[AG-TECH] speakers ... and Phoenix connectors

[Osland, CD (Chris)]

I'm not going to use the term monitor because, at least this side
of the Atlantic, the terms [loud]speaker and monitor are equivalent;
either may be passive or active.  Some people seem to draw a
distinction between active and self-powered, but the difference is
beyond me.  Marketing people may like to use the term monitor to
indicate 'a higher class of speaker', but then they would.

I believe that it is better to use active speakers for three main
of reasons:

1.  by including the amps as part of the speaker, it means that all
    audio wiring in the AG environment can use balanced (2 cores
    plus screen, or star-quad in difficult situations) cable.  As
    well as making maintenance easier, this means that there are no
    cables carrying significant current around the place, so cable
    lengths can be arbitrarily long without problems of power loss.

2.  by having the amps as an integral part of the speaker, (and
    in some cases having multiple amps per box), the quality of the
    sound can be improved FOR THE SAME COST.

3.  by having the amps directly connected to the speakers, the
    designers can incorporate overload protection in each box,
    (in the input stage of the amps, where it's cheap and easy)
    as they know the rating of the actual drive units.  Some
    even have lifetime guarantees that if the amp blows the
    drive unit, the speaker will be replaced free of charge.
    I don't think that's true of the Genelecs but it is true
    of the Questeds in my studio.

None of these advantages are available if you use separate amps
and passive speakers, although you can obviously get systems
that cost less than (for example) the Genelec 1029A's.

As for the Phoenix connectors on the Gentner/ClearOne ... just
make up as many short Phoenix <-> XLR leads as you are going to use
input and output channels (female or male XLRs as required) and
then regard the Gentner/ClearOne as a box with XLR connectors
like the rest of the audio equipment universe!  Better still,
if you've got things rack-mounted, interface the whole system
with a termination panel which has all the required XLR, BNC,
Y/C sockets on it, and then wire that back to the Gentner/ClearOne
and video capture cards as required.  In that way the whole unit can
be rolled around having disconnected the cables to the outside
world, rather than scrambling around inside the rack.  Remember
to label the sockets on the termination panel!

Cheers

Chris

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Chris Osland                                               Office tel: +44
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov]On
> Behalf Of Darin Oman
> Sent: 23 March 2004 21:52
> To: roncrummett at mail.caynetco.com; ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] speakers
> 
> 
> Ron,
> 
> Monitor speakers are used because they're powered (or so I 
> assume). The other option is to use an amplifier to power the 
> speakers. This might be a bit cheaper - there are some pretty 
> low-priced amps out there.
> 
> Darin
> 
> 
> 
> On 3/23/2004 at 3:40 PM Ron Crummett wrote:
> 
> >I have a question as far as speakers go.  What types of speakers are
> >being used in your full-room nodes?  The documentation leads 
> me to believe
> >that monitor speakers are being used; I don't know how these 
> differ from
> >other speakers unless it is their connection type.  Is there 
> a particular
> >reason that monitors are being used?  They appear to cost a 
> great deal
> >more than other speakers.  I would hope that with increased 
> cost comes
> >increased quality, but is there some other reason (Gentner 
> wiring?) as
> >well?
> >
> >-Ron Crummett
> >
> >Satisfying all your Ron Crummett needs since 1978
> 
> 
>