for a high salary! Seriously. You’re a natural. 😳
Thanks!
amazing video
very informative and at 65 I even understand
I live in the Philippines and there are no laws here to prevent me from going full blast with my system I have a 1000w power amp 1000w intergrated amp and passive 1000w 2 ways, 8 ch audio mixer, EQ, xover, bass enhancer, power controller all made by Kevler it's very loud can be heard from several blocks away
I plan on adding another power amp and 2 more speakers, so they can hear it in Hong Kong 😂
Rocking the house.
Haha it's More fun in the Philippines
@@janoy9323 opo
5:16 but 99% people dont have amplifiers that show how my power out is delivered.
Okay, so it you have a speaker rated at 700W RMS (8ohm) its better to match it with an amplifier that is rated @1400W RMS at 8ohm up to 2800W RMS @8ohm but don't over drive the speaker!
2x ~ 4x at the rated 8ohms as an example.
18" 700W RMS 1000W PMPO (peak music power)
what about headphones?
00:23 my man sounding like Rod Serling
so if i dont know this i shuld not be a sound engineer?
and shuld all sound engineers know and onderstand ohms law is it Amature to not onderstand it fully?
Most people don't use over 20w amp power cause they don't listen much over 90db.
That’s completely dependent on the speaker sensitivity, impedance, and listening distance.
wait... a square wave can damage my amplifyer?
Yeah, if could you please go back in time 15 years and tell my college roommate this, that would be great.
well ngl no cap my subwoofer peak power is 6400Watts and the RMS Watts is 1600watts and the db is 138db and it's a dual 18 inch subwoofer
That's in a VERY well designed box that takes FULL advantage of your sub's resonate frequency, AND this is no doubt, in a car, or SUV, or some kind of vehicle, that's definitely NOT any home sub system you're describing there, that's for sure!
Brooooo why did this take so looong😢…..
Short answer- go with powered speakers lol
Too oversimplified! A Hi Fi speaker is not "A" speaker, it's a speaker system, usually a woofer and tweeter or also a mid-range. They never have the same power rating, always less for the tweeter, which gets damaged by the added high frequencies of clipping bass. The impedance rating is nominal and often varies drastically over the range of frequencies, so for the amplifier current rating, only the lowest point matters, not the nominal rating. Amplifier peak ratings seldom are much more than their transient rating unless the power supply is unusually skimpy, so it will not be able to supply the peaks the speaker can handle. Those peaks mostly are bass because the ear is much less sensitive to low bass. Low bass therefore is typically louder. The extreme highs in music are lower or shorter duration, so the tweeter is less challenged by normal music. Heavy metal fans be forewarned. Good audio requires powerful amps, more than the speakers can continuously handle. Most speaker damage occurs while listening under the influence resulting in levels that violate OSHA. There is no magic combination that is idiot proof except for integrated speaker-amplifier designs that have built in limiters that won't allow you to melt the voice coils.
don't connect speakers with the unit on. don't connect sources with the unit on. lower the volume before changing sources...these 3 rules trump the 3 you talk about and will damage speakers easier than anything you talk about.
Boring
Cheers.