newb question here

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If you take two drivers that are the same type and make i guess say 500watts and put them in a cabinet. would you have a 1000watt speaker or just 500watt?
never understood how you add them together especially a cab with multiple types of drivers with an active crossover. I.E a cab with one 10" 500watt driver and a 1inch horn thats 100watt
 
You are confused with the meaning of those wattage labels on amps, drivers, speakers, etc.

Most of the time those numbers are useless and a lie. They are there just to fool those who do not know and fond of big numbers.

There is a unique relationship between Watt and Decibel. In simple words, 1000W doesn't sound twice as loud as 500W.

If Watts represents "power handling", then it can be the power before the device get burnt. So in term of sound quality (distortion for example) you may want to turn off the device before it gets to its full "rating".

There are many situations and formula in effect. You can find it on the net. Don't expect a short answer to explain it all. But you may start with knowing that there are differences between:

1) Driver power handling capability
2) Speaker power handling capability
3) Actual power delivered by amp+speaker
4) Maximal power that can be delivered by amp+speaker before any of amp/speaker get burnt
5) Maximal power can be delivered before the amp reaches certain level of distortion
6) And many more.
 
If an amp has enormous power, most of the time (most design) it will deliver more power to lower load. You can see in practice where the sound is "louder" when you parallel the two 500W woofers (because the impedance is halved) than if you put the two 500W woofers in series (where impedance is doubled)
 
Are you asking if 2 speaker drivers with 500 watts power handling each are crossed over to handle different frequencies? Then the answer is 500 watts.

If they are producing the same frequencies then it depends on how they are wired.
Series= twice the power handling at twice the impedance.
Parallel= half the power handling at half the impedance, but with a +6 db gain in efficiency.
 
No parallel is 250 with 6 db gain in efficiency.
.
No.

If you ignore efficiency then its twice Pmax for // wiring, and just Pmax for series.
I.e. 1kW at 4R parallel, and 500W series at 16R, wrt to a single 500W 8R driver. 6db gain in parallel. Volt drop across each 8R remains the same, regardless. Current is all that changes. Simple as that.
 
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Soo.. Being a newb far behind on the knowledge currve here learning as a i go along. Are there certain wiring application that you would or wouldnt use parallel or series in. I guesss a better question might be what's most commonly used in large p.a sytem such as such as jbl cabinets or dare i say it a funktion one dance stack. Lastly an recomendations on sites or book to read up on. I feel with the reseatch ive been doing online is very spotty at best here and there. Most of the time it takes a while for me to decode some of the more techincal post.
 
im not much of a PA guy, but cabs with 4 drivers are likely to combine 2 branches of a parallel circuit, each with 2 drivers in series. I think most PA is active filtered, above a certain size or price. The interweb is your friend, much info. Searching threads here will usually spit out reams of interesting reading.
 
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