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.
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 are used throughout.
6. Crossovers
The T12 and i12 are supplied as standard for passive operation via the internal crossover network. If higher peak outputs are required then both models can be used in conjunction with the Tannoy TX2 controller/crossover which provides high pass filtering and a degree of parametric equalisation (see performance data section), as well as a fixed crossover point for use with sub- bass loudspeakers.
7. Equalisation
The T12 and i12 loudspeakers are designed to need no equalisation or correction to overcome system limitations. As a result, they 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. T12 and i12 loudspeakers are point source, phase coherent designs and violent equalisation will be detrimental to the overall sound quality.
