Which Setup Would Sound Better?

[alhurd7]

For a band setup for small venues (150 or so) Which will sound better?

1) 2 EV 15" plus Horn with Crown 1500 Watt in Bridge Mode at 4 ohm, thus 750 watts per speaker.

2) 2 EV 15" plus Horn and 2 Yamaha 15" plus Horn with Crown 1500 running in Stereo 4 Ohm load at 525 Watts per side. (262 watts per speaker)

I do not have the Yamaha's yet, but was curious if the sound would be better with 4 speakers and less wattage or just stick with the 2 speakers.

I am probably pushing these EVs a little as initial rating was 200 watts, but I did change out the woofers for 400 watt rating. (Carvins)

With just the EVs, in Bridge, I have the Crown at 3/4 output.

Thanks for any feedback!
AL

 

[bear]

The more surface area that is radiating the better - in general terms.

Regardless of what you run, you need to protect the "horn" (you did not say what that was) from clipping and over powering.

Generally speaking running a soft knee limiter at the output side of your board, and before the power amp is a darn good idea for live music. The trick is to NOT clobber the limiter and cause excess compression of the sound. But that is better than clipping the amp and making distortion and blowing speakers.

Also you should not mix and match speakers of different types running on the same amplifier - it can cause weird loads and cause destruction of the amp and speakers. Paralleled identical speakers is ok.

In general...

_-_-bear

 

[alhurd7]

Thank you Bear!
Well that tosses the idea of an inexpensive pair of Yamaha's to go on top.
Unless I put one side to push the Yamaha's and one side to push the EVs?
That is a thought.
The Crown XLS does have a limiter on it. Wondering if that will help protect the horns?

 

[alhurd7]

Thank you Bear!
My Crowns XLS 1500 and XLS 2000 do have a limiter on them. Hoping that would do the trick?

I could run the Yamaha 15"s on one channel and the EV 15"s on the other channel, right. Then I would parallel same speakers.

Wouldn't this sound a bit better than 750 Watts of bridged power through 2 speakers (EV)?

Thanks again for such a quick response!! So very much appreciated!!!

AL

 

[wg_ski]

The more surface area that is radiating the better - in general terms.

Only if those surfaces are radiating coherently. It's usually a mistake to keep adding a bunch of mismatched cabs pointed in all directions - especially the 15"/1" variety. Identical boxes either stacked tweeter-to-tweeter, or splayed at the proper angle (with no overalp or large gaps in the pattern in the mid-band) will improve coverage and keep it intelligible. When you mismatch coverage patterns and/or crossover frequencies it can be a mess. Louder, but a mess.

 

[alhurd7]

Thanks WG Ski -
Of course with the right amount of investment ($800 or so per double 15" cab) there would be some utopia and intelligible coverage. I just wanted to add a little more height to the stack and a 2 more speakers if it would sound a bit better. I can get Yamaha A-15's for $330 at the moment new. (really inexpensive)

Then save up for the JBL MRX series or equivalent.

Any other tips?

Thank you again!

 

[Tajzmaj]

Just a few comments.
Doubling power at the same speaker will give you 3bB more of spl but just in theory. In practice there is thermal compression ratio which can be quite high especially at cheaper speakers so sometimes you won't gain anything. Not after one hour when coils get hot....so it is not worth to push it too hard.
It is batter to go with multiple speakers but you must know how to stack them and they must be all the same. Wg_sky explained such situation. It is good advice...and mine is that it is batter to have less equipment and that which you have good quality than a lot of crappy stuff. And to make things even worse, a lot of different things mixed together. It is really important to have all the same speakers and amplifiers as well.
If you lack of bass than is batter to buy/build only some subs (let say 2x18''per side)and run whole system active...
Cheers

 

[Tajzmaj]

p.s.
If you decide to build subs than it is maybe good idea to use 2 instead of 1 speaker in each cab. You will gain quite few dB and you can use some less powerful, cheaper and in most cases more sensitive speakers. And if you buy 8E units you will get 4E box by paralleling them which is perfect load. But you must have enough of space and car/van big enough to transport such thing + extra pair of hands.
Cheers, Taj

 

[soundguruman]

For a band setup for small venues (150 or so) Which will sound better?

1) 2 EV 15" plus Horn with Crown 1500 Watt in Bridge Mode at 4 ohm, thus 750 watts per speaker.

2) 2 EV 15" plus Horn and 2 Yamaha 15" plus Horn with Crown 1500 running in Stereo 4 Ohm load at 525 Watts per side. (262 watts per speaker)

I do not have the Yamaha's yet, but was curious if the sound would be better with 4 speakers and less wattage or just stick with the 2 speakers.

I am probably pushing these EVs a little as initial rating was 200 watts, but I did change out the woofers for 400 watt rating. (Carvins)

With just the EVs, in Bridge, I have the Crown at 3/4 output.

Thanks for any feedback!
AL

You "want" to use higher power, you will have more headroom before clipping.
Using more power than required is a standard practice in professional sound systems.
But also remember,
it takes 6 speakers to equal the efficiency of one horn.

 

[alhurd7]

Thanks everyone! Such a vast amount of knowledge!

 

[ArcticBreaze]

if you do add in more speakers I think they should be in series not parrallel. if your at 4 ohms now and put another box in parrael you'll likey be down to 2 ohms which may kill the amp.