Marty Forrer Posted April 30 Share Posted April 30 I have two cheap plastic fantastic Vonyx SPJ1500 cabs which are 400w RMS with 15" drivers. They have both an input level control and a volume control. The line level input level knob has no markings for unity gain, so I emailed the makers (Netherlands) but they replied they didn't know!! I have been setting the input level at 12 o'clock seeing as that is the defacto on most PA gear. Does this sound like a reasonable assumption? If I crank the knob I don't notice any distortion and the clip light does not come on, but I don't want to blow them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Hi Marty. I don’t think you need to worry too much. Most active speakers have plenty of fail safe protection built in. With cheap brands it might be possible to drive them too hard but even that is unlikely. If you are selling cheap the last thing you want are any returns. just to explain a little, gain is gain. If you start with the mic it goes into a mixer with an input gain control then a volume slider, then the mixer’s output master volume and two more volume controls on your speaker. Just for simplicity’s sake imagine that each volume control gives you a gain of x10. Turn them all up full and the total gain is 100,000. Turn any one right down and the gain is zero. You could turn the two volumes on the speaker right up and the master on the mixer right down and everything would work safely. That wouldn’t necessarily be the best way to set thing up though. Gain structure used to be really important when electronic gear was noisy and gain was often lacking back in the day. It’s worth googling. With modern gear you can get away with more. You want controls on your mixer working in the middle of their range so you can turn up and down equally easily. I’d worry about that first, then turn the volume up on the speakers so that 12.00 on the master volume gave me a good, loud undistorted sound but not maximum volume. You can then turn it up or down from the mixer with no worries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Forrer Posted May 1 Author Share Posted May 1 Thanks Phil. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Downunderwonder Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 On 01/05/2024 at 10:59, Marty Forrer said: ? If I crank the knob I don't notice any distortion and the clip light does not come on, but I don't want to blow them Congrats. You have learned how to operate gear. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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