Home 2023 Forums Digital DJ Gear PA setup. Need Help

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  • #2367221
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    Then tell us what speakers you have please.

    #2367291
    Smittyman
    Participant

    Thanks Terry. I was able to figure it out though after I posted this. Had a defective XLR cable. Ordered new one.

    #2367301
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    Still very interested how you hook up a passive speaker to an active speaker?

    #2367311
    Smittyman
    Participant

    Vintage…. The powered set I have has a 1/4 line out on the active speaker that runs into the passive. That’s the way it was designed. I tried a friends XLR cable and it worked and sounded a lot better. Ordered new cable.

    #2367351
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    That is what confused me. If it’s a line out, you can’t hook up a passive speaker. Well you can, but nothing will come out of it. So it’s a speaker connection on a 1/4 jack, hopefully labelled accordingly and not as “line out” :-).

    #2367391
    Smittyman
    Participant

    That is my mistake. Yes a 1/4 connector. I was able to run rca from the main speaker to the second powered speaker then another set to the sub. It sounded ok but should I be using a mixer with my controller then run all the cables from the outputs on the mixer to the speakers? The sound and the bass sounded good the way I had it all hooked it up but I was wondering if I should be doing something different?

    #2367551
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    Yeah RCA really has no place in a PA -imho, with the possible exception of your controller master out (if it lacks XLR) to a mixer.

    The way you are connecting it, it seems that your top end speakers get the full signal too. I.e. the part that your sub would normally produce now also get produced by your top ends, sort of defeating the purpose of the sub.

    Ideally you would use a cross-over. Most of the time those are built-in to the subwoofer. Oftentimes in stereo.

    So typically you’d go:
    1) XLR (2x) to your single sub input L+R
    2) Take the high pass filter outputs (L+R) and run those with XLR to your two active speakers, then hook up the passive speaker to the active speaker it should connect to.

    I looked at the Rockville sub. It is labelled as “thru”, this would normally indicate that while it has a crossover to only allow the lows into the sub, it does not send the remaining signal (= minus the low) through to the top ends, but rather the entire signal. It might, but in that case it’s labelled incorrectly.

    This is a sub-optimal way of running your PA, but I guess it will have to do.

    I’d get a small PA mixer like that Yamaha MG06 if you feel you need some more control and want something to change your controller RCA outputs to a balanced XLR signal.

    #2367581
    Smittyman
    Participant

    Alright vintage I need your help here. So one of the powered speakers I have only has RCA ins and outs. That’s that the one with the 1/4 connector for the passive. So you recommend getting a crossover to run all three powered speakers? Yeah the way I had it setup (with limited equipment bare with me) just doesn’t cut it for me. I’m afraid I’m going to blow shit up. The second powered speaker has XLR outs and ins along with a 1/4 out and RCA in.

    #2367591
    Smittyman
    Participant

    One more thing vintage. The mix track pro 3 only comes with one RCA output and the Yamaha mixer doesn’t have a RCA Input. Can I use an RCA to 1/4 connector? The Rockville sub has dual xlr for the “THRU” / input so would I just use channels one and two for on the yahama for the sub then a 1/4 to XLR to the other speaker. Just trying to make sure I have the connections correct. Still fairly new to the rig

    #2367631
    Smittyman
    Participant

    UPDATED!!!!! Disregard 2 previous.

    So I decided to just suck it up and buy another speaker to match my main powered one. This way I can run my RCA TO XLR adaptor cable to the subwoofer then use XLR from the sub outs to each powered speaker and use a TSR to the passive that will mount to the top of sub. Sounds about right. Will test it out once it arrives.

    #2367741
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    One piece of advice though, get an ART CleanBox Pro:

    http://artproaudio.com/isolators/product/cleanbox_pro/

    Just run RCA from controller into it’s inputs and then XLR balanced to your sub.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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