Powered Mixer Output Watts

On Thu, 5 Jun 2008 06:33:01 -0700 (PDT), B11 <[email protected]> wrote:

>If I have a situation to use a 200 watts powered mixer to output to a
>speaker system of 100 watts max, what should I do? Keep the output
>level of the mixer at about half?

Those numbers mean very little. As with any system, don't turn it up
so loud it distorts. Your ears will tell you when the speakers are
getting unhappy.

Laurence Payne wrote:

> B11 <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >If I have a situation to use a 200 watts powered mixer to output to a
> >speaker system of 100 watts max, what should I do? Keep the output
> >level of the mixer at about half?
>
> Those numbers mean very little. As with any system, don't turn it up
> so loud it distorts. Your ears will tell you when the speakers are
> getting unhappy.

Or your eyes, when the magic smoke appears.

I have heard of JBLs in the 70s actually catching fire when the amps
driving them went 'DC'. Flame Linears maybe ?

Graham

On Jun 5, 10:13 am, Laurence Payne <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Those numbers mean very little.  As with any system, don't turn it up
> so loud it distorts.  Your ears will tell you when the speakers are
> getting unhappy.

Thanks for the response.

The mixer is Yamaha EMX312SC - 4 ohm to 8 ohm - 190 to 300 watts. Can
this be connected to SIMA speaker selector SIMA SSW-L4EX with input
capacity of 100 watts - which drives 4 speakers of 40 watts each.

As the mixer has a higher capacity, I am trying to figure out if I
could connect the mixer to the speaker selector.

In general, can I connect a higher capacity mixer to a lower capacity
speaker? If so, what should NOT be done to damage the mixer or the
speaker?

Thanks again.

--B11

B11 <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>The mixer is Yamaha EMX312SC - 4 ohm to 8 ohm - 190 to 300 watts. Can
>this be connected to SIMA speaker selector SIMA SSW-L4EX with input
>capacity of 100 watts - which drives 4 speakers of 40 watts each.

The speaker power ratings are meaningless. The speaker selector rating IS
meaningful... if you apply more than 100 watts to it (and whether that
is real "RMS" watts or fake "continuous program" watts is a question the
data sheet will answer), the resistors in it will be damaged.

>As the mixer has a higher capacity, I am trying to figure out if I
>could connect the mixer to the speaker selector.

The speaker selector is a funny thing. Why do you want to use the speaker
selector? Are you actually trying to build a distributed system here?

>In general, can I connect a higher capacity mixer to a lower capacity
>speaker? If so, what should NOT be done to damage the mixer or the
>speaker?

The amp will have extensive protection that will make it hard to damage.
The speaker will not, but you will hear the speaker breaking up before it
is damaged. The speaker selector, on the other hand, will overheat and melt
down if it has to dissipate too much power. Those things throw series
resistors on speakers so that the amp does not see too low a load impedance.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey wrote:

> you will hear the speaker breaking up before it
> is damaged.

You reckon ? Ahem ! <speaks from experience>

Graham

On Jun 5, 11:16 am, [email protected] (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
>
> >As the mixer has a higher capacity, I am trying to figure out if I
> >could connect the mixer to the speaker selector.
>
> The speaker selector is a funny thing.  Why do you want to use the speaker
> selector?  Are you actually trying to build a distributed system here?

The speaker selector and the speakers are already in place in an event
hall. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about them... Now, I have to
use a Yamaha mixer for a performance. So, I am trying to figure out if
it's safe to use the mixer at low levels...

Sometime ago, I remember to have seen a posting (forgot the group)
where the poster has said that the speakers get damagaed more often by
low-power inputs than high-power inputs. Don't know if that's true.

--B11

B11 <[email protected]> wrote:
>On Jun 5, 11:16=A0am, [email protected] (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
>>
>> >As the mixer has a higher capacity, I am trying to figure out if I
>> >could connect the mixer to the speaker selector.
>>
>> The speaker selector is a funny thing. =A0Why do you want to use the speak=
>er
>> selector? =A0Are you actually trying to build a distributed system here?
>
>The speaker selector and the speakers are already in place in an event
>hall. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about them... Now, I have to
>use a Yamaha mixer for a performance. So, I am trying to figure out if
>it's safe to use the mixer at low levels...

Anything with one of those switchers is probably not reliable in any
circumstances, so you might as well just go and do it.

You may want to convince the hall to install a real 70V system some
time, though.

>Sometime ago, I remember to have seen a posting (forgot the group)
>where the poster has said that the speakers get damagaed more often by
>low-power inputs than high-power inputs. Don't know if that's true.

Yes, if you clip the amplifier, the resulting high frequency trash will
damage the tweeters.

The solution for this is that when it starts to sound bad, you turn it down.
Your ears will tell you long before it becomes catastrophic.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey wrote:

> You may want to convince the hall to install a real 70V system some
> time, though.

As if that's likely !

Nice for voice announcements - music gets destroyed however.

Graham

B11 wrote:

> [email protected] (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> >
> > >As the mixer has a higher capacity, I am trying to figure out if I
> > >could connect the mixer to the speaker selector.
> >
> > The speaker selector is a funny thing. Why do you want to use the speaker
> > selector? Are you actually trying to build a distributed system here?
>
> The speaker selector and the speakers are already in place in an event
> hall. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about them... Now, I have to
> use a Yamaha mixer for a performance. So, I am trying to figure out if
> it's safe to use the mixer at low levels...

At least at low levels you won't melt the contacts in the speaker selector.


> Sometime ago, I remember to have seen a posting (forgot the group)
> where the poster has said that the speakers get damagaed more often by
> low-power inputs than high-power inputs. Don't know if that's true.

What they meant is damaged by under-powered amps. There is some truth in this
and it's complicated but as long as you're not going remotely loud it's not
going to be a problem.

Graham

B11 wrote:

> The speaker selector and the speakers are already in place in an event
> hall. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about them... Now, I have to
> use a Yamaha mixer for a performance. So, I am trying to figure out if
> it's safe to use the mixer at low levels...

Perfectly safe. What would be risky would be a 500 watt mixer that you
knew could produce a certain volume level with suitably matched
speakers, and you tried to get that same level out of the installed 40
watt speakers. Common sense should prevail here.

> Sometime ago, I remember to have seen a posting (forgot the group)
> where the poster has said that the speakers get damagaed more often by
> low-power inputs than high-power inputs. Don't know if that's true.

That's a possibility, not a steadfast rule. The idea here is that with
an amplifier which is underpowered FOR THE VOLUME YOU'RE TRYING TO
ACHIEVE, pushing it too hard will cause it to clip. This will pump more
power into the speakers than they'd get with normal music or even a
steady single frequency test tone. If the speakers can't take that
power, they can be damaged.

A more typical "damaging" situation is where you have a 100 watt
amplifier connected to 100 watt speakers and you're trying to push it to
the volume of a 500 watt amplifier into speakers that can handle that
power. The amplifier is underpowered, sure - underpowered not for the
speakers, but for the volume you had hoped to get, but won't.



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