Tannoy V12 HP user manual Amplification & Power Handling, Crossovers, Equalisation

5. Amplification & Power Handling

As with all professional loudspeaker systems, the power handling is a function of voice coil thermal capacity. Care should be taken to avoid running the amplifier into clip (clipping is the end result of overdriving any amplifier). Damage to the loudspeaker will be sustained if the amplifier is driven into clip for any extended period of time. Headroom of at least 3dB should be allowed. When evaluating an amplifier, it is important to take into account its behaviour under low impedance load conditions. A loudspeaker system is highly reactive and with transient signals it can require more current than the nominal impedance would indicate.

Generally a higher power amplifier running free of distortion will do less damage to the loudspeaker than a lower power amplifier continually clipping. It is also worth remembering that a high powered amplifier running at less than 90% of output power generally sounds a lot better than a lower power amplifier running at 100%. An amplifier with insufficient drive capability will not allow the full performance or the loudspeaker to be realised. (See technical specifications section for recommended amplifier power)

It is important when using different manufacturers amplifiers in a single installation that the have very closely matched gains, the variation should be less than +/- 0.5dB. This precaution is important to the overall system balance when only a single active crossover is being used with multiple cabinets; it is therefore recommended that the same amplifiers be used throughout.

6. Crossovers

The V12HP is supplied as standard for passive operation via the internal crossover network. If higher peak outputs and additional low frequency output is required then the V12HP can be used in conjunction with the Tannoy TX2 controller/crossover which provides high pass filtering and a degree of parametric equalisation, as well as a fixed crossover point for use with sub-bass loudspeakers (See the TX2 user manual for further information). The Tannoy TDX2 Digital controller will also perform the above functions with additional control and features including limiting and delay (See the relevant literature on the TDX2 for further information).

The V12HP can be easily configured for Biamp operation in conjunction with the TDX2 or other OEM controller/crossovers. A detailed description along with system parameters is given in Section 13 of this manual.

7. Equalisation

The V12HP loudspeakers are designed to need no equalisation or correction to overcome system limitations. As a result, it will only need equalisation to compensate for difficult acoustic environments.

Over equalisation can reduce system headroom, and introduce phase distortion resulting in greater problems than cures. If equalisation is required then it should be applied gently and smoothly. The V12HP loudspeaker is a point source, phase coherent designs and violent equalisation will be detrimental to the overall sound quality.

When a loudspeaker is used in close proximity to another, comb filtering effects can create coverage problems, comb filtering creates an uneven frequency response across the coverage area due to constructive and destructive interference effects between the sources. The amount of comb filtering is affected by the spacing of the relative sound sources. Minimising this effect cannot be cured by equalisation (see the following section for more details).