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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: Noobie's Speaker Questions

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So I'm looking at some speakers, just trying to get an idea of what the hell I'm getting, and I look at the specs.

What do these words even mean?

600 watts peak power
Frequency response: 50Hz - 20kHz
Woofer: 8" woofer, 1.5" voice coil, 30 oz. magnet
Inputs: ¼", Banana
Horn: Piezo 7.5" x 3" horn
Tweeter: 2 Piezo
Impedance: 8 ohms
Sensitivity: 95 ±2dB (1W@1M)
 
geposted Fri 21 Feb 14 @ 3:23 pm
Oh dear. If you see the word piezo on any speaker specifications, run away! They tend to be used on only the cheapest nastiest speakers.

As for the rest of the specifications, you can easily find explanations of what they mean via Google.
 
Yes I could search these things on google, but I'd honestly prefer asking people who I can trust to know what they are talking about, like experienced users on this site, rather than someone on yahoo answers.
 
So I'm looking at some speakers, just trying to get an idea of what the hell I'm getting, and I look at the specs.

What do these words even mean?

600 watts peak power
Frequency response: 50Hz - 20kHz
Woofer: 8" woofer, 1.5" voice coil, 30 oz. magnet
Inputs: ¼", Banana
Horn: Piezo 7.5" x 3" horn
Tweeter: 2 Piezo
Impedance: 8 ohms
Sensitivity: 95 ±2dB (1W@1M)


600 watts peak power, the standard way of measuring speaker power handling is R.M.S. if a product shows a PMPO peak music power output or PMO it's a Mickey Mouse product.

look up RMS Vs PMO or PMPO


Frequency response, the range of frequencies it can handle measured in Hertz, this is pretty standard, big subs go down to 30ish \Hz

Woofer, the dimensions of the big speaker. voice coil the size of the wire coil that drives the speaker

Input 1/4" (jack) (like the big version of a headphone connection) Banana <search banana plug> a another type is XLR or SpeedCon

Impedance an electrical term for how difficult it is for electrical signals to go in and back out made up from the resistive component and the reactive component, required for rig building

Sensitivity I can't remember.

Wikipedia should offer more info
 
The sensitivity is the efficiency of the speaker. How good it is at converting the input signal (voltage) to output (sound) without wasting too much energy.

Normally the spec states how many decibels will be produced for a 1 watt input at a distance of 1 metre. For a PA speaker you should be looking for figures up around the 99dB area. The lower the figure, the less volume it'll produce for the same input vs a speaker with a high sensitivity.

When comparing frequency responses make sure a +/- dB figure is also stated. +/-3dB is a standard figure.

What that means is the stated frequencies sit within that dB range - they don't vary too much. If the response is +/- 10dB then it's not so good. If it's not stated at all, then chances are it's so bad they don't even like to admit what it is!


In summary: If the inputs are on 1/4" jack or banana sockets then it's a cheap/nasty speaker. If it only states peak power, ditto. If it has piezo horns, ditto. Low sensitivity, ditto. A frequency response without a +/- figure, beware.

Google tells me you were looking at Technical Pro VRTX8 speakers at around $40 each. My advice? Don't do it. Save up.
 
$40 lol, you be better off humming your tunes through a drainpipe
 
According to the manufacturers web site it's a "professional loudspeaker that will fulfill your big sound needs in a mid to large sized venue" and it has a "bone crushing low-end". Pull the other one, it's got bells on. :-)
 
If you're a borrower maybe :)
 
xNS5x wrote :
So I'm looking at some speakers, just trying to get an idea of what the hell I'm getting, and I look at the specs.

What do these words even mean?

600 watts peak power
Frequency response: 50Hz - 20kHz
Woofer: 8" woofer, 1.5" voice coil, 30 oz. magnet
Inputs: ¼", Banana
Horn: Piezo 7.5" x 3" horn
Tweeter: 2 Piezo
Impedance: 8 ohms
Sensitivity: 95 ±2dB (1W@1M)



Okay first is Peak power so that means the speaker can take a load of 600 watts usually at a ms or a few milliseconds. (there is really not standard on how to test and present these figures. so that means that it is 300 watts program and 150 watts continous. Meaning it continously needs 150 watts to work properly with out failure and it can take sustained 300 watts of of abuse with the uber rare occurrence of 600 watts.

Frequency response is what frequency of signal it will respond to and produce something that you can hear. (again there is no real standard in this, doesn't mean it will sound great just for the record, it just means it can reproduce sound at those frequencys

Woofer is basically just giving you the size and specs of the speaker and the weight of the magnet.

Input means basically you have those nasty banana clips that you can google to see what they are and the pretty much standard 1/4 though I may wish to say speakon is more of a standard these days or xlr if its an active speaker.

Piezo basically means a cheap piece of doo doo. RUN.... Away...

Impedance is basically the resistance so its saying 8 ohms, if you daisy chained this speaker (if it has 2 1/4th inputs, they would be now both 4ohms.

Sensitivity is saying well that there is a plus or minus error of two from the 95 so it could be 97 or could be 93 in their product, based off of input data. Not really sure what the M means could be minute could be Millisecond this part confuses me because it seems not complete data data the W is watt so it is giving these ratings with a 1 watt per x amount of time.. Personally I wouldn't have kept reading the specs after I saw piezo to be honest.

Bottom line is don't expect any thunderous bass out of this, and don't expect it to be very loud and clear in its audio reproducing abilities.
 
Minor correction mike, if you daisy chained 2 of these speakers their combined impedance would be 4 ohm, the individual impedance is fixed.
 
locodog wrote :
Minor correction mike, if you daisy chained 2 of these speakers their combined impedance would be 4 ohm, the individual impedance is fixed.


Thanks.. Yes loco you are correct. the combined impedance would be 4 ohms at that point. I think I need to sleep more.. but more sleep means less music to listen to..
 
Speakers will work just fine under their rated continuous wattage. So, you can run it all day up to 150 watts with a sine wave. Program material has larger peaks and valleys then a sine wave. It give the voice coil cooling time. This is why you can run music at the program wattage.

Sensitivity is the decibel measured at a certain wattage and distance (usually 1 watt at 1 meter). So, if you ran 1 watt into the speaker, it would be 97db one meter from the speaker. If you ran it at 100 watts, then it would be higher decibels at one meter, or the same decibels at a farther distance.

The range in the sensitivity is how loud across the different frequency limits of that speaker. Usually the upper middle of its range is loudest. The lower number is most likely down in the lower frequencies.
 


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