General Speaker Facts and Applications

- It’s better to use more than the minimum. 2 speakers is louder, clearer and cleaner sounding than one.

- When driven to full power limit, speaker coils heat up causing thermal compression. This wastes almost half the amp power

- When 2 speakers are placed together, they will couple acoustically, becoming more efficient - this means that 2 speakers driven side by side with 100W total input (50W each) will be LOUDER than a single, identical speaker driven with 200W.

- 12” woofers with compression drivers give the best sound for vocals

- 15” woofers are good for disco cab, but lack mid for vocals

- Compression drivers needed for longer throw. Bullet and piezo tweeters are short throw only.

- The more different signals you put through a speaker, the less clarity you will get. Active crossovers help by preventing bass signals reaching the high/mid cabs

- In big venues, use some short throw cabs to fill in the front, and longer throw cabs higher up for the back of the room

- If replacing drive units in cabs, mending cables or connecting via binding post terminals take care to maintain correct phase (+ goes to +, - goes to -). One woofer out of phase will lose all the bass. The whole rig will sound ‘wrong’.

- Bass units should be on the floor for best low end

- Tweeters should be slightly above the audiences ears

- To get the most bass from small cabs place them against walls or in corners


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