SLA or TLAH?

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Nathan Parrow
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SLA or TLAH?

#1 Post by Nathan Parrow »

Hi everyone. I have been posting speaker questions over at the SAW/SAC forums and they recommended I come over here and pester you guys. Our church is building a new building, and I am in charge of A/V and all things tech. I have been trying to find someone in our area that can run a room analsys for us, but so far no luck. The room is a 50 foot wide by 42 foot deep by 13 foot tall box with slightly sloped ceiling tiles out from the center. Metal building with lots of insulation and drywall, and carpet over concrete slab floor. I have been in many churches with this same basic layout, and none of them have ever sounded good to me. I was asking about compact line arrays or column arrays and was told to look at the SLA and the TLAH designs that Bill has here. Both look very interesting to me, but I am open to suggestions here.

We have a very traditional service, with SPLs that are very low. I was measuring Sunday, and with our current system, we never get above 78 Db(A). The most important part to us is understanding the words that are being spoken or sung. We use a piano, organ, and keyboard (mostly playing strings) and the occasional flute, violin, or acoustic guitar. The only really heavy use of a sub will be from the organ which goes down to 16Hz on the longest "pipes" stops. This organ carries all the bottom end in our music, and we have never been able to use the lowest stops because the speakers would literally bottom out and be damaged.

el_ingeniero
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Location: Minneapolis, MN

Re: SLA or TLAH?

#2 Post by el_ingeniero »

Peoplearound here will tell you that A-weighing is useless for measuring sound levels because it chops out the lower frequencies. Use C-weighing to get real world numbers.

For the organ you need a T60, although that will only get you d6own to 20 or 25 Hz. As with all the BFM pro audio subs, you will need EQ, limiters, crossovers and highpass filter. I think there was a thread around here urging Bill to build a T96 that would work down to 16 Hz, but he doesn't think there's a market for it.

For getting the most intelligible sound possible, you want the tallest array you can get going, not for the output, but for tight vertical dispersion. I'd go for something at least 27 inches tall, and taller would be better. You'd get the best sound by far from a pair of DR200s on each side. Might not even need melded arrays, given your room shape.

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Tom Smit
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Re: SLA or TLAH?

#3 Post by Tom Smit »

Hi Nathan, and welcome to the forum!

Would you have any pics of the sanctuary? Without the pics, I think I would go with DR200 with melded arrays. If you don't have the chops, go with OmniTop12. The reason for the melded array is for 120 degree dispersion of the highs for the people sitting up close. A TLAH or SLA are more beneficial in longer rooms, and are good at fighting reverb, neither of which is your situation I don't think.

As for a sub, I would suggest a THT, THTLP or a T60, all of which will give serious benefit to the organ. It doesn't have to be a massive sound, just .....there, ...and any one of these will do it with ease.
TomS

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ewetho
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Re: SLA or TLAH?

#4 Post by ewetho »

TLAH Pro sounds like a winner to me. T-60 for bottom end.

Nathan Parrow
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Re: SLA or TLAH?

#5 Post by Nathan Parrow »

Thanks everyone. I do not have any pictures, as the facilities are still under construction. With regard to the DR200s, I am not sure where I would put something like that. I was thinking that I might be able to hang the SLAs or TLAHs on the wall off to the sides of the stage. The stage will only be about 16 feet wide and 10 feet deep with the Piano, Organ and Keyboard off to the left of the stage. There are doors in the wall that the stage is on at the far left and the far right corners of the room. I will try to get some drawings put up later.

Door-----------Instruments-----====Stage====--------------------------Door

wallywally
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Re: SLA or TLAH?

#6 Post by wallywally »

ewetho wrote:TLAH Pro sounds like a winner to me. T-60 for bottom end.
+1
Builds:
T-39
DR 280
Wedgehorn 8
Omni 12
SLA
TAT
TLAH experimental

Rich4349
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Joined: Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:18 am
Location: Kankakee, IL

Re: SLA or TLAH?

#7 Post by Rich4349 »

So if someone WERE to build a T-96, (say 27 inches wide or less, to allow slipping through most doorways) would the mouth be on the 27x48 'small' side, allowing for longer horn path, or the 27x96 side, yielding the largest possible mouth? With the large mouth, it could be positioned near the corner, then stood up pivoting on the 48" edge, neatly filling up most of the floor to ceiling height space.

Now seeing that 18s are not acceptable, what drivers would something like this take? A pair of 3012LFs? 3015s? Or perhaps, knowing how horn design always surprises you (at least it does me), maybe just a single 3015? What about a quad of 10s? Less expensive to replace, a LOT smaller to fit though limited access panels, and a nice wide range of OHM configuration choices.

T-60s aren't THAT bad to move around, due to the casters. BUT, the big question is: What would the performance of one of these be?

And Bill, PLEASE don't crucify me for speaking of the 'unspeakable'!
2 DR250s, 2 27" Lab15 T-60s, 2 30" Neo Titan 39s, 1 Autotuba...and looking for more!

Gregory East
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Re: SLA or TLAH?

#8 Post by Gregory East »

If YOU were to build a T96 you would have to follow the plans. The plans don't exist since the worldwide market for electric church organ subs is roughly three installations a year.
BAT10, Bad Auto Tuba. Reverse folded TAT to fit JBL 1014D, 350W driver, voltage limit unknown.

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