Those small, low-power "lunch box" speakers have become popular now. There are many kinds of this kind of speakers, such as Mesabuji mini rectifier, Traynor dark horse, Marshall 50th anniversary 1W series, and orange horror series box head and integrated speakers. These speakers have many excellent functions, timbre and small size, which are very suitable for quiet performances. Of course, low-power box heads and integrated speakers are also very good choices in portability and decibel, especially in small touring performances. Recently, I found that many guitarists are using this low-volume and low-power speaker on many big stages. I believe this will be the future trend.
Many guitarists find that the timbre of low-power speakers will be more "sweet" than other types of speakers after microphone pickup and PA system expansion. Studio guitarist Brian Ray (if you don't know him, Brian Ray once performed with paul mccartney, but his co-actors are a dime a dozen) often uses his signature to divide the box head of 13 BTR 23 and the box head of 2x 12 on the big stage. The idea of these devices came from Marshall, but the power of 23 watts still provides a roaring sound while insisting on small size.
Of course, you can also choose the box head with 50- 100 watt power. The box head between this wattage can supply a larger volume under controllable conditions.
loudspeaker
Using multiple speakers can help you get louder sound, so fewer speakers can also help reduce your stage volume, but be careful not to exceed the wattage level of the speakers. Sensitivity is a very important parameter for speakers. For example, the volume of Celestion Vintage 30 with a sensitivity of 100dB will change significantly compared with the G 12m green background with a sensitivity of 96dB. Although we don't comment on how to increase the volume here, it also shows that lowering the dB will make your stage volume easier to control, and speakers with low sensitivity are very useful. (For every 3dB difference in the sensitivity of the speaker, the output sound pressure will double. )
Total capacity regulation
Many guitarists know that the principle of total volume is to reduce the signal from the previous stage to the power supply, thus reducing the volume. Adjusting the main volume switch will reduce your volume, but because most of the timbre output of the speaker comes from the back stage, this process will make you lose some timbre effects. But this is not a problem. PPI MV (Post-Inverted Master Volume) is a kind of volume control circuit deeply loved by speaker manufacturers. It belongs to the latter stage after the speaker inverter. When you adjust the front-stage gain, you will also drive the inverter together, and you can get satisfactory front-stage gain even in a low volume state.
attenuator
The volume attenuator will play a very important role when you try to reduce the volume of the electron tube speaker. If an attenuator is provided between the speaker output and the speaker box, the attenuator will absorb some output and reduce the volume accordingly. At present, there are many kinds of attenuators on the market, and most of them also provide some very convenient functions, such as driving line output or belonging to speakers. I use Jim Kelly and Aracom PRX 150-DAG power attenuators. Jim Kelley's attenuator is equipped with a foot switch, which allows you to encourage the volume during solo, while Aracom attenuator has a great adjustable impedance function, which can be safely used in speakers with 4 Ω output to16 Ω output.
Speaker shielding plate
Joe Bonamassa, a famous American blues rocker, is a guitarist who likes to play loudly. In order to deflect the sound waves emitted by the 4x 12 box and prevent the audience in the front row from feeling too noisy, Joe began to block the box speakers with plastic plates. In fact, ClearSonic even introduced an iconic speaker shutter, JB-4.
Speaker simulator
Alex Lifeson, the guitarist of Rush, has always used excellent electron tube boxes, but he connected the box head to Palmer PDI-03 speaker simulator. This device can make the electron tube speaker enter another "area", thus safely reducing the output level of the speaker circuit. PDI-03 can also process line signals and add speaker simulation (12' the timbre of the closed box of the speaker). Such a device can ensure that you become "quiet" on the stage to the greatest extent, so that Andhadhun can better control the timbre in the PA system.
Power scaling (power scaling)
This excitation skill was developed by London Electric Power Company, and its basic concept is to reduce the voltage of the output stage of the electron tube speaker, so as to keep the feeling and timbre of the speaker while reducing the volume. Compared with attenuator, power scaling can be said to be more direct, which directly reduces the volume output of the source. You can ask qualified technicians to install power adjustment things in the speaker. Of course, if you are very powerful, you can also mod yourself.
How to choose a speaker
At present, the dazzling array of speakers in the market is often dazzling, and there will be some misunderstandings in the process of selecting speakers, especially inferior speakers. These are "domestic scandals" that businesses try their best to cover up, and of course they will not be publicized in front of us. In fact, as ordinary consumers, some irresponsible merchants have caused many misunderstandings in the serious asymmetric information trading relationship. We need to make some necessary amendments, hoping to help consumers. Now let's take a look at how to buy speakers.
Myth 1: Is the sound quality of expensive speakers necessarily good?
Generally speaking, the sound quality of speakers is determined by the price, but the price is not the only criterion for purchasing high-quality speakers. What matters is the sound quality of the speaker, because the price is not necessarily proportional to the sound quality, that is to say, if you pay twice the price, you will enjoy twice the sound quality. Even the CPU is the same Paying twice the price may not necessarily buy a CPU with double frequency. Even if the frequency is doubled, its performance may not be doubled. This principle is even more obvious when applied to speakers. Personally, the so-called "excellent sound quality" has always been the patent of those "enthusiasts". It is difficult for the author to understand the description of sound quality by those fever masters, but some speakers are not very fancy in appearance, but the sound quality can make the author intoxicated and the price is not expensive!
Myth 2: You can't just look at advertisements when buying speakers, but also look at the actual effect.
Nowadays, there are many brands of multimedia speakers on the market, and it is inevitable that too many products will be mixed. It is inevitable that there will be overwhelming advertisements and some conceptual hype. Some manufacturers are trying to emphasize the differentiation of their own brands, and the shape design is also changing. In fact, it is often old wine in new bottles, and many places are not satisfactory. Not long ago, I saw several brands of speakers, and the functions introduced in the promotional materials all looked very attractive, but after the trial, I found many problems, which were far from what was said in the promotional materials! A power is not enough, and the volume is distorted when it is adjusted to half; The other screw fixing the speaker has damage marks. It can be seen that it was not installed by the machine, but manually screwed on, so don't blindly trust the propaganda speaker to avoid making mistakes, and it will be too late to regret it! Of course, everyone's auditory experience of speakers is different, so when choosing speakers, it is better to give priority to personal feelings, so that the speakers you buy can meet your personal taste, and the ones recommended by friends and businesses may not suit your own style.
Myth 3: the sound-absorbing cotton in the speaker does not represent the level of the grade.
Many consumers think that speakers without sound-absorbing cotton are low-grade speakers. Experts say this statement is not very scientific. Sound absorbing materials only play two roles in the sound box. One is to eliminate some resonance and contamination of the speaker; The second is to appropriately reduce the volume of the speaker, which has nothing to do with the grade of the speaker. Some people think that adding fillers to speakers is a panacea, which is all wet. As long as the box of the speaker is designed reasonably, has no obvious resonance and is large enough, a high-quality speaker can be made without filling materials. There are many successful examples in the field of speaker production all over the world. This is beneficial to the transient characteristics of the speaker box without the need for filling materials. After careful design and processing, the speaker has basically reached the ideal state when it leaves the factory. In this case, changing the presence or absence of filling materials in the speaker at will have a lot of effects on the playback of the speaker, and most of these effects are negative. Too much filling will cause dull sound, poor transient characteristics and weak speakers.
Myth 4: Are wooden speakers good?
When I enter the electronic market, I will always meet enthusiastic sales ladies to recommend me, what kind of wood is a certain brand of speakers, how to ensure the quality and so on. Buying speakers is not buying furniture. If you buy furniture, good wooden furniture can be used as an important standard to measure the quality of products, because good wooden materials mean durability and even highlight the owner's taste. But it doesn't matter much to the speaker, because the original board has the nature of resonance. When the speaker works, the wood itself will produce sound, which will affect the sound quality performance of the speaker. So it is unfounded to say that wooden speakers are good speakers.
Myth 5: Don't judge a book by its cover, it's important to look at the details.
The most important thing for us to buy a speaker is to look at the manufacturing process of the speaker, the material of the box, the tightness of the box, the caliber and quality of the speaker, and even the frequency divider can be seen from the inverted hole. First look at the outer layer of the speaker, whether there are obvious bubbles, scratches, warping and other phenomena, whether the seams are neat, and whether some plastic products in the box are rough, such as whether the wall of the frequency converter is thick and whether the surface is smooth. From these nuances, we can often see the quality orientation of the whole box. In addition, carefully distinguish the material of the box from the joints of the speaker panel. If you can't see it from the joint, you can also tap the wall of the cabinet cavity with your fingers. If the plate is thick and dense, the sound should be low and there is no obvious sense of hollowness. Finally, don't forget to uncover the dust cover and look at the manufacturing process of the speaker, especially around the protruding voice coil cover in the middle of the speaker. If the bonding is not good, you can often see the traces left by the glue after it dries; Let's see if there are any signs of damage to the screws that hold the speakers. If there is, it is not installed by machine, and the quality will definitely be discounted. When listening, turn the volume button to at least 3/4 to see if the power is enough and there is no distortion. At the same time, touch the speaker with your hand. If you feel the wind blowing out of the back of the box (except for the inverted box hole), it means that the sound box is not well sealed.