Longer Lengths; Speaker Impedances - Mackie FRS-1300 Owner's Manual

conductors and smaller Metric WG numbers = smaller
conductors. The Metric WG is equal to ten times the
nominal conductor diameter in millimeters.

Longer Lengths

For cable lengths over 200 feet / 60 m at 8 ohms,
and over 100 feet / 30 m at 4 ohms, the conductor sizes
needed for less than 0.5 dB power losses are rarely prac-
tical for physical and cost reasons.
As a practical compromise for these situations the
recommended conductor gauge is 10 AWG or 25 metric.

Speaker Impedances

A speaker's impedance varies with frequency. For
example, it may be 4 ohms at 500 Hz, and 6 ohms at 120
Hz. What you need to know is the average (or nominal)
impedance across the speaker's frequency range. This
will be printed somewhere on the cabinet, or in the
specification section of the missing manual.
If you're just dealing with one speaker per channel,
then make sure that the average impedance is greater
than or equal to 2 ohms.
In bridged-mono mode, make sure that your speaker
impedance is greater than or equal to 4 ohms.
If you're driving an assortment of speakers, you have
to make sure that the total impedance does not go below
these same levels. There are two basic ways of linking
multiple speakers: series and parallel. The following
sections show how to make the connections and how to
work out the total impedance:
Series
"Series" means that the positive amp output connects
to the first speaker's positive terminal, the first speak-
er's negative terminal connects to the second speaker's
positive terminal, the second speaker's negative termi-
nal goes to the amp's negative output. Series connec-
tions are not normally used in PA applications because
it ruins the amplifier's ability to damp (control) the
speakers. The other snag: if one speaker goes out, they
all do. The audience may not appreciate this, and things
could get ugly fast.
Doing load calculations with series configurations
is easy — just add the loads. For instance, two 4-ohm
speakers in series, equals 8 ohms (4 + 4 = 8).
Parallel
"Parallel" means that the positive amp output con-
nects to the positive terminals of all the speakers,
and the negative amp output connects to the negative
terminals of all the speakers. If one speaker opens in a
parallel configuration, the others will still work, but the
load will change. That lets you breathe a little easier
(the show will go on), except that you may have a dead
speaker and not even know it.
Calculating parallel loads is also easy, as long as each
speaker has the same value — just divide the value by
the number of speakers.
For example, four 8-ohm speakers, connected in par-
allel, will equal 2 ohms (8 / 4 = 2).
If the parallel loads aren't all the same, things gets a
little more complicated, but nothing that you can't do
with a simple calculator. The total impedance (Z
given by the following formula, where Z
the impedances of your speakers.
Z T =
1 + 1
Z 1 Z 2
There are other, more complicated configurations, like
series-parallel (using a combination of series and paral-
lel links to arrive at a desired load) and parallel configu-
rations of unmatched loads (usually not recommended).
But rather than get too deep into this, let's just summa-
rize the basics, as they apply to you and your amp:
• The lower the speaker impedance, the more
power can be put out by the amplifier.
• Driving lower impedance speakers makes the
amplifier work harder and heat up quicker.
• Do not connect a total impedance of under
2 ohms per channel in stereo and mono modes.
• Do not connect a total impedance of under
4 ohms in bridged mono mode.
• Connecting speakers in series or parallel can
drastically alter their frequency response.
• Consider using multiple amplifiers rather than
overloading one.
• Reduce the low-frequency output by engaging
the low cut filter.
• Never plug the amplifier outputs into anything
except speakers (unless you have an outboard
box designed to accept speaker-level levels).
• Be careful in bridged mono mode, as both
speaker wires are live. In this mode, do not con-
nect the speaker wires to any external device
which is grounded.
) is
T
, Z and Z are
1 2 3
1
+ 1
+ . . .
Z 3
Owner's Manual
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