Feedback, speaker proximity and the effect of wattage
Home > Home Recording Forum > Live Sound Reinforcement > Feedback, speaker proximity and the effect of wattage
Posted on Jul 09, 2008 02:23 pm
Gear Addict
Member Since: Jul 09, 2008
If you need to set up closer to your speakers than you would like or should, does having more headroom available in your amps make any difference? For example would a 1200 watt PA be more likely to feed back than a 3000 watt PA if they were both set to the same level? Not the level on the board, but the actual level of decibels.
[ Back to Top ]
Jul 09, 2008 04:45 pm Not a function of wattage. It's a function of gain structure and EQ.
Having more wattage does allow for more headroom as long as you are exceeding the RMS max of your rig.
Having to much wattage leads to burning up your speaker drivers. having to little leads to clipping early, and square waves.
Check some of the post here about RMS and wattage. We give all of the math formulas you need to find the right amp for your rig.
So, to answer your question, No. It makes no difference.
Jul 09, 2008 08:35 pm Great, thanks. Good info. If you have higher wattage allowing you to have your gain settings lower for the same volume level does that help you?
Jul 09, 2008 08:39 pm Ah! A thinker. Yes, it does. That allows you to lower the signal to noise ratio.
Translation, a cleaner mix. Any small hums or pops, are barely audible when you run a lower gain structure.
Jul 10, 2008 01:01 pm I'm with you on the hum, pops etc, but how about feedback? Seems to me like it would help but I could use some assurance before chucking more money into the pit.
Jul 10, 2008 05:07 pm A lower gain structure helps with feedback. A 31 band EQ helps even more.
Remember that it's the number of mic's divided by the distance to the PA that determines gain.
By having a lower gain, and a graphic EQ, you can eliminate just about all feedback.
Jul 10, 2008 07:23 pm Thank you Ron, you have been very helpful. I will definately do as you suggested and read more posts.
Shawn
Jul 10, 2008 07:25 pm I meant Rob. Sorry
