I have a powered Yamaha EMX 5016CF mixer with 2x Yamaha BR15 passive speakers. This current setup works well for its purpose. I recently bought 2x DSR118W active subwoofer and I cant figure out how to split the mid and high frequencies to go to the BR15 with my current gear. Should I add on something to make my system work in unison?
powered Yamaha EMX 5016CF mixer
2x Yamaha BR15 passive speakers
2x DSR118W active subwoofer
powered Yamaha EMX 5016CF mixer
2x Yamaha BR15 passive speakers
2x DSR118W active subwoofer
I don't have an external power amplifier and was thinking if can I hook up a passive crossover (extracted from a speaker cabinet) between the mixer speaker output and the Yamaha BRs? The subs are connected to the stereo sub mix output,im ok with that for now.I have a limited budget required a cheap solution
Some powered mixers have inserts where you can patch in a final EQ, compressor, or other procesing. Some don't. It's like having pre-out/main-in's on your home receiver. If you have it, that's where you patch in a crossover. If you don't you're hosed. A passive crossover at the speaker output may prevent overloading your woofers with bass, but does nothing to save headroom - the internal amp must still put out full voltage with the bass signal present.
Advice to anyone else listening - DO NOT BUY a powered mixer unless it has this capability. Even some of the cheap off brand mono lunch box mixers do. No matter how enticing a turn key solution seems at the time you inevitably want to expand - and not having the capability costs more money that what you saved on two miserable jacks.
Of course, a real DIYer would go ahead and drill a couple holes and just add those insert jacks if he needed them....
Advice to anyone else listening - DO NOT BUY a powered mixer unless it has this capability. Even some of the cheap off brand mono lunch box mixers do. No matter how enticing a turn key solution seems at the time you inevitably want to expand - and not having the capability costs more money that what you saved on two miserable jacks.
Of course, a real DIYer would go ahead and drill a couple holes and just add those insert jacks if he needed them....
That won't work very well. Get yourself a cheap electronic crossover(Behringer CX2310) and connect from the ST OUT jacks to the inputs on the crossover, and then bring the high outputs from the crossover back into the mixer on the AUX's and route that to the internal power amplifiers. The low outs from the crossover go straight to the subs. A good crossover frequency would be 80hz.
But you said your new subwoofers are active. That to me means they have amplifiers in them. Do the inputs of the subwoofers not already have their own crossovers?
here is some sales info on the subs
Yamaha DSR118W | Sweetwater.com
I don't think it is worth the effort to change what is sent to the main speakers.
There are two full range inputs on it, so just run a pair of lines from the main stereo line out on the mixer and run it to the sub input. The sub crosses itself over at 120Hz, and is powered. No external crossover needed,
here is some sales info on the subs
Yamaha DSR118W | Sweetwater.com
I don't think it is worth the effort to change what is sent to the main speakers.
There are two full range inputs on it, so just run a pair of lines from the main stereo line out on the mixer and run it to the sub input. The sub crosses itself over at 120Hz, and is powered. No external crossover needed,
The whole point of adding subs to a system is so that the tops don't have to try to produce those low frequencies, so while these Yamaha's have an internal crossover to feed it's own amp and driver it does not high pass the signal at the link out connections so tops connected here would still be running fullrange. So either powered tops with their own built-in high pass are needed or an external crossover is required with passive speakers
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Fair enough, but in my experience, little is gained by that in a simple system, especially if the full range stacks alone were not sounding stressed by that low end. The subs basically extend the range of the system down another octave.
But now we are getting into opinions.
But now we are getting into opinions.
Looking at the mixer and the options available to you with it and the powered subs is to feed the subs with a line level output from the mixer then get a stereo amp to power the BR15s and use the high out from the subs to feed that amp. YOu don't say anything about the rest of your set up, but I presume you have monitors (fold back speakers)? Are these passive? Could you use the mixer amp to drive the monitors and use the monitor amp for the BR15?
Much depends upon how much bass the user is trying to get out of the system, if the tops were just used to support vocals then I agree there wouldn't be much difference, but if he is trying to support a full band or play bass heavy recorded music then in my experience the tops will get significantly louder and sound much better with a proper crossover in the system.
From a quick look, I don't see a way to reassign the amp channels in the mixer, to monitor duty. A pity, as many other powered mixers allow that, readily. That, or a direct-amp-input on the mixer, and he would have been in business, potentially...
Regards,
Gordon.
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