Monitor Amp Suggestions...and a few other things.

[Stevie Nature]

I would like to get some suggestions on decent monitor amps. I'll give you a little info on our church set up. We justed moved into our new facility which can seat 298 (don't ask me why we couldn't round up to 300) at max capacity. Our band consists of acoustic, electric, keyboard (plays almost exclusively w/ a piano sound) bass, e-drums, and 4 vocalists. We are using a Yamaha EMX5000-20, which is a powered board. I heard a lot of about how a powered board is not the way to go and what have you, but it was like 2k for the whole set up (mics, monitors, speakers cables, and the board) and our church was very new and didn't have a lot of money.

Anyway the way we have it set up now is with two sends; one to mains and one to monitors so we're splitting the board's power two ways. What I'd like to do is run stereo to the mains and use an amp for the monitors. Basically I'd like some suggestions on brand as, how powerful the amp needs to be, as well as anything else I might not be considering.Money is definitely an issue. Our church has more than doubled in the past year, but I guess giving has only increased by like 10%. As always your suggestions are very much appreciated.

[dtpuga]

Stevie,

There are a ton of brands you could use and power is dependent on the speakers you are using. I would try finding some used gear. Sound rental companies are always cycling gear. I'd feel better getting a good piece of used gear rather than something cheap and new. Also, look into getting an EQ for the monitor sends as well, this can save you LOADS of feedback problems and is worth the money.

Hope this helps,
-Travis

[amprodirect]

Stevie,

One very good solution today are powered speakers, though it sounds like you may already have the monitors. You may be able to find however used powered wedges for the same price as a decent amplifier. Since cost is a factor I would certainly agree with Travis on the used route. As far as brands go I would say your budget will make that call. Do a search on ebay (or the like). You might drop another note on here about an amplifier you are considering.

David Cherry
Shoreline
Austin

[garyhodges]

Something to always keep in mind if you are daisy-chaining monitors is that everytime you add another speaker, you are doubling the impedance since this is parrallel circuit. This is okay for 2 speakers, but you get over that and you need to reverse the polarity at least once in the chain to create a series circuit which at that point cuts the impedance in half and reduces the load on your amp to an acceptable range.

I simply had some little passive boxes made that had one input and two outputs. The parts cost me maybe $5-6 at Radio Shack.

Check it out here: http://www.termpro.com/articles/spkrz.html

[Stevie Nature]

I think I'll definitely go with used. How much power do you think the amp should have? We'll be running two mixes with a couple of wedges and a couple of hot spots.

[Davyboy]

Something to always keep in mind if you are daisy-chaining monitors is that everytime you add another speaker, you are doubling the impedance since this is parrallel circuit. This is okay for 2 speakers, but you get over that and you need to reverse the polarity at least once in the chain to create a series circuit which at that point cuts the impedance in half and reduces the load on your amp to an acceptable range.


I'm by far no expert on this, but am pretty sure it's not the right solution to put the speakers out of polarity. This will probably cause comb filtering, and make things sound bad.

[amprodirect]

I'm by far no expert on this, but am pretty sure it's not the right solution to put the speakers out of polarity. This will probably cause comb filtering, and make things sound bad.
Right Davyboy.

[garyhodges]

I'm by far no expert on this, but am pretty sure it's not the right solution to put the speakers out of polarity. This will probably cause comb filtering, and make things sound bad.

This would really only be a problem if you have two speakers that are out of phase right next to each other with crossing fields-- or if you're in an anechoic chamber. The room reflections will destroy most comb filtering.

[Stevie Nature]

Okay, so you definitely lost me. I'm just trying to see how many watts I need. We only have two wedges and one hot spot thus far, so I don't think I'm going to run into the problems you're talking about. I may be adding a couple more monitors. I'll check back if I run across any of the problems you're mentioning.

[amprodirect]

Most loudspeaker manufacturers list the ideal size of amplifier to match with their loudspeaker. Refer to your manual or look online at the manufacturers web site. Provided they are 8 ohm speakers, if you were to pair them up on one channel you would place a 4ohm load on the amp.

David Cherry
Shoreline
Austin