Seismic Audio CLA 2x5 & 3x10 (Amp Issues)

Manuel Alonso

Freshman
Dec 22, 2017
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Hello, I’m new to these forums, just need some help pairing the speakers to the right amps.

We have (2) 2x5’s on each side and (1) 3x10 sub on each side. Our auditorium fits about 400 people and is about 250ft in length and about 50ft wide so it’s definitely a lot more narrow.

The problem we are having now is we just got a 6000 watt Behringer iNuke and when the amp shows that it clips it cuts out for a second. The mixer isn’t clipping, not even close.

Seismic audio says the 2x5’s are 16ohm and the subs 8ohm.

Basically, what are we doing wrong? Or what specific amps should we get to accurately fill up the room?


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It's not the amp so much that will determine if the room gets fill up with sound but an entire system working together correctly.
What type of programs is this auditorium used for?

When you say to have two of the 2x5's and one 3x10 sub on each side I assume that is the number of speakers per each side of the room.
Are you powering all of them with the one amplifier?
Is your iNuke the two channel or the four channel version?
Are you using an external crossover before the amp to go between the subs and the tops boxes or the basic internal crossover function built into the amps.

After a quick look at the speakers you have and from your description of the room I'm going to say you don't have the right equipment to do the job.

Keep in mind you are working with some very low end equipment and trying to get professional results,
 
It’s a church setting.

And yes, so 4 total 2x5’s (2 on each side) and 2 3x10’s (1 on each side)

No two amps, one for the highs and the other for the lows.

The iNuke is the 2-channel version.

The basic internal crossover.

The speakers cost us almost $3,000. So it might not be amazing but it’s better than what we had before which was 2 SR1530’s hung on each side.

My goal is to just get the right amps at least and do what we can with the Seismic Audio speakers we just bought.

The mixer we have is a LS9-32 channel.

Thanks for your input!


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Keep in mind in the real world those amps do not put out the power that their published ratings say they do.
Actually that may be good thing for you, if they did your speakers would most likely be blown at this point.

Your pushing the amps into clipping in trying to get the sound level you want in the room, my guess is the amps are going into a protection mode and shutting down or muting.

Maybe the amps don't like the reactive type of load that the speakers are presenting to the amp, the impedance of a speaker changes with frequency, it does not stay at the 16 ohms the 2X5 speakers are rated.



 
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The problem we are having now is we just got a 6000 watt Behringer iNuke and when the amp shows that it clips it cuts out for a second. The mixer isn’t clipping, not even close.
Are the gain controls on the amp all the way up? If not you are likely clipping the input stage of the amp before reaching full output power.

The NU6000(is that your amp?) produces about 550w/ch RMS at 16ohms.. that is an educated guess based on the published spec of 1100w/ch RMS at 8 ohms.

Seismic audio says the 2x5’s are 16ohm
And they are rated at 150w continuous 300w peak so you have more than enough amplifier to get full output from these boxes.

The speakers cost us almost $3,000. So it might not be amazing but it’s better than what we had before which was 2 SR1530’s hung on each side.
Not really. The Mackies have a long term rated output of 123dB at 1m while a single Seismic box can manage 118dB continuous(add 6dB for the pair) assuming the published specs are reliable. That is a very big assumption given this brand but never mind that for the moment, the bottom line is you gained no meaningful increase in speaker output with this investment and a bigger amp won't help it will just lead to the death of the speakers.
 
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Are the gain controls on the amp all the way up? If not you are likely clipping the input stage of the amp before reaching full output power.

The NU6000(is that your amp?) produces about 550w/ch RMS at 16ohms.. that is an educated guess based on the published spec of 1100w/ch RMS at 8 ohms.

And they are rated at 150w continuous 300w peak so you have more than enough amplifier to get full output from these boxes.

Not really. The Mackies have a long term rated output of 123dB at 1m while a single Seismic box can manage 118dB continuous(add 6dB for the pair) assuming the published specs are reliable. That is a very big assumption given this brand but never mind that for the moment, the bottom line is you gained no meaningful increase in speaker output with this investment and a bigger amp won't help it will just lead to the death of the speakers.
As mentioned above, it doesn't look like an amp issue, but a speakers/sub issue. You're trying to cover a 400 seat room with a (very low grade) 100-seat-room size system.