I use a preamp and a power amp for my rig. Is there an advantage to daisychaining my cabs off of one channel of the amp over just connecting one cab to each channel of the amp?
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To daisychain or not?
- Thread starter Fleegetastic
- Start date
Depends on the amp. Some will output more power from a single side with two cabs, even more if you can bridge the two sides into two cabs.
The cabs don't care.
With a power amp, which is usually 'stereo', I guess it depends on how the bridge mode works versus running the head in stereo. I'm not that well versed on power amps, but I think at least sometime that bridge mode results in only one output of the amp working, which would require daisy chaining cabs if you were going to use more than one cab.
With a power amp, which is usually 'stereo', I guess it depends on how the bridge mode works versus running the head in stereo. I'm not that well versed on power amps, but I think at least sometime that bridge mode results in only one output of the amp working, which would require daisy chaining cabs if you were going to use more than one cab.
The amp is a QSC Gx5 here are the specs:
8Ω / both channels driven / 1 kHz: 500 W
8Ω / single channel driven / 1 kHz; 600 W
4Ω / both channels driven / 1 kHz; 700 W
4Ω / single channel driven / 1 kHz; 850 W
2Ω / both channels driven / 1 kHz: 350 W
The cabinets are both 8ohm 1x15
8Ω / both channels driven / 1 kHz: 500 W
8Ω / single channel driven / 1 kHz; 600 W
4Ω / both channels driven / 1 kHz; 700 W
4Ω / single channel driven / 1 kHz; 850 W
2Ω / both channels driven / 1 kHz: 350 W
The cabinets are both 8ohm 1x15
Strange specs. With one side into "daisy-chained" cabs you would go from 500 watts to 850 watts (assuming the the specs are total wattage as they don't say "per channel". Might swing over to OSC's site to see if more detailed specs are available.
Never mind you would drop from 1000 watts total to 700 watts if I am making any sense out of the specs (assuming "both driven" means stereo mode and single channel driven means bridged).
Never mind you would drop from 1000 watts total to 700 watts if I am making any sense out of the specs (assuming "both driven" means stereo mode and single channel driven means bridged).
It looks like from those specs, you can't bridge that amp, so, your two 8 ohm cabs, daisy chained , giving you a 4 ohm load, and using one channel, would give you 850 watts (425 watts to each cab ). Running the cabs in single channels, 8 ohm load in each, gives you a total of 1000 watts, 500 to each cab.
Assuming we are referring to a bass rig and the impedance and etc is correct - if you daisy-chain cabs the last loudspeaker in the chain has more speaker wire between it and the amp than the first loudspeaker in the chain - so there is more impedance and a little more signal loss, but it’s probably not enough of a difference to hear - however, if you want the best you would want the speaker cables to be equal in length, size, quality, and etc so daisy-chaining works fine but wouldn’t be the best.
EDIT:
Oh, and the speaker cable distance between the amp and each loudspeaker equal (don't daisy-chain).
EDIT - EDIT: lol
And the shorter the speaker cables the better too.
EDIT:
Oh, and the speaker cable distance between the amp and each loudspeaker equal (don't daisy-chain).
EDIT - EDIT: lol
And the shorter the speaker cables the better too.
That would not be an issue. Signal loss is slight even at lengths of 100'. So, zero issue there.
The strange thing here is that impedance/wattage spec. I just checked the QSC site, and haven't seen anything like it before.
To the OP, if you put up a new thread listing the amp model, Bob Lee (A TBer and QSC engineer)might pop by and let you know what the deal is.
I need to jump in here.
I recently picked up a second 4ohm Genz Benz NeoX212T to use with my SVT. Can I just daisy chain the two cabs together? Also, what exactly is slaving? Is that attaching both cabs directly with the SVT instead of daisy chaining?
I recently picked up a second 4ohm Genz Benz NeoX212T to use with my SVT. Can I just daisy chain the two cabs together? Also, what exactly is slaving? Is that attaching both cabs directly with the SVT instead of daisy chaining?
The amp cannot be bridged and it really doesn't need to be I have enough power to compete with two loud guitars. I was just wondering if there was an advantage to connecting the cabs one way or the other.
Tube amps are a TOTALLY different deal, and it all depends on how the taps are designed. I don't have the knowledge to know for sure, but with most tube amps, you need to match each cab with the appropriate tap.
Slaving is a totally different issue, and involved running a second head from the preamp output of the first head. There are many ways to do this, depending on your goal. True slaving results in the second amp being used as just a power amp, with the preamp of the first amp driving both amps.
Thanks for the heads up. Looks like I'll be needing to do some research on it unless someone else is more familiar with the setup I'd be running.
The answer is - no, not really, but it's better not to daisy-chain if you don't have too.
You can hookup the cab either way, no real difference with the SVT.
"Slaving" is used to use one amps preamp to drive a second amps power amp. One heads effects out connected to a second head's effects in, both heads driving speaker cabs. The first head controls both rigs this way.
That would be great if you were sending signals to the amp at 1KHz, but you're not. The low end is where you play and that usually means the amp puts out less than the spec. Personally, any amp company that uses 1KHz as the specified frequency won't get my money if they don't show full frequency range power specs.
Running it at 2 Ohms, both channels driven is worthless. It will make the amp run hot and that means failure is inevitable. Why would you not use both with two cabinets? What is your actual goal- to be really loud, clean, both or can you play at a lower level and still have a good sound FOH (which is really the most important thing, anyway)?
Here is what I'm not giving with this very strange spec sheet:
8Ω / both channels driven / 1 kHz: 500 W
8Ω / single channel driven / 1 kHz; 600 W
I don't get this. Does '8ohm both channels driven' mean two 16ohm cabs? Does it mean 'bridged' (I don't think it does). Since it is lower wattage than the '8ohm single channel driven' (which I assume means a single 8ohm cab out of one channel of the amp, then is the 'both channels driven some sort of series connection.
I might just be dense here, but I've never seen anything like that power spec on any amp.
If it was a normal amp, of course, bridging and then daisy chaining the two 8ohm cabs would make the most sense (assuming the cabs could use the power and the amp could be bridged to 4ohms safely). In this case, not sure what to recommend.
Very common spec for power amps.
The power supply is more heavily taxed when both channels are driven; less taxed when just one is in use. Hence the different power rtaings.
The power supply is more heavily taxed when both channels are driven; less taxed when just one is in use. Hence the different power rtaings.
The answer is - no, not really, but it's better not to daisy-chain if you don't have too.
Please explain your reasoning for advising against daisy-chaining. Your previous comment about one cab being at the end of a legnth of wire makes no sense to me in a parallel hookup.
