cabs - frequency response

[easy]

I'm a bit of a newb, so forgive me if this is common knowledge. Also, if it's been beaten to death already on this forum, sorry. I did searches but still have questions.

Are there cabs that respond to specific frequency ranges? It seems to me that the best thing to do for a set up is to have the low, and only the low, frequencies going to the bigger speakers, and having the higher frequencies going to smaller speakers, etc. Is that possible? Is it better?

Also, another newbie question:

Rack-mountable. What's the point of the rack? I just bought my SWR 350x and it's rack-mountable, but... I am obviously missing something.

please shed some light

 

[Mudbass]

It seems to me that the best thing to do for a set up is to have the low, and only the low, frequencies going to the bigger speakers, and having the higher frequencies going to smaller speakers, etc. Is that possible? Is it better?

please shed some light

It's called biamping. Is it better? For producing clear, clean sound at high decibel levels it's hard to beat.

 

[Steve]

Are there cabs that respond to specific frequency ranges?

Yes.

It seems to me that the best thing to do for a set up is to have the low, and only the low, frequencies going to the bigger speakers, and having the higher frequencies going to smaller speakers, etc. Is that possible?

Yes

Is it better?

Most people think so, although a lot of people don't really like the sound quality of a horn and either turn it off or turn it down.

Most cabs these days have at the very least a horn to improve the high frequency response. Some Cabs are three way with low mid and high frequency drivers.

Also, another newbie question:

Rack-mountable. What's the point of the rack?

Some people like it all in one place and all in one trip. So the "Rack", which is just an expensive carrying case, will have not only and amp but maybe a tuner...or effects unit....or power conditioner....or any one of several other peices of gear all wired and ready to go. It's also another layer of protection for the knobs, switches and whatever else is sticking out and prone to getting knocked off in transit.

Plus....it looks cool.

Bi-amping occurs outside of the cabinet and sends the signal to seperate cabinets dedicated to different frequencies through what is termed more often than not an "active crossover". Typically you will have some control over which frequencies go where.

Most cabinets due this internally through a "passive crossover" and you may have some control over how loud each frequency is through knobs on the back called L-pad's or attenuators but the frequency bands are set by the crossover.

It gets real techie real fast beyond that.

 

[easy]

good info.

thanks for explaining, guys

 

[IvanMike]

the other thing(s) to consider is(are) this(these)

1st off, almost all bass guitar speakers arent going to go as low as pa subs, or as high as a really good pa tweet. theyre not going to be as "flat" either. this isnt bad. the real lows can be quite a problem for some rooms, and if the soundman has no control over that last octave he may want to kill you. also, a lot of time you may find you prefer the "colored" sound of this or that cabinet.

next off, bi-amping (or triamping or quadamping) is great in pa settings. each individual driver and box is designed to handle a particular frequency response. bass cabinets tend to be designed to reproduce as much of the frequency speactrum as possible. using an active crossover to put the highs into a 210 box and the lows into a 1x15 box can sound good, but often players find they liek the fuller sound of running everything full range.

dont confuse this with multiway cabinets that use internal passive crossovers. some boxes have something like a 15", a 10" a 6" and a tweeter all in one, and in that case each speaker is getting its own portion of the audio spectrum. some of those cabinets sound way cool.