Powered Speaker

Powered Speaker – So, What’s the Big Deal?

When Do I Need to Use a Subwoofer?

Having the appropriate Powered PA speakers for your sound system is a really necessary to satisfy your audience, no matter whether you have a band or developing music inside your studio. Literary, PA speakers are very convenient with its ability to create outstanding quality sound.

Powered Speaker – So, What’s the Big Deal?

Yes, it is really a big deal when you looking for quality sound. If you are not familiar with active PA speakers here is a single line definition for you – power and all connections are built into s single cabinet as the speaker. It is basically under all-in-one design category.

Understanding Crossovers

A crossover is a device, which is responsible for separating the signals into different audio frequency ranges and route to different transducers like – speakers and other audio reproduction devices. The whole process involves with a set of filters. For example a two-way crossover may include a lowpass filter, which passes a signal with low frequency to a woofer and a high pass filter pass the appropriate frequency to tweeter.

Crossovers usually come with two different flavors. They are – passive and active. Normally, Passive crossovers fixed with inside the speaker cabinet along with the speaker components. Sometimes it is available for outside use, in that case we have to connect it through a single jack. Where as, the active crossovers are used in before the power stage and route each frequency range to its own power amp as well as its own transducers. From here the concept bi-amp and tri-amp terms come from.

Bi-Amplification Explained

Bi-amplification is a process where the system divides a single audio signal into two separate frequency ranges. Usually, system sends those signals into two separate amplifiers. An active crossover network is liable to split the audio into frequency ranges that are perfect for the drivers, which will be used to re-create them.

There is many more amping process available apart from the bi-amping like tri-amping and they are generally available in different sound reinforcement systems.

When Do I Need to Use a Subwoofer?

Well, before we start we must know the purpose of the Subwoofer. A subwoofer (“sub” for short) – is a speaker which dedicatedly producing the lowest of the low notes. It is a MUST HAVE for beginners. It is really cost effective solution for your PA system. Usually, a normal subwoofer can reproduce the audio signal between 20-100HZ ranges. So, when you need this? Well, if you want to make sound dedicatedly for your instruments like – guitar, piano or any other musical instruments.

Typically, subwoofers have two categories. They are – powered and un-powered version. No need to mention that, powered subwoofers are the best and very convenient. Where as, a un-powered version required additional power supply and possibly a external crossover.

Speaker Connectors Explained

The speaker connection is very simple. It is very basic and no need of expertise. What you need to do, just check the user manual for right connector types. That’s it. After that, you need to find the output of your mixer or amplifier and input like loudspeakers. Usually the connectors are two types. They are – balanced and unbalanced. Balanced refers a 3 legged type AC having two legs independent of ground. On the other hand, an audio signal requires two. wires to function is called unbalanced.

Hope this brief guide will help you to take a closer look about PA speakers.