compression driver distortion ?

[nick mineau]

so we have all heard a distortion in one form or another.
most common distortion i hear is from a power amp that is clipping heavily on a speaker system that can handle it without excursion issues
for at least a while.

but what about compression drivers on a properly bi-amped rig. what would it sound like if they were being driven to hard by a amp that is not clipping. say you throw 200watts of music from a 400 watt power amp into a peavey rx22 compression driver running 600hz up?

is it going to sound like the all to familiar distortion we hear from a car stereo that is simply to loud? or are we going to get some bad blapping noises from the compression drivers (bottoming out).

i ask because im chasing distortion on a rig (and it simply sounds like distortion from a stock car stereo thats just to loud) but the amps , and mixer are not clipping at all. its only when im driving the rig very hard tho.. it might be something in the speaker processor which is a behringer dcx...

[Bruce Weldy]

so we have all heard a distortion in one form or another.
most common distortion i hear is from a power amp that is clipping heavily on a speaker system that can handle it without excursion issues
for at least a while.

but what about compression drivers on a properly bi-amped rig. what would it sound like if they were being driven to hard by a amp that is not clipping. say you throw 200watts of music from a 400 watt power amp into a peavey rx22 compression driver running 600hz up?

is it going to sound like the all to familiar distortion we hear from a car stereo that is simply to loud? or are we going to get some bad blapping noises from the compression drivers (bottoming out).

i ask because im chasing distortion on a rig (and it simply sounds like distortion from a stock car stereo thats just to loud) but the amps , and mixer are not clipping at all. its only when im driving the rig very hard tho.. it might be something in the speaker processor which is a behringer dcx...

600hz is too low to be crossing that driver.....move it up to 1200hz and the distortion will go away. Surprised you haven't blown it.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

It's going to sound fizzy, for lack of a better word.

[nick mineau]

fuzzy is the best way to describe the way it sounds. ill try to move me xover point upwards some. that driver was designed to run as low as 500hz according the the spec sheet....https://assets.peavey.com/literature/ma ... 304742.pdf

[Bruce Weldy]

fuzzy is the best way to describe the way it sounds. ill try to move me xover point upwards some. that driver was designed to run as low as 500hz according the the spec sheet....https://assets.peavey.com/literature/ma ... 304742.pdf

Frequency response only tells you that it can produce sound that low - not that it should. They state clearly that the recommended crossover point it 1200. They list the lowest crossover point at 500.

It's essentially a 1 inch horn with a 2 inch diaphragm......that just ain't gonna take a lot of lows at any decent amount of power. Personally I wouldn't try to go any lower than the 1200hz rating and I'd do that with a 24db slope. There is no reason to push gear right to the edge of it's abilities.....it's not gonna' sound very good and it ain't gonna' last very long...

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Just because it technically can be run to 500Hz doesn't mean it should be. Looking at the response chart it drops like a stone below 1kHz. At 600Hz it's down 12dB. That means if you've EQ'd it for flat response you're putting 16 times the power into it at 600Hz as you are at 1kHz. I can't see it not distorting beyond bedroom levels.

[nick mineau]

got ya, i will raise the xoverpoint. i must be driving the hell outa these poor things lol. i have had one of voice coils separate from the membrane before to,

[Bruce Weldy]

i have had one of voice coils separate from the membrane before to,

I would imagine so......

To get a CD that goes into the 500hz range with any power, you have to get into large diaphragm and large throat designs and are used in old sports arenas for announcers.....

You should hear a huge improvement in sound quality when you raise the crossover.....let that woofer do it's job.